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Comment by creamytaco | Hacker News Reader

Not to mention the blatant usurpation of the greek word "macedonia" without any linguistic, ethnic connection to it (ancient macedonians were greeks, not slavs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Macedonians

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Nobody mentioned Ancient Macedonians.

The ancient kingdom of Macedon is geographically located in Greece:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_(ancient_kingdom)#/m...

That region is still called Macedon and the modern inhabitants of that region are themselves called Macedonians. As opposed to the slavic macedonians, they do have strong historical, linguistic and ethnic connections to the term. Do you see the problem here?

As you can see from the map Macedon was partially occupying territory of the modern country Macedonia. But what is more important than arguing about Ancient Times is respecting the national identity of the people that live today. The history of the name is complicated and we don’t share the same views with the Greeks but that is not the reason to fight over a name. Everyone in the world knows Greece. And nobody thinks they can’t use or consider the name Macedonia part of their history. What is interesting is why majority of Greeks feel threatened of their neighbour’s self identity.

I'm not talking about the Greeks, undoubtedly they also have their own concerns. But from a historical, scholarly or researcher perspective, you can't deny that this situation is very confusing. As an American who is interested in history and Ancient Greece, I can't in good conscience refer to your country as Macedonia in conversation. I always use the formal name "North Macedonia" and pretty much always have to explain the history behind that name.

This is as insufferable as someone refusing to refer to Athens, Georgia or London, Ontario without the state/province name, even in casual conversation near the place. Or saying that morpho butterflies aren’t actually blue, they just look blue.

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