Same situation between Serbia and Croatia. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberland.
The reason for the downvotes is that the Hacker News feels like appreciation is best communicated through upvoting: it helps sorting the comments in order of relevance, and avoid cluttering the thread with +1/-1 comments.
It is perfectly okay to upvote (and often downvote) without commenting; don't feel forced to participate either, it's perfectly okay to lurk until you find a topic you can actually contribute to.