The Macedonian Conflict

Abstract

Greeks and Macedonians both assert that they, and they alone, have the right to identify themselves as Macedonians. The Greek government denies the existence of a Macedonian nation and insists that all Macedonians are Greeks, while Macedonians vehemently assert their existence as a unique people. This work examines the Macedonian conflict in the light of contemporary theoretical work on ethnic nationalism, the construction of national identities and cultures, the invenstion of tradition, and the role of the state in the process of building a nation. The conflict is set in the broader context of Balkan history and in the narrower context of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The book focuses on the transnational dimension of the "global cultural war" taking place between Greeks and Macedonians both in the Balkans and throughout the rest of the world. It analyzes two issues in particular: the struggle for human rights of the Macedonian minority in northern Greece and the campaign for international recognition of the newly independent Republic of Macedonia. The book concludes with a detailed analysis of the construction of identity at an individual level among immigrants from nothern Greece who have settled in Australia, where multiculturalism is an official policy.