Greece Ratifies Pact with Macedonia for Nation to Rename Itself “North Macedonia”

THE VILLAGES, Florida – Hey world travelers, it’s time to update your maps and lists of countries visited!

Greece ratified a treaty with the Republic of Macedonia in which the Balkan nation agrees to change its name to the “Republic of North Macedonia,” to satisfy long-time Greek concerns over its territory, also called Macedonia.

“Following months of street protests and heated debate in both countries, the name deal has overcome the last of a number of hurdles in Athens Friday, with 153 votes in support in the 300-seat parliament,” CNN reported.

Macedonia and Greece reached the accord, the Prespa Agreement, last summer. With its ratification by parliaments in both countries, North Macedonia will come into existence and Greece will drop its long-term objections to the nation – created when it broke away from Yugoslavia during the fall of communism in 1991 – joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.

Macedonia holds a special place in my country list as it was the 98th nation I visited. When Mom and I rode a bus across the border from Kosovo to Macedonia on Oct. 8, 2012, I reached the milestone of having seen half the world’s 195 countries. This was on a trip where I visited six nations in the Western Balkans: Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia.

Mom and I spent one full day in Skopje, Macedonia’s capital, visiting sights including Kale Fortress (also known as Skopje Fortress), Mustafa Pasa Mosque, Museum of the Republic of Macedonia, the Carsija (the old Ottoman commercial district of Skopje with narrow, pedestrian-only cobblestone lanes), Stone Bridge, Alexander the Great statue in Macedonia Square, the city museum (whose building features a stone clock frozen in time from an earthquake that struck at 5:17 a.m. on July 27, 1963), and Orthodox cathedral.