Five things to know about Macedonia
A small landlocked country, Macedonia has for a quarter of the century been struggling to win recognition of its name over protests from neighbouring Greece. Here are five things to know about this impoverished state. - Name debate - Macedonia's official name at the United Nations is the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM, which is a result of the 25-year-long row with Greece, which has a northern province also called Macedonia. A number of countries have recognised the Balkan state under its constitutional name of Macedonia, including the United States, Russia and even China. However, the dispute with Greece has been a major obstacle to Macedonia's integration with the West. In 2008 Greece vetoed Macedonia's memberhip of NATO and has blocked negotiations on EU accession ever since the country became a candidate in 2005. But Athens and Skopje have recently resumed dialogue with a will to find an agreement, which would pave a way for Macedonia's accession talks. - Deceptive flags - Passing through the northwest of Macedonia, a traveller could think they were in Albania. Under a 2005 accord, residents have the right to fly the red and black Albanian flag and the two headed-eagle is prevalent over a number of villages. Macedonia is home to around two million people, mostly Orthodox Slavs and an ethnic Albanian minority that makes up around a quarter of the population. Having avoided inter-ethnic war during the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Macedonia found itself in conflict in 2001 when ethnic Albanian rebels launched an insurgency. Up to 200 people were killed during the seven-month conflict with Macedonian armed forces. The internationally-brokered Ohrid agreement, reached in August 2001, provided greater rights for Macedonia's Albanian minority, including power-sharing, better representation in the public sector and official status for the Albanian language. - Poor statistics - Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe with an average salary of 386 euros ($476) and a quarter of its active working age population is unemployed. Youngster are particularly badly affected. Many have joined a massive migration of the population. The authorities have revealed no official figure and have not organised a census since 2002, but according to the World Bank about a half a million people -- or a quarter of today's population - have left in last 10 years. - Disputed heroes - Two historic personalities make Macedonians especially proud and adorn the country's infrastructure: Mother Teresa and Alexander the Great. Both, however are disputed, with the warrior king also claimed by Greece and the saint by Albania -- although she was born in Skopje under the Ottoman Empire, Theresa was of Albanian ethnicity. - Sun without electricity - It is on the national flag and Macedonia boasts 280 sunny days a year, according to the Meteorological Institute. That makes it one of the most sunny countries in the world. However, Macedonia is also the European nation that produces the least solar energy: 0.04 percent of total production, says the Agency for Energy. The sun attracts tourists throughout the mountainous country, a paradise for hikers with three national parks, 50 lakes and thousands of kilometres of trails. Its cuisine -- a mix of Ottoman, Mediterranean and Austria-Hungarian influences -- has a reputation of being the finest in the Balkans. As does its wine.
