The Resurgence of Greek Nationalism Through the Macedonian Name Conflict

Subsequent to the independence of the Republic of North Macedonia, there has been a revival of Greek nationalism. The Greek belief that “Macedonia is Greek” has united the Greek community around the world, and created a new Greek nationalism to protect the ethnic claim that the Macedonian name is Greek. To better understand how this resurgence of nationalism came to be, I examine certain elements and concepts such as: ethno-cultural and historical claims, politics, borders, Greek diaspora and media sources.
I provide a condensed history on the ancient Kingdom of Macedon (Macedonia) as well as the Balkan Wars and how it led to the breakup of Yugoslavia and independence of the (prior) Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). I then go over the recent conflict over the “Macedonian” name and how the Prespa Agreement led to the name change of the Republic of North Macedonia. I use both the Republic of North Macedonia and North Macedonia interchangeably.
Following the history over the Macedonian name conflict, I provide a literature review to understand concepts such as “nationalism”, “borders”, “diaspora”, “media and politics”, and I analyze how a resurgence of Greek nationalism came to fruition from the aforementioned topics.