MACEDONIA, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of a red field with a golden central disk and golden rays extending to the flag edges. It has a width-to-length ratio of 1 to 2. The starburst flag of Macedonia, flown 199295. As a constituent republic of Yugoslavia during the communist era after 1945, Macedonia had flown a simple red flag with a yellow-bordered red star in the canton. Red and black were the traditional colours of Slavic Macedonia, and they were prominently featured in a 1903 independence uprising. Red and gold were also part of its heritage; a gold lion on a red shield constituted an early coat of arms. The communist flag flew on November 17, 1991, when independence was proclaimed, but on August 11, 1992, the starburst flag (see illustration) was substituted. The starburst was originally used in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great and his father, Philip II of Macedon, as the symbol of their dynasty. The name of the archaeological site in northern Greece where the reputed funeral casket of Philip was found in 1977 led to the designation of that symbol (shown on the casket) as the Star of Verghina. Greeks hailed this as a great cultural treasure of their country and were therefore deeply opposed to its display on the flag of Macedonia. Greek economic and diplomatic pressure eventually led to the abandonment by Macedonia of its red flag with the yellow starburst on October 6, 1995. The new flag of 1995 is somewhat similar to the starburst flag. Its golden sun design is mentioned in the Macedonian national anthem and appears in its modern coat of arms. Whitney Smith History The ancient world Although Macedonia is a very young state, it has been the site of human habitation for a long time. There is archaeological evidence that the Old European civilization flourished there between 7000 and 3500 BC. Seminomadic peoples speaking languages of the Indo-European family then moved into the Balkan Peninsula. During the 1st millennium BC the Macedonian region was populated by a mixture of peoplesDacians, Thracians, Illyrians, Celts, and Greeks. Although Macedonia is most closely identified historically with the kingdom of Philip II of Macedon in the middle of the 4th century BC and the subsequent expansion of that empire by his son Alexander III the Great, none of the states established in this era was very durable; until the arrival of the Romans, the pattern of politics was a shifting succession of contending city-states and chiefdoms that occasionally integrated into ephemeral empires. Nevertheless, this period is important in understanding modern Macedonia, as both Greeks and Albanians found their claims to be autochthonous inhabitants of the region upon the achievements of the Macedonian and Illyrian states. At the end of the 3rd century BC, the Romans began to expand into the Balkan Peninsula in search of metal ores, slaves, and agricultural produce. The Illyrians were finally subdued in AD 9 (their lands becoming the province of Illyricum), and the north and east of Macedonia were incorporated into the province of Moesia in AD 29. A substantial number of sites bear witness today to the power of Rome, especially Heraclea Lyncestis (modern Bitola) and Stobi (south of Veles on the Vardar River). The name of Skopje is Roman in origin (Scupi). Many roads follow courses laid down by the Romans. Beginning in the 3rd century, the defenses of the Roman Empire in the Balkans were probed by Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Avars, and other seminomadic peoples. Although the region was nominally a part of the Eastern Empire, control from Constantinople became more and more intermittent. By the middle of the 6th century, Slavic tribes had begun to settle in Macedonia, and, from the 7th to the 13th centuries, the entire region was little more than a system of military marches governed uneasily by the Byzantine state through alliances with local princes. The medieval states In this period the foundations were laid for modern competing claims for control over Macedonia. During the 9th century the Eastern tradition of Christianity was consolidated in the area. The mission to the Slavs has come to be associated with Saints Cyril and Methodius, whose great achievement was the devising of an alphabet based upon Greek letters and adapted to the phonetic peculiarities of the Slavonic tongue. In its later development as the Cyrillic alphabet, this came to be a distinctive cultural feature uniting several of the Slavic peoples. Although the central purpose of the missionaries was to preach the gospel to the Slavs in the vernacular, their ecclesiastical connection with the Greek culture of Constantinople remained a powerful lever to be worked vigorously during the struggle for Macedonia in the 19th century. The people who form the majority of the inhabitants of the contemporary Macedonian republic are clearly not Greeks but Slavs. However, this ecclesiastical tradition, taken together with the long period during which Macedonia was associated with the Greek-speaking Byzantine state, and above all the brief ascendancy of the Macedonian empire (c. 359321 BC), continue to provide Greeks with a sense that Macedonia is Greek. Yet, although Macedonians are Slavs, it remains to be determined what kind of Slavs they are. Among the short-lived states jostling for position with Byzantium were two that modern Bulgarians claim give them a special stake in Macedonia. Under the reign of Simeon I (893927), Bulgaria emerged briefly as the dominant power in the peninsula, extending its control from the Black Sea to the Adriatic. Following a revolt of the western provinces, this first Bulgarian empire fell apart, but it was partially reintegrated by Samuel (reigned 9761014), who set up his own capital in Ohrid (not the traditional Bulgarian capital of Preslav [now known as Veliki Preslav]) and also established a patriarchate there. Although the Byzantine state reasserted its authority after 1018, a second Bulgarian empire raised its head in 1185; this included northern and central Macedonia and lasted until the middle of the 14th century. Possible links between Macedonians and Bulgars during the seminomadic period of the arrival of the Slav peoples in the Balkans are unclear and probably impossible to determine. Modern Bulgarians have based their claims to the historical unity of the two peoples principally on two considerations. First, they emphasize the lack of clear distinctions between early variants of the old Slavonic languages, explaining later developments that were peculiar to the Macedonian tongue as reflecting subsequent Serbianization. Consequently, Macedonian is interpreted as a dialect of Bulgarian. Bulgarians also point out that, throughout the rise and fall of the early Bulgarian empires, control over a great part of Macedonia was a common factor. A supplementary but important point is the continuing role of Ohrid as a symbolic centre of ecclesiastical life for both peoples. During the later part of the 12th century, a more significant rival to Byzantine power in the Balkans emerged in the Serbian Nemanjic dynasty. Stefan Nemanja became veliki zupan, or grand chieftain, of Raka in 1169, and his successors created a state that, under Stefan Duan (reigned 133155), incorporated Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, all of modern Albania and Montenegro, a substantial part of Bosnia, and Serbia as far north as the Danube. Although the cultural heart of the empire was Raka (the area around modern Novi Pazar) and Kosovo, as the large number of medieval Orthodox churches in these regions bear witness, it was in Skopje that Duan was crowned emperor in 1346. Within half a century after his death the Nemanjic state was eclipsed by the expanding Ottoman Empire; nevertheless, it is to this golden age that Serbs today trace their own claims to Macedonia. The economy Socialist development Along with the rest of the Balkan Peninsula, Macedonia underwent an impressive economic transformation after 1945in this case within the framework provided by Yugoslavia's system of socialist self-management. Even so, Macedonia remained the poorest of the Yugoslav republics and was included throughout the communist period in the list of regions that merited economic aid from wealthier parts of the federation. While this status undoubtedly brought much investment, several projects were located without adequate attention to the supply of materials or access to markets. A prime example was the choice of Skopje as the site for a steel industry. Within the Yugoslav framework, Macedonia built up important capacities in the production of sheet and strip metal, ferrous alloys, zinc, lead, and copper. Textile fibres and finished textiles, pharmaceuticals, and construction materials were among the most successful products of manufacturing industries. Meanwhile, agriculture remained central to the Macedonian economy, especially the production of tobacco, rice, fruit, vegetables, and wine. Tourism became a significant feature during the 1980s. The private sector Although socialized production dominated industrial and commercial life after the communists' rise to power in 1945, the private sector remained important in agriculture, craft production, and retail trade. Seventy percent of agricultural land was held privately, accounting for 50 percent of output. However, privately owned enterprises were typically traditionalist in structure and outlook, and, even after the liberalization of the communist system in 1991, they were unable to develop a dynamic economic role. The land Relief Geologically, Macedonia consists mainly of heavily folded ancient metamorphic rocks, which in the west have been eroded to reveal older granites. In the central region are found sedimentary deposits of more recent age. Traversing the country from north to south is a series of active fault lines, along which earthquakes frequently occur. The most severe of these in recent history was a shock of magnitude 9 on the Richter scale at Debar in 1967. Skopje was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. The mobility of the Earth's crust has also created two tectonic lakes, Prespa and Ohrid, in the southwest and has resulted in the formation of several mineral and hot springs. Cultivated fields in the Radika River valley, below Mount Korab, western Macedonia. Macedonia is largely mountainous, with many peaks rising above the treeline at 6,600 feet (2,000 metres) above sea level. The highest elevation is at Mount Korab (9,032 feet, or 2,753 metres), on the Albanian border. Near the ar Mountains in the northwest, the country is covered with forest. Where this has been cleared (and often in the past overgrazed), the thin skeletal soils have been subjected to dramatic erosion and gullying. There are also several broad and fertile valleys that provide good potential for agriculture. Drainage The greater part of Macedonia (87 percent of its area) drains southeastward into the Aegean Sea, via the Vardar River and its tributaries. Smaller parts of this basin drain into Lake Doiran (Macedonian: Dojran) and into the Aegean via the Strumica and Struma rivers. The remaining 13 percent of Macedonian territory drains northward via the Crni Drim River toward the Adriatic. The convoluted and fractured geology of the area imposes upon many of these rivers erratic courses that frequently drive through narrow and sometimes spectacular gorges. Such formations facilitate the damming of rivers for electric power generation. The people Ethnicity and language Macedonia has inherited a complex ethnic structure. The largest group, calling themselves Macedonians (about two-thirds of the population), are descendants of Slavic tribes that moved into the region between the 6th and 8th centuries AD. Their language is very closely related to Bulgarian and is written in the Cyrillic script. Among the Macedonians, however, are significant minorities of much older settlers. The most numerous of these (more than one-fifth of the population) are the Albanians, who claim to be descendants of the ancient Illyrians. They are concentrated in the northwest, along the borders with Albania and the predominantly Albanian province of Kosovo in Serbia. Albanians form majorities in at least 3 of Macedonia's 32 municipalities (especially Tetovo and Gostivar) and very significant minorities in 7 others. Another vestige of old settlement is the Vlachs, who speak a language closely related to Romanian. The majority of the Vlachs in the republic live in the old mountain city of Kruevo. The Turkish minority are mostly scattered across central and western Macedonia; they are a legacy of the 500-year rule of the Ottoman Empire. Also associated with this period are Gypsies (Roma) and people who report their ethnicity as Muslim. In language, religion, and history, a case could be made for identifying Macedonian Slavs with Bulgarians and to a lesser extent with Serbs. Both have had their periods of influence in the region (especially Serbia after 1918); consequently, there are still communities of Serbs (especially in Kumanovo and Skopje) and Bulgarians. Religion The issue of ethnicity is made particularly sensitive by its tendency to coincide with religious allegiance. The various Slavic groups are usually Orthodox Christians, whereas Turks and the great majority of both Albanians and Gypsies are Muslims. Altogether, more than one-quarter of the population are of the Islamic faith.