Macedonia (s): an essay of methodology

Abstract

The “Macedonian question” was, throughout the 19th century, a critical issue, even more than others, among all those raised by the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. With this premise, the author examines the complexity of the “Macedonian impasse” during the 20th century due to, among other reasons, the occupation of the Balkans by Hitler and the 1945 principle of the intangibility of the borders, as well as the subsequent dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Finally, the search for a conciliatory solution, concerning the Greco-Macedonian conflict, between international parameters and state identity, is likely to be useful for other situations of conflict. Indeed, if it is possible to reasonably conclude that different approaches have failed in terms of historical rights, as well as in terms of fragility of the religious and linguistic criteria, it could be useful to resort to some concepts borrowed from Civil Law, or at the same time from such Law and Commercial Law, as the notion of right to name.