The most controversial city in Europe

This cow, unlike the one from the previous post, is not actually holy. Nor is the place either, despite displaying one of the largest crosses in the world: the Millennium Cross. 66 meters tall, which makes it the 5th tallest in the whole planet and second in Europe, was built at the beginning of this century and inaugurated on 2008 to commemorate the (more or less) two thousand years of Christianity in Macedonia and in the World.

The monument dominates the capital of Macedonia, Skopje, sitting on the mountain of Vodno at a height of 1066 meters. It can be reached via cable car, one of the cheapest rides in the world (1.6 euro round trip for 3.5km total). It hosts the best view of the city, a basement fit for hosting shops and activities and it’s the starting point of many amazing treks.

And it’s a very controversial monument. On top of a very controversial city, capital to a very controversial country. To explain why allow me a slightly longer than usual explanation.

Macedonia is, together with Bosnia-Herzegovina, the country that is struggling the most after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Internal and external pressure, for a variety of reasons, are important in the country.

Explaining what happened, and still happens, in the Balkans is impossible in few lines and a lot of material can be found online. But, in a nutshell, of all the problems that can affect the area, Macedonia is lacking none.

The country is home to two million people but only two third of them are ethnically Macedonians, with a large presence of Albanians and Roma (the largest Roma city in the world, called Suto Orizari, is in the outskirts of Skopje). The number of Bulgarians and Greeks in the country dropped lately but the influence of the two larger neighbours is still huge.

Greece especially has a quarrel lasting since the independence of the Republic of Macedonia (1991) about the name of the country. Macedonia is actually the name of a larger region, historically home to Alexander the Great, which has the majority of the area in Northern Greece. Greece vetoed Macedonia’s entrance in NATO until now and will always do unless Macedonia changes its name to something else. Some countries recognize Macedonia as “Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM)”, and the compromise of calling the country “North Macedonia” seemed to work until last September when a referendum on the topic showed a very low turnout.

If you want to know more about the issue of Macedonia’s name, you have a very detailed Wikipedia page: Macedonia naming dispute is one of the longest pages of the English version of Wikipedia with a stunning 340 references.

Besides that, in the last 27 years of independence, the Government did everything to annoy the opponents. The most symbolic of those actions is Skopje2014: a project of restyling of the city centre aiming to create a more classical look. Too Classical, according to the Greeks: the centre of Skopje boasts Temples, Statues, Bridges all in a very Greek Classical style. With a huge statue of Alexander the Great on his horse Bucephalus dominating the main square. After many pressures from the Greek government, the name of the statue was changed to a more anonymous “Warrior on a horse”. But still Skopje today looks like a shiny brand new LasVegaesque copy of old Athens.

So:

Greeks are upset because Macedonia, in their opinion, is guilty of cultural appropriation trying to steal a past that belongs to Greece.

Muslims are upset because, in their opinion, the proliferation of huge Christian monuments and the denial of the Islamic past of the country (Skopje had a Ottoman domination which lasted 520 years up to 1912) is trying to make the 33% of Muslim population unwelcomed promoting Christianity as the only true religion of Macedonia.

Macedonians are upset for the cost of the whole operation (500 million Euros) while they live in one of the poorest countries in Europe and while they are still paying the costs for the reconstruction after an earthquake destroyed the country in 1963.

Cherry on top, to boost tourism the City of Skopje is now advertising the most famous citizen of the history of Macedonia: Mother Teresa. Forgetting that the nun was born at a time when Skopje was part of Turkey (more precisely, the Ottoman Empire), from a family of Albanians, and that, being a religious symbol, she was banished from Communist Atheist Yugoslavia for almost all her life.

Despite all its contradictions and controversies, or maybe also because of them, Skopje is one of the top 5 places to visit in order to fully understand the Balkans