Mr Risto Balalovski, Honorary Consul of the Republic of North Macedonia in New South Wales sent an announcement to media organisations in Australia, advising of the new international guidelines regarding how to refer to the Balkan country country and its citizens, due to the recent change of the official name of F.Y.R.O.M. to the ‘Republic of North Macedonia’, following the approval of the Prespa agreement.
“When writing about our country, we kindly ask that you be mindful that the official name of the country is ‘Republic of North Macedonia’ or, in short, ‘North Macedonia’,” Mr Balalovski said in the statement, adding that the nationality of its population has to be referred to as “Macedonian”.
“The citizenship of its population is ‘citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia’ and the official language is ‘Macedonian’,” he continued, explaining that the adjective “Macedonian” is to be used in relation to the ethnic and cultural identity of our people, language, history, culture, heritage, territory and other attributes, noting that such terms are distinctly different from those used and related to the region of Macedonia in Greece,” the Consul stressed.
Correct examples of the use of the word “Macedonia” would include “Macedonian ethnic identity”, “Macedonian language”, “Macedonian culture”, “Macedonian territory”, “Macedonian people”, “Macedonian history”, “Macedonian mountains”, “Macedonian literature”, “Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet”, “Macedonian food”, “Macedonian churches”, et cetera.
Meanwhile, the abbreviated country codes will from now on be MK and MKD while other adjectival references, including “North Macedonian”, “Northern Macedonian”, “N. Macedonian” and “NorthMacedonian” should not be used in this context.
As of now, the adjectival reference to the State, its official organs and other public entities, as well as private entities and actors related to the State should be “of the Republic of North Macedonia” or “of North Macedonia”.
According to the new international guidelines correct examples would be “government of the Republic of North Macedonia”, “President of North Macedonia”, “the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia”, “North Macedonia’s Defence Minister”, and “North Macedonia’s municipality of Ohrid”,.
Finally, other adjectival references, including “North Macedonian”, “Northern Macedonian”, “Macedonian”, “N. Macedonian” and “NorthMacedonian” should not be used in this context.