SUMMARY
[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]
The Republic of North Macedonia, then known as Macedonia or Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), was declared an independent republic on 8 September 1991, seceding from the Yugoslavian federation. Before then Macedonia had been a constituent republic of the federation of Yugoslavia (which had several names during its existence), into which it was integrated in 1946 by the communists under Josip Broz Tito.
As the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) began to disintegrate in 1991, and Slovenia and Croatia fought conflicts of independence with the central government, Macedonia made its own moves towards independence. As in the other constituent republics of the FRY, nationalist parties triumphed in the first multi-party elections in 1990 and began to commit themselves to independence. The secession was peaceful, in contrast to the secessions of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which all led to armed conflicts. The new state came to be known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, since Greece protested against the use of the name Macedonia (Macedonia is also a region in northern Greece) and the Vergina Sun as the national symbol. After an agreement with Greece on the disputed naming issue the country changed its name to Republic of North Macedonia on 12 February 2019.
Independent Macedonia became a parliamentary democracy, with the two most important groups being ethnic Macedonians (67% of the population) and ethnic Albanians (23% of the population). The new constitution of Macedonia however failed to place Macedonians on par with its large Albanian minority, since only ethnic Macedonians were regarded as the constituent people of the republic. Sentiments among the Albanians that they were second class citizens subsequently grew over the years until an armed conflict erupted between the government and the UCK (Ushtria Clirimtare ë Kombëtare, National Liberation Army) in 2001. The UCK demanded a constitutional revision so as to eradicate perceived discrimination against the Albanian people; demands that were not met by the government. The conflict lasted from January to August of 2001, when a peace agreement containing constitutional revisions was signed. As a consequence of the agreement a NATO-led peacekeeping force was also deployed to the country.
By the summer of 2005, a number of constitutional amendments and laws on decentralization had been passed in the Macedonian parliament, in line with the peace agreement. The Macedonian government subsequently proclaimed that the peace agreement had been fully implemented.
Macedonia has provided secondary warring support to the government of Iraq in the intrastate conflict that started in 2004.
Since 1946 the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has experienced the intrastate category of UCDP organized violence.
