OEU News Today Vol.52

Edition 52
Date 29/08/18
Editor: Muhammed Aled

Culture dispute turns to armed conflict in the Balkans

Macedonian M-84 tanks in a victory parade after the war

Yesterday the well known culture argument between Greece and Macedonia turned into a full scale border war that involved the German African Reich and could have easily caused a much bigger war.

The culture war between Greece and Macedonia originates since the 90s when the Socialist Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from the old communist Yugoslavia and declared itself the 'Republic of Macedonia' and used the 'Vergina Sun' on its flag which was offensive to many Greeks as they believed that the so called Republic of Macedonia was stealing Greek history and culture by using the name Macedonia (a region of Greece is called Macedonia) and using an ancient Macedonian sun used by Alexander the Great who is called the greatest Greek man in history by the Greek people.

Anyway that was in the 90s, nowadays the northern region of Greece called Aegean Macedonia by the Slavic Macedonians
is controlled by the Balkan Republic of Fordana. When the Hellenic Greek Republic was declared a few days ago it received support as a new democratic state in Europe and the Balkans. Prime Minister Tsipras met with Fordan President Clark and the two nations seemed to have good relations as they have similar history and cultural ties.

However then Lazarovic allowed the Macedonian Administrative Region to become independent and the newly declared Republic of Macedonia used the same flag it used when it declared independence in the 90s which had the vergina sun. The Greek government did not allow that and sent 100,000 soldiers to its border with the young Macedonian Republic, the border was reduced to 1/4 of its former border with the Macedonian Republic and most of the border was on the annexed Albanian-Macedonian border.

Tsipras was eventually forced out as he was said to be driving the region closer and closer to war. A military coup ensued and General Christos, an ultra-nationalist and self-described fascist, took control. He said that he would do anything to keep Greek culture and history safe and kept the military option open at all times. Meanwhile Macedonia received support from Serbia,Fordana and was invited to the AA by Chricoma after a display of its military in a military parade somewhere in Macedonia.

Macedonia was receiving arms from Serbia and Fordana and the two nations geared their borders up to be ready for a war.
The Hellenic Army launched 60 artillery shells at the Macedonian side, this was the 2nd time artillery shells were fired at the Macedonians by the Greeks but the 1st was ignored. The ARM (Army of the Republic of Macedonia) had enough and ordered a full-scale artillery shelling of the Greek side.

And that was it...war on the Balkan peninsula...

Greece sent an army of infantry soldiers at the beginning and then sent armoured vehicles later but its first assault failed. The ARM held up a defensive position at the border and was constantly being reinforced by reserve troops and reserve equipment showing up on the Macedonian side. The Greeks then launched a 2nd assault but that failed again. Then the Reich threatened Greece and Macedonia but did not attack them and the Hellenic Army launched 10 missiles at its capital.
The Reich leadership was enraged by this attack. Greece was already losing its war against Macedonia, it did not need another enemy. Macedonia launched 15 scud missiles at Athens and was shelling the battered Greek army of close to 150,000 soldiers and damaged equipment on the Greek side of the border.

A ceasefire was then agreed by both sides, but while that was happening the Greek army planned to launch a massive invasion with 500,000 soldiers while the Macedonians had plans to launch an offensive and take over Albania from the Greeks. The Macedonians were losing ammunition and desperately needed foreign arms to support the war effort, Greece was losing manpower and had very low morale after losing more than 15,000 soldiers in the first 2 assaults.

The military dictatorship of Christos collapsed as Christos resigned in disgrace. Greece lost 18,000 young men and close to 3,000 citizens died. 500 armoured vehicles were destroyed. Macedonia had far less casualties with only 3,000 dead and around 100 military equipment destroyed.

The Greek military dictatorship put General Papos in charge and he attended peace talks in Copenhagen with the nationalist Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. They agreed to change their nationalist flags and become democratic governments with the aim of joining the Balkan Union, an economic union that would make the two economic powerhouses of Europe (Fordana and Serbia) help the poor European countries of Macedonia and Greece.

Greece transitioned back to a democratic state while Macedonia was holding victory celebrations for repelling the Greek attack.

The end of the conflict between Macedonia and Greece was ended after the Copenhagen Treaty was signed.

Now there is peace again but the stability of the region is questionable. This can easily happen again if a coup or an uprising happens and the effects of the Copenhagen Treaty are reversed.

The border between Macedonia and Greece still has a large military presence as the two states still do not trust each other. Time will most likely heal the wounds left by the border conflict, but the feeling of failure and loss still haunts Greece and the Greek people and as history has shown someone could take advantage of this and bring back the rhetoric that was used by the Greek military dictatorship.