Europe's Window to Shore Up Macedonia Is Closing

The heightened perception of a Russian threat to the West could have at least one positive consequence: The admission of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom) to the European Union. But the massive rallies in Athens on Sunday, with at least 140,000 protesting against the Greek government's apparent willingness to compromise on Macedonia's name, show that the 26-year-old issue isn't about to fade away.

Ever since Yugoslavia broke up in 1991, Macedonia has lacked a permanent official name because Greece has maintained that its northern province is the rightful Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander the Great's Greek-led empire. Greek and Bulgarian historians have long claimed that the population of Fyrom -- a territory that has been, off and on, under Bulgarian control -- is essentially Bulgarian, with little claim on the ancient Greek heritage, and that Cyril and Methodius, the inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet and part of Macedonia's pantheon of national heroes, were born of a Greek father and a Bulgarian mother.