North Macedonia

North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the north. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's population of over 1.83 million. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities. In classical antiquity most of present-day North Macedonia corresponded to the ancient regions of Paeonia and Pelagonia. In the late-6th century BC, most of the area was subjugated by the Persian Empire, and then incorporated into the kingdom of Macedonia by the mid-4th century BC. Rome conquered the region by the mid-2nd century BC and made it part of its larger province of Macedonia. The area remained part of the Byzantine Empire, but was often raided and settled by Slavic tribes beginning in the 6th century CE. Following centuries of contention between the Byzantine and Bulgarian empires, it became part of the Serbian Empire in the mid-14th century, and then it was part of the Ottoman Empire from the late-14th century until the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), when it came under Serbian rule. During the First World War, the territory was ruled by Bulgaria. After the end of the war, it returned to Serbian rule as part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During the Second World War, it was again ruled by Bulgaria; and in 1945 it was established as a constituent state of communist Yugoslavia, which it remained until its...