As one of the oldest Euro-Atlantic member states in the region of Southeast Europe, Greece enjoys a prominent geopolitical role as a middle power, due to its political and geographical proximity to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Its main allies are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the other NATO countries, and the European Union.
Politics in North Macedonia occur within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated North Macedonia a "hybrid regime" in 2018.
The foreign relations of North Macedonia since its independence in 1991 have been characterized by the country's efforts to gain membership in international organizations such as NATO and the European Union and to gain international recognition under its constitutional name, overshadowed by a long-standing, dead-locked dispute with neighboring Greece. Greek objections to the country's name have led to it being admitted to the United Nations and several other international fora only under the provisional designation Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was one of the six constituent countries of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and a socialist nation state of the Macedonians. After the transition of the political system to parliamentary democracy in 1990, the Republic changed its official name to Republic of Macedonia in 1991, and with the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia, it declared itself an independent country on 8 September 1991.
The use of the name "Macedonia" was disputed between the Southeast European countries of Greece and North Macedonia. Pertinent to its background is an early 20th-century multifaceted dispute and armed conflict that formed part of the background to the Balkan Wars. The specific naming dispute, although an existing issue in Yugoslav–Greek relations since World War II, was reignited after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the newly gained independence of the former Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1991. Since then, it was an ongoing issue in bilateral and international relations until it was settled with the Prespa agreement in June 2018, the subsequent ratification by the Macedonian and Greek parliaments in late 2018 and early 2019, and the official renaming of Macedonia to North Macedonia in February 2019.
A Ministry of Home Affairs is a common type of government department that serves as an interior ministry.
The passport of North Macedonia is issued to citizens of North Macedonia for the purpose of international travel. Responsibility for their issuance lies with the Ministry of the Interior. The validity of the passport is 5 years for persons 4 to 27 years of age, and 10 years for those 27 years of age and older. For children ages four and under the validity of the passport is limited to two years. Macedonian passports conform with recommended standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The Macedonian passport is a biometric passport.
The Macedonian identity card is a compulsory identity document issued in North Macedonia. The document is issued by the police on behalf of the Ministry of Interior.
The accession of North Macedonia to the European Union (EU) has been on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU since 2005, when it became a candidate for accession. Macedonia submitted its membership application in 2004, thirteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is one of five current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
North Macedonia–Turkey relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Turkey.
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Unofficially it is also still called Macedonia. It is one of the successor states of Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in September 1991 under the name Republic of Macedonia. A landlocked country, North Macedonia has borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. The capital and largest city, Skopje, is home to roughly a quarter of the nation's 2.06 million inhabitants. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Aromanians.
Visitors to Brazil must obtain a visa from one of the Brazilian diplomatic missions, unless they come from one of the visa-exempt countries.
A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
North Macedonia's nationality law is governed by the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia of 1991 and the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia of 1992 . Macedonian citizenship is based primarily on the principle of Jus sanguinis. In other words, one usually acquires Macedonian citizenship if a parent is a Macedonian national, irrespective of place of birth.
North Macedonia–Serbia relations are bilateral relations between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia.
The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is a former ministry of Greece. Responsible for the regions of Macedonia and Thrace, since 2015 it has been demoted to the level of a sub-ministry within the Ministry of the Interior. The incumbent Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace is Theodoros Karaoglou of New Democracy.
Greece–North Macedonia relations refers to the bilateral relations between the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of North Macedonia.
Adnan Jashari. Minister of Justice, Associate Professor in Law, member of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), the party of the Albanian ethnic community in Macedonia.
A shootout which erupted during a raid between Macedonian police and an armed group identifying itself as the National Liberation Army (NLA) occurred on 9 May 2015 in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo. During the shootings, eight Macedonian policemen and 10 of the militants were killed, while 37 officers were wounded and hospitalized. The shooting ended on 10 May 2015, in an operation by the Macedonian police and armed forces, in which 28 men were arrested and charged with "terrorism-related charges" by the Macedonian authorities.
