In North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe

 North Macedonia has a fascinating past and a complex national identity.

========================================================================
(in the Balkans) North Macedonia is bordered to the north by Kosovo and Serbia, to the east by Bulgaria, to the south by Greece, and to the west by Albania. (Its capital is Skopje) The Balkans is a region in southeastern Europe that is bordered by the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean and Black Seas. The Balkans are inhabited by a variety of linguistic, religious, ethnic, and national groups. The region includes countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.

+ The Balkans, is a region in southeastern Europe that is bordered by the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean and Black Seas. vina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.

+The Republic of North Macedonia is located in the northern part of the area that was once known as Macedonia, a geographical region bounded to the south by the Aegean Sea and the Aliákmon River; to the west by Lakes Prespa and Ohrid, the watershed west of the Crni Drim River, and the Šar Mountains; and to the north by the mountains of the Skopska Crna Gora and the watershed between the Morava and Vardar river basins. The Pirin Mountains mark its eastern edge. The rest of the region belongs to Greece and Bulgaria.

+ The region of Macedonia owes its importance to its location at a major junction of communication routes (in particular, the great north-south route from the Danube River to the Aegean formed by the valleys of the Morava and Vardar rivers and the ancient east-west trade routes connecting the Black Sea and Istanbul with the Adriatic Sea.) Although the majority of the republic’s inhabitants are of Slavic descent and heirs to the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity, 500 years of incorporation into the Ottoman Empire left substantial numbers of other ethnic groups, including Albanians, Turks, Vlachs (Aromani), and Roma (Gypsies). Consequently, Macedonia forms a complex border zone between the major cultural traditions of Europe and Asia.

+ Ottoman control was brought to an end by the Balkan Wars (1912–13), after which Macedonia was divided among Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Following World War I, the Serbian segment was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). After World War II the Serbian part of Macedonia became a constituent republic within the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The collapse of Yugoslavia led the Republic of Macedonia to declare its independence on September 17, 1991. In June 2018 Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced that an agreement had been reached under which the Macedonian republic would be known as the Republic of North Macedonia.