Policing the Macedonian name: how the Greek governments protect a territorial name

This paper focuses on the Macedonian name dispute (MND) in Greece as a qualitative instrumental case study. Through participant observations, artifacts and field notes, it researches the reasons behind the success of sustaining and using the MND as a tool in political competition. The study highlights the creation of a name (sign) whose meanings and importance are also related to non-existent facts that can be used to disseminate fabricated narratives, which is happening in other territorial name disputes worldwide. Consequently, through the examined name dispute, there is a distortion or alteration of facts, criminalising different viewpoints, threatening political opponents, spreading hate and provoking mob attacks against those that challenge Greece?s dominant national narrative that wants to secure the monopoly of the word Macedonia.