TY - JOUR
T1 - The use of the Macedonian name dispute on the candidates’ websites in Northern Greece’s regional and municipal elections of 2019
AU - Karyotakis, Minos-Athanasios
N1 - Publisher copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2025/2
Y1 - 2025/2
N2 - This research paper employed Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) to study the use of the Macedonian Name Dispute (MND) on the websites of the eight most prominent candidates of the regional and municipal elections of 2019 in Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia. MND is one of the oldest territorial name disputes in the world, as it is connected to the Macedonian Question dating back to the end of the 19th century. For almost 30 years, the MND has been used in Greece’s political competition, and more recently in 2018 and 2019 due to the ratification of the Prespes (or Prespa) Agreement between Greece and the country now-named North Macedonia. This study revealed that politicians employed the MND as a communication tool to provoke powerful emotions linked with the Greek identity. After all, MND, like other territorial name disputes (e.g., South China Sea, Persian/Arabian Gulf, Kuril Islands/Northern Territories, Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, Western Sahara), seems to preserve a dominant discourse in which the emotional factor dictates the truth and goes against those who oppose this existing reality.
AB - This research paper employed Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) to study the use of the Macedonian Name Dispute (MND) on the websites of the eight most prominent candidates of the regional and municipal elections of 2019 in Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia. MND is one of the oldest territorial name disputes in the world, as it is connected to the Macedonian Question dating back to the end of the 19th century. For almost 30 years, the MND has been used in Greece’s political competition, and more recently in 2018 and 2019 due to the ratification of the Prespes (or Prespa) Agreement between Greece and the country now-named North Macedonia. This study revealed that politicians employed the MND as a communication tool to provoke powerful emotions linked with the Greek identity. After all, MND, like other territorial name disputes (e.g., South China Sea, Persian/Arabian Gulf, Kuril Islands/Northern Territories, Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, Western Sahara), seems to preserve a dominant discourse in which the emotional factor dictates the truth and goes against those who oppose this existing reality.
KW - Greece
KW - Macedonia
KW - discourse
KW - elections
KW - territorial name disputes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165620311&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13629395.2023.2240122
DO - 10.1080/13629395.2023.2240122
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1362-9395
VL - 30
SP - 27
EP - 52
JO - Mediterranean Politics
JF - Mediterranean Politics
IS - 1
ER -