North MacedoniaNorth Macedonia (ˌmæsəˈdoʊniə ), officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, 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. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's 1.83 million people. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people.
ThessalonikiThessaloniki (ˌθɛsələˈniːki Θεσσαλονίκη, θesaloˈnici), also known as Thessalonica (ˌθɛsələ'naikə,_ˌθɛsəˈlɒnɪkə), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (səˈlɒnɪkə,_ˌsæləˈniːkə ), is the second-largest city in Greece, with slightly over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace.
BulgariansBulgarians (Bǎlgari, ˈbɤɫɡɐri) are a nation and Eastern South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighboring region, who share a common Bulgarian ancestry, culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, while in North Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Albania and Greece they exist as historical communities. Bulgars Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars.
Bulgarian Armed ForcesThe Bulgarian Army (Bŭlgarska armiya) is the military of Bulgaria. The commander-in-chief is the president of Bulgaria. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for political leadership, while overall military command is in the hands of the Defense Staff, headed by the Chief of the Defense. There are three main branches of the Bulgarian military, named literally the Land Forces, the Air Forces and the Naval Forces (the term "Bulgarian Army" refers to them encompassed all together).
Balkan WarsThe Balkan Wars were a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under the Ottoman Empire's control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north.
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world.
SerbiaSerbia (ˈsɜːrbiə ; Србија, sř̩bija), officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија, repǔblika sř̩bija), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest, and claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo.
SerbsThe Serbs (Srbi, sr̩̂bi) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history, and language. They primarily live in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro as well as in North Macedonia, Slovenia, Germany and Austria. They also constitute a significant diaspora with several communities across Europe, the Americas and Oceania. The Serbs share many cultural traits with the rest of the peoples of Southeast Europe.
SkopjeSkopje (ˈskɒpjeɪ , USalsoˈskoʊpjeɪ ; Скопје ˈskɔpjɛ; Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. Skopje lies in the Skopje Basin. Scupi is attested for the first time in the second century CE as a city in Roman Dardania. When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople.
SlavsSlavs are the most populous European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, mainly inhabiting Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. A large Slavic minority is also scattered across the Baltic states and Central Asia, while a substantial Slavic diaspora is found throughout the Americas, as a result of immigration.
