What’s in a Name?

A lot, at least for the 2 million residents of Macedonia. For more than a year, Greece has blocked this newly independent nation, with its capital in Skopje, from joining the U.N. by arguing that its name implies a territorial claim on a province of northeastern Greece also called Macedonia. The two sides have now struck an acceptable, if somewhat ponderous, compromise: Macedonia will be admitted as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Its flag, which Greece considers an emblem of Skopje’s claim to Greek Macedonia, will be barred from flying at U.N. sites.