An ancient, strategically important and much-contested territory, the historical region known as Macedonia was variously controlled by the Greeks, Romans, Bulgarians, Byzantines, Serbs and Ottoman Turks, who conquered the area in 1371, and kept it until the +show all beginning of the 20th century. Then, as Turkish power declined, Macedonia once again became a bone of contention between its various neighbors and their respective superpower allies. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s quest for international recognition ran up against objections from Greece, which felt that Skopje’s use of the title ‘Macedonia’ implies a territorial claim against Aegean Macedonia in Greece, given that it corresponds with the northern Greek province of the same name (the ancient name ‘Paeonia’ is preferred in Athens). The Greeks agreed to a compromise name – ‘The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ – under which it joined the United Nations in April 1993. -show less