In the past there was no such nation as Germany It consisted of literally hundreds of states some kingdoms some duchies some simply a city Over the centuries these states fought against each other allied with each other and even absorbed each other Each state was a proper country and so such names as Brandenburg Saxony Hanover etc defined national groupsm and cultures It wasnt until  that Gertmany became one country and even then some regionseg Austria werent invluded Since  terms like Hanoverian and Bavarian no longer refer to national identities because theyre all just German or Deutsch However if a foreign nonGerman people were to suddenly use the name of say Bavaria as their national identity and call their nonGerman language and culture Bavarian ALL Germans would take offense to it This is something of a nobrainer In exactly the same way there used to be literally hundreds of separate Greek nations varying greatly in size power culture and other things They fought both with and against eaxh other Today however there is a single Greek state which does not include all the historical Greek lands However if a foreign nonGreek people were to try and appropriate a regional name that is indisputably Greeklike with Nacedonia it will understandably anger ALL Greeks Because Macedonia was one of those hundreds of Greek regional states Whats more today more than  per cent of Macedon proper is within the Greek boundaries and not FYROMs boundaries So thus FYROM has no legitimate claim to use the name Macedonia except to describe its southern regions like Bitola and Ochridsp in a historical context Kurt Stein