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| Coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia | |
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| Adopted | unknown |
The coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia is composed of two curved garlands of sheaves of wheat, tobacco leaves and poppy buds, tied by a ribbon decorated with the embroidery of traditional Macedonian folk motives. In the centre of the ovoid frame are depicted a mountain, a lake and a sunrise. At the top of the seal is a five-pointed red star. [1] These devices are said to represent "the richness of our country, our struggle and our freedom".
The whole composition and design is based with the pattern of the Coat of arms of the SFR Yugoslavia and does not have any roots in the historical heraldic coats of arms of Macedonia. Besides the coat of arms of Belarus the coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia is one of the few remaining in Europe to still employ Socialist imagery and stylistics.
The features of the Coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia contain a rising sun which symbolizes freedom, the Šar Mountains with its peak named Ljuboten or mount Korab and the river Vardar.[2][3] The Coat of arms also contain poppy buds; poppy was brought to Macedonia by the Ottoman Empire in the first half of XIX century [4]
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The current emblem is a supervised version of the one adopted on July 26, 1946 by the Assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia. The original version of 1946 represented the Pirin Mountains which are part of the region of Macedonia in order to symbolize a future United Macedonia as part of a new Balkan Federation. It is unknown when the current coat of arms changed and the Pirin Mountains were replaced with the mount Korab, but it probably happened in the late 1940ies or 1950ies.[5] After Yugoslavia broke with the Soviet Union in 1948, the Soviet Union did not allow Bulgaria and Albania to form a Balkan Federation with Yugoslavia and the concept of a United Macedonia as part of such a federation was no more realistic.[6]
The symbolism of that coat of arms was described in the Nova Makedonija newspaper two days after its adoption as follows:
"The coat of arms of the People's Republic of Macedonia is a symbol of the freedom and the brotherhood of the Macedonian people and the richness of the Macedonian land. The five-pointed star symbolizes the National Liberation War through which the Macedonian people gained freedom. In the center, there is the Pirin mountain, the biggest Macedonian mountain that has been the center of the National Liberation Wars in the past. The river displayed in the coat of arms is the river Vardar, the most famous Macedonian river in the republic. Pirin and Vardar at the same time symbolize the unity of all parts of Macedonia and the ideal of our people for national unity."[7]
Such efforts have so far failed, due to political and national disputes over possible replacements. A proposal by Miroslav Grčev was put forward in 1992 to replace it with a gold lion on a red shield, an old heraldic symbol which has been popular among several generations of reformists and revolutionary movements like the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in Macedonia since the middle of the 19th century. The Macedonian Heraldry Society considers that coat of arms to have been the best solution for a new state coat of arms.[8] However, this was rejected on three main grounds:
Because of these reasons, the political parties agreed to continue to use the current coat of arms until a solution is found. The emblem did not appear on the country's first passports, however, in 2007 the coat of arms was put on the front and the inside of the new biometric Macedonian passports, while the parliamentary debate about acceptance of new coat of arms still continues.
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Coat of arms of the People's Republic of Macedonia, 1946 |
 Modern stylized Macedonian lion, used on an ethnic Macedonian flag and by other organizations |
Proposal for a new coat of arms of Macedonia from 1992, by Miroslav Grčev |