Many Want It to Be ‘Czecho-Slovakia’
Thousands of Slovaks rallied Friday to protest the country’s new name, which does not have a hyphen to distinguish Slovaks from the dominant Czechs.
The national Parliament voted Thursday night to drop the word Socialist designation from the country’s name and call the nation the Czechoslovak Federative Republic. That set off daylong protests in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak republic.
Parliament agreed to allow the Slovaks to write the new name with a hyphen. But the Slovaks wanted legislators to approve “Czecho-Slovak Republic” as the proper name of the country.
Tension had been building for weeks between Czechs and Slovaks over the issue. The spontaneous protest Friday began outside the Slovak Parliament building and then moved to a central Bratislava square.
Chanting “Long live Slovakia!” the crowd applauded speakers who asserted that the Czechs, who make up about two-thirds of Czechoslovakia’s 15.5 million people, had ridden roughshod over the interests of the Slovaks.
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