Volkanovski’s Sun Flag Celebration Brings a 30-Year Dispute Back Into the Spotlight
Australian UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski sparked a fresh wave of debate after images from his recent celebrations showed him alongside people holding the red flag with a yellow sun associated with North Macedonia. Volkanovski's paternal roots trace back to Beranci, a village near Bitola in what was formerly Yugoslavia and later known as FYROM before it officially became North Macedonia in 2019. The images circulated widely online and reignited a long-standing argument over the symbol and what it represents.
The controversy centers on the Sun of Vergina, a 16-ray sunburst discovered at the royal tombs of Aigai, near the town of Vergina in northern Greece. Archaeologists have directly linked the symbol to the ancient Macedonian dynasty of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, making it one of the most recognizable artifacts of ancient Greek heritage. For many Greeks, its use by a neighboring state has never been a settled matter.
Archaeologists have directly linked the symbol to the ancient Macedonian dynasty of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
FYROM began using a version of the sun symbol on its national flag in the early 1990s, which triggered a major diplomatic row with Greece. A 1995 interim agreement led to the flag being changed. The current North Macedonian flag features an eight-ray sun, which is related in design to the 16-ray Vergina Sun but is not identical to it. That distinction has done little to quiet the debate on the Greek side, where many view any such symbol as an appropriation of ancient Macedonian heritage.
Volkanovski is one of the most decorated fighters in UFC history and has not made any public statement about the political dimension of the flag. His celebration photos appear to reflect pride in his ancestral background rather than a deliberate political statement. Even so, the images were enough to push a decades-old dispute back into social media conversations and Greek news coverage this week.
