MEETING OF THE "RADICALS" WITH THE "SAGE"

AIM Skopje, 12 November, 1997

After the unexpected "summit with the President" before he travelled to the Balkan conference of heads of states or governments in Crete, when he had gathered all the most relevant political parties in the country to discuss the main directions of foreign policy which had caused doubts among the domestic analysts concerning his motive, President of Macedonia, just a couple of days after his return from Crete, managed to surprise and somewhat confuse the public again. The reason for this was the invitation sent to the "radical" Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA) to visit him in his office for an exchange of opinions, but this time (as opposed to the first group meeting) about internal problems. Based on scarce information which leaked into the public after this latest meeting which lasted for four hours, two parties talked about the "hottest" topics in the sphere of interethnic relations including the tragic event in Gostivar. According to the statement of the leader of DPA, one of the topics discussed at the meeting was the trial to Gostivar mayor, Rufi Osmani, sentenced to 13.8 years in jail by the muunicipal court in Gostivar, and as the explanation for this topic, he stated that this court proceedings was "important for stability of the country".

According to the statement of his office, President Gligorov stressed that interethnic problems can be resolved only through dialogue and in the institutions of the system. Declaration of this stand by the President, which is already well known to the public, probably contains the better part of the mysterious motive of his invitation to talks addressed to the party which he had on several occasions identified as "radical" and dangerous for stability of the country. The reason for this sudden openness and one might even say - considerateness of the President, should be sought in the recent Crete summit one of the accomplishments of which were unformal meetings of the leaders of countries participants. One of these meetings was the one between the Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov and the Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano, when, as the Macedonian President stated, Nano had said that the Albanians who lived outside the parent state, had to respect laws of the countries in which they lived and the known principle of permanency of borders. It is not difficult to conclude that "armed" with this stance of the official Albania, Macedonian President gathered that time had come to invite the Albanian "radicals" who had on numerous occasions repeated the thesis that it would be possible to open a real dialogue with the Macedonian party only after a political crisis which would be caused by them, of course. Probably relying on the assumption that the "radicals" had had high hopes concerning the support from the parent state, the Macedonian President believed that now that he had received the mentioned reassurances from Albania, it was not "dangerous" for him to meet directly with the leaders of the DPA.

If one knows the history of the relations between the DPA and the Albanian Socialists who have recently come to power in Albania, it is not difficult to reach the conclusion that the "sage" (as his political friends often call the Macedonian President) assessed that the right moment came for him to attack and give a few "fatherly advices" to young "firebrands" who had probably relied too much on support from Albania at the time when the Demiocrats of former president Sali Berisha were still in power. It is known that the Albanian oppositionists in Macedonia made it public a couple of years ago that they would not cooperate with the Albanian Socialists even in case they came to power some day. Now that this has happened, it is clear that they cannot count of support from Albania, even if it were just moral support, which at the same time means weakening of their position in reference to both the Macedonian authorities and the international public. And it is unnecessary to say that this effect is several times larger after the explicit statement of the Albanian Prime Minister, regardless of what the motives of his declaration had been.

Apart from this being the possible motive which induced President Gligorov to ask for the meeting with the leaders of this Albanian opposition party for the first time, although they had in the past in vain demanded to meet the leader of the state, it can also be claimed that this also marks the beginning of the election campaign of the President for the benefit of the Macedonian parties in power. The point lies in the fact that the political activity of this party which despite its efforts, the government cannot neutralize, directly jeopardizes the reputation of power-holders among the Macedonian voters due to its "impotence to protect the state". If the President of the state, with the mentioned indirect help from Tirana, manages to push the Albanian "radicals" "to the wall", there is no doubt that this would be a great relief for the current authorities which have a difficult time controlling the situation in western Macedonia where in the past local elections the Albanian oppositionists won the greatest portion of power having defeated the other Albanian party, the Party of Democratic Prosperity (PDP) which is participating in the coalition government.

On the other hand, It would really be naive to expect that the DPA will withdraw from its positions which had brought it almost everything it had acquired on the political scene of Macedonia. As an indication for this assumption, there is the case of refusal of the court to register this party which was created by fusion of two Albanian opposition parties, the Party of Democratic Prosperity of the Albanians (PDPA) and the National Democratic Party (NDP). The main reason why the court refused their application for registration is in the fact that the program of this party includes aspiration for self-determination of the people, which is experienced by the Macedonian party as the aspiration for secession of a part of the country. When one knows that the Albanian Prime Minister publicly appealed to the Albanians outside the borders of Albania not to even think about changing the borders it is even easier to conclude why the President of Macedonia has just now decided to sit down at the table with the men who were accused of such intentions so many times.

Although it is clear to the Macedonian public that a "very good reason" must exist for this unexpected encounter, it is nevertheless difficult to evaluate what final effect it will have on the political atmosphere in the country which is passing through a period of very low level of interethnic cooperation. Maybe the continuation of the trial of Gostivar mayor at the appelate court will be the first test which will show if the authorities are ready to come to their senses now that the Albanian oppositionists were "forced" to do that because of the specific indirect pressure from Tirana, which would create real conditions for loosening the strain in interethnic relations in general.

AIM Skopje IBRAHIM MEHMETI