On Division of Macedonia and Greater Albania Again

Political Panorama of Macedonia

It is almost unbelievable how certain Macedonian politicians and media close to them find evidence almost in anything that the current authorities composed of the "pro-Bulgarian" VMRO-DPMNE and separatist DPA are in an organised and efficient manner doing their best to dismember Macedonia and achieve their respective eternal dreams - union with Bulgaria and creation of Greater Albania.

AIM Skopje, 15 July, 1999

Arben Xhaferi, president of Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA) is the hit topic in the media close to the opposition again. The immediate cause - a party statement in which this party which is a member of the government coalition presents its stands on the forthcoming presidential elections, proposing among other introduction of the post of vice-president of the state. In the first reactions of journalists and politicians this proposal was interpreted as yet another move in the direction of federalization of Macedonia, because if DPA proposes introduction of the post of the vice-president, it is certainly doing it in order to get it for an ethnic Albanian. "Utrinski vesnik" announces a commentary with "Xhaferi demands federalization" on its front page. The international community is involved in this "conspiracy", because it is said in the statement of DPA that representatives of many countries and international organizations have been informed about the idea and they have accepted it. So it is no wonder that well-known Albanophobes felt an urge to respond with commentaries in which they literally say the following: "It is unnecessary to say certain things twice to Europe, especially when the Albanians are concerned". They did not miss the opportunity to remind the public of what the current authorities have done or announced that they would do in the past seven months for as long as they are in power: setting the former mayors of Tetovo and Gostivar free, the idea on official use of Albanian language, greater presence of the Albanians in the administration, taking over posts in municipalities where the Albanians are the majority population, all the way to the claims that the presence of the Kosovars in Macedonia (and irresponsible behavior of the government under pressure of its ethnic Albanian coalition partner) caused what the Macedonians feared the most: change of ethnic composition to their detriment. A problematic reportage of Reuters from Tetovo corroborated these allegations, because it quoted a couple of ethnic Macedonians from this city who claimed that the Macedonians in it were inferior citizens and that they were massively moving from out. Media in Macedonian language which are traditionally "hard" on the Albanians also reacted to this reportage.

Obviously interethnic relations, or more precisely the relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians taken as separate collectivities, are definitely one of the most significant characteristics of Macedonia's entrance into multiparty democracy. About ten years ago when everything began, political parties were established on ethnic grounds and they are still as a rule ethnically pure. The division into "us" and "them" in the first few years was the foundation of strong, emotionally charged stands of the ones and the others. During the two terms in office for as long as the coalition headed by the Social Democratic League of Macedonia (SDSM) ruled, the incidents that occurred between the police and ethnic Albanians kept interethnic tensions on a high level, so that it seemed that the only former republic of SFRY which had not experienced war was in a fair way to getting involved in one. Fortunately these tensions have not brought this about, so that in the past couple of years a counter-thesis appeared that in fact the regime itself had produced them for internal and foreign political needs.

In the campaign for the latest parliamentary elections, roles changed in the old casting. SDSM and its partners decided to play the role of protectors of Macedonian ethnic interests and set out with a series of accusations according to which their opponents reached an agreement on federalisation of Macedonia and its division into two parts, one which would belong to the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party of Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) and which would become part of Bulgaria, and the other in which ethnic Albanians are concentrated and which would be taken over by DPA and later become part of Greater Albania. These elections were won by the opposition, a coalition was formed by former "extremists" and "radicals", that is, by VMRO-DPMNE and DPA. And this is, it seems, one of the good things that have happened in these elections - political radicalism on ethnic grounds has disappeared from the political scene.

Ever since they came to power, the authorities have managed to ease interethnic tensions, solving concrete problems, although developments in the region did not at all play into their hands. On the other hand, moves of the new authorities in the domain of interethnic relations, Kosovo and exodus of refugees and banished persons, the presence of NATO soldiers and intervention of the Alliance in FR Yugoslavia were the immediate cause for SDSM to try to build its political strategy on Albanophobia and spur populism. It had support of minor parties of different political orientations (from the rightist, nationalistic MAAK, conservative, to the Democratic Party of the Serbs) which are all annoyed by the Albanians.

In this context, relations between Macedonia and Albania are also interesting, as well as views of what is happening in Kosovo. Skopje and Tirana have had their good and their bad moments in their relations. After Berisha had come to power, the first official meetings with Macedonian president Gligorov were convened. It seemed that these hearty and frequent meetings were opening a phase of excellent neighbourly relations. Things started to complicate when a split occurred in the then most powerful Albanian party in Macedonia, the Party of Democratic Prosperity (Berisha's Democratic Party supported the faction which developed into the Party of Democratic Prosperity of the Albanians which then united with the People's Democratic Parties and formed DPA) and definitely froze after the events such as opening of the university in Albanian in Mala Recica and police intervention in Gostivar. When the Socialists came to power in Albania, it was believed that the ice in relations would thaw if for no other reason due to the fact that the Socialists had good relations with the Albanian PDP which was part of the government coalition. The idea of president Gligorov on opening a corridor through which Kosovar refugees would go to their parent state in case of war was sharply criticised in Tirana. After NATO intervention in Yugoslavia and in the beginning of the exodus of the Kosovars, especially after the events at the Blace border crossing and concerning treatment of the banished and the refugees from Kosovo there were several critical statements from the very top of the leadership in Albania.

At first sight, after the situation in the region had pacified, but also after the arrival of the Albanian president Rexhep Mejdani to Skopje to meet American president Clinton, when the host, Kiro Gligorov invited him to pay an official visit to Macedonia, haggling seemed to have ended, especially because before Majdani's visit to Skopje, Macedonia had also been visited by the Albanian prime minister Pandeli Majko.

That things are not as simple as that was shown by three events. Just a day before Majko's visit to Skopje, leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) Hashim Thaci met Macedonian prime minister Ljubco Georgievski, and in Tetovo Majko and Thaci met with representatives of local Albanian parties. At the end of Mejdani's one day stay in Skopje, the two presidents presented their view of the situation in the region. Gligorov spoke about the need to preserve integrity of FR Yugoslavia, Mejdani spoke about European integration and declared that "in this integration, within the period between five and 10 years, we see two new units, and these could be Montenegro and Kosovo as an integral part of the community of European countries". This was quite enough for the opposition parties and media close to them to set out in a new campaign of interpretations of the meeting between Georgievski and Thaci as an "All-Albanian plot" in Tetovo and "the shadow of the dream of Greater Albania". The notorious platform of the Albanian Academy of Sciences became the subject of comprehensive analyses in local media once again.

It is almost incredible with what ease the realistic efort of Georgievski to establish direct and good relations with the currently leading political figure in Albania was interpreted as recognition of independence of Kosovo and the first step towards creation of Greater Albania which Western Macedonia would form a part of, how the wish for integration into Europe of all the countries in the region, meaning open borders, free flow of people which would therefore definitely ease all tensions in the Balkans, is interpreted as exactly the opposite, as an aspiration to change the borders and create a single state for all the Albanians.

But every cloud has a silver lining. It seems that the number of those who are showing zeal and who wish to rouse passions among ethnic Macedonian population for this "cause" is decreasing, and the effect of their actions weakening. Perhaps that is also the reason why they are increasingly nervous and one could even say becoming hysterical.

AIM Skopje

ISO RUSI