[Victims for some, troublemakers for others]
Dutch asylum debate has a face and name http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2078796,00.html Kosovo: ICRC deplores slow progress of working group on missing persons http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/kosovo-news-090306!OpenDocument "Responding to Incidents of Domestic Violence" http://www.osce.org/kosovo/item_1_18318.html?print=1 Doing it by the book http://www.osce.org/kosovo/item_2_18293.html?print=1 Kosovo parliament elects today new government http://www.eciks.org/english/lajme.php?action=total_news&main_id=337 Kosovo's likely leader wanted for war crimes http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0310/p04s01-woeu.html "Enough flowers, we want to take part in negotiations" http://see.oneworld.net/article/view/128931/1/3260 "Solution has to be reached by a long and patient dialogue" http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/07/content_4267001.htm EU: Serbia can't rule Kosovo again http://euobserver.com/9/21096 "Kosovo future is completely clear" http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=157&NrSection=2&NrArticle=15987 "West's Backing Of Kosovo Independence Political, Ill-Advised" http://www.interfax.com/3/137040/news.aspx "Montenegro and Kosovo to form a union " http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/message/69252 Cooperation http://www.dtt-net.com/en/index.php?page=view-article&article=1190&CMSSESSID=d04a6b0cb2d109e367c126db00cabf37 "Crises are ignited each time when Albanian nation is facing big decisions" http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/agencija/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrArticle=18397&NrIssue=402&NrSection=10 ............................................ http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=719 Axis 08.03.2006 Two Major Muslim Minorities of Macedonia: Albanians and Turks Can Karpat, AIA Turkish and Balkan Section There are 27 minorities in Macedonia. The two major minorities are Muslim. The qualification of the Albanians varies: Victims for some, troublemakers for others. As to the Turks, they are docile, rather forgotten, as usual. Even after the Ohrid Agreement, especially the Albanians are still not happy with the Macedonian State. Yet, which one is the real question: Does Skopje neglect its duty or do the minorities expect everything from the State? The Albanians: A minority, which behaves like a majority The Albanians are the biggest minority of Macedonia. With 398.000 people, they form 19.2 percent of the population (est.2004). However, the Albanians claim that their figure is much higher than this. According to them, they make up 40 percent of the population due to the high birth-rate and the immigration from Kosovo. Since the Albanians demand the "constituent nation" status along with Macedonians, this dispute of population becomes crucial. Since the Macedonian Constitution stipulates that one has to reside in the country at least for 15 years to become a citizen, Kosovo refugees can not be granted citizenship. Some specialists estimate the Albanian population between 30 and 35 percent. Since the demography has a highly political connotation, it is normal to have such contradictory figures. The Albanians of Macedonia mainly inhabit the western part of the country. The largest Albanian communities live in Kumanovo, Skopje, Tetovo, Gostivar, Debar, Kicevo and Struga. The Albanians of Macedonia are overwhelmingly Muslim although there are few Christian Orthodox villages. Tensions between the Albanians and the Macedonians started well before Macedonia's independence in 1991. In 1966, Aleksander Rankovic, ex-Yugoslavia's vice-president and Tito's heir resigned. Although he was not a proven Serbian nationalist, his association with the secret police made him a hate-figure. His fall marked the beginning of a new era. While Kosovo Albanians organised public demonstrations in order to demand the republic status for Kosovo, in Skopje the Albanians organised similar protests in order to demand the annexation of western Macedonia to the future Republic of Kosovo. For the first time, Macedonia faced the Albanian question, which it perceived as a threat to its own existence. Macedonia was declared the "State of the Macedonians", omitting all other minorities living in the country. Macedonian officials took several anti-democratic assimilation measures: prohibition of some Albanian names, Albanian songs, etc. In 1985, a new law stipulated that in colleges the language of education could be in Albanian if there were 30 Albanian students in class and enough Albanian teachers. Following that law, the figure of secondary students, which was 8200 in 1981, dropped to 4221 in 1989. The Albanians, who interpreted the law as a deliberate act to condemn the Albanian youth to ignorance, organised several demonstrations and boycotts. After the independence, Macedonia faced its first serious ethnic crisis with its Albanian minority. In January 1992, the Albanians organised a referendum on territorial autonomy. Shortly thereafter, the Council of Albanian Political Parties in the Former Yugoslavia, which comprised the Albanian parties of Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, decided that autonomy was the only option for the Albanians in Macedonia if other democratic efforts to gain political and cultural rights fail. The Macedonian government declared the referendum illegal. It is significant that a similar referendum took place only three months ago in Kosovo. The public riot in Skopje forced the armed forces to intervene. It must be remembered that for two years after its independence, Macedonia was a non-recognised country. In a country, whose continuity was not clear, this kind of ethnic riots was not a surprise. For years, the Albanians of Macedonia demanded an Albanian university. In 1995, they decided to follow the Kosovo example, and founded their university themselves. The illegal Albanian university of Tetovo (the second biggest city of Macedonia, in northwest) provoked a real sensation amongst the Macedonians. After the official opening of the university in February 1997, anti-Albanian demonstrations were organised in Skopje. According to the Albanians, the justification of their deed was their legal right to education in their own language and to social ascension. Yet, the Macedonians suspected a repetition of what happened in Kosovo. The Kosovo war in 1998-1999 was a kind of signal for the rest of the Albanians living in various parts of the Balkans, including Macedonia. Some of them believed that any ethnic chaos would be sufficient for the Western powers to intervene and "liberate" them from oppression. In 2001, a new guerrilla, whose role model was the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), the National Liberation Army of Macedonia (UCKM) started a civil war in northwest of the country. The Albanian enterprise was simultaneous with that of the Albanians in southern Serbia. The target was to destabilise the region in order to obtain a second Dayton Accord from the Western powers. Yet, like Serbia, Macedonia remained calm and moderate. The situation in Macedonia was in complete contrast with that in Kosovo. In Macedonia, since the independence, Albanian parties have always been present in government coalitions, and charged with five ministries. Except some conflicts, the Albanians enjoy the cultural and religious freedom. The university conflict was resolved at the beginning of 2001 when a trilingual (Macedonian, Albanian, English) university was founded in Tetovo. Although the already existing Albanian university of Tetovo is still illegal, the Albanians now can study in their mother language from primary to university. They also have the freedom of expression through media, associations and political parties. The main Albanian parties are: Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) of Ali Ahmeti, Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) of Arben Xhaferi and Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) of Abduljhadi Vejseli. Some radical Albanians considered Xhaferi's policy to protect and improve the rights of the Albanian minority as "insufficient". In March 2001, those radicals founded a new party called National Democratic Party, which was supposed to be the political bureau of the UCKM. Although Xhaferi denounced UCKM's terrorist activities, he did not miss the opportunity to take benefit from the situation in order to impose his ideas for a "confederation of Macedonia", which would grant the Albanians an equal status with the Macedonians. In August 2001, the Ohrid Agreement ended the six-month ethnic conflict in Macedonia. With this agreement, Albanian fighters laid down their arms in return for greater ethnic recognition within a decentralised State. The Albanians obtained the right to use their language in Parliament and courts. Law texts are now bilingual. In those regions, where the Albanians form over 20 percent of the population, education, health care and financial planning are under the control of local Albanian administrations. In those regions, the Albanians also have the right to use their own language and national symbols. The Albanians now form 25 percent of the Macedonian army. However the Albanian presence in police and civil servant staffs is still very low. Yet, the rights that the Albanians enjoy in Macedonia after 2001 go definitely beyond cultural rights, positive discrimination or standard minority rights. Brief conflicts of winter 2004 and summer 2005 showed how the radical Albanians, without necessarily using violence, exploit the "Greater Kosovo" threat in order to impose a federal system in Macedonia, which would then open the way that leads to the independence. In January 2005, the Albanian-language media in Macedonia suffered a serious setback. Two newspapers, the weekly Lobi and the daily Koha Ditore announced that they must suspend publication, at least temporarily. As a result, only one Albanian-language daily Fakti remains. Since 2001, the number of Albanian-language periodicals has fallen from four to just one in January 2005. According to the Helsinki Committee, there is only one Albanian-language TV station with a national license and a small number of local radio and TV stations of "very low quality". There is no radio station broadcasting in Albanian throughout the country. Yet, it is noteworthy that the Committee indirectly accused the governing DUI of being responsible for the problems of Lobi and Koha Ditore: "If one keeps in mind that both periodicals that suspended their publication in January 2005 were critical of the representatives of the Albanian component in the government, the signal is clear: whoever dares to speak out against those who are in power will be destroyed". On the 15th of December last year, the European Union granted Macedonia the candidate status. Even though Macedonia's official membership can not be expected earlier that 2012, the Albanians of this country will probably be the first Albanian community in the Balkans to enter in the EU. It would not be wise for the Albanians of Macedonia to destabilise this promising situation and endanger the EU membership of Macedonia, which will grant them more rights. In the municipal elections of May 2005, out of the 85 mayors elected, 17 came from the Albanian minority. There is a particular responsibility on these Albanian mayors of Macedonia. They now have to prove that the Macedonians will enjoy the same rights in their localities as the Albanians have demanded for themselves at the national level. The conflict between the Macedonians and the Albanians has more social reasons than political and historic background as in Serbia. Macedonian anxieties and suspicion towards the Albanians must be evaluated in the general context of the "Albanian question", which seems to replace the "Question d'Orient" of the 19th and 20th centuries. Macedonia tries to keep all of its minorities in balance, for greater rights for one minority may provoke others. There are almost no inter-ethnic relations between the two communities; mixed marriages are very rare. Most of the Albanians, devoted to their traditions, do not send their daughters to school. The lack of mutual acquaintance and education affect the two societies and poison their relations. While the Albanians consider Macedonia as a "fake democracy", the Macedonians distrust the Albanians as "false brothers". The real problem consists in "everyday discrimination" towards the Albanians, especially in social and economic fields. The only remedy is the change of mentalities through education. And not only the Macedonian State, but also the two communities are equally responsible for this vast transformation of mentalities. As Arben Xhaferi put it, "We succeeded to change the Constitution. Now we have to change our mentalities in order to avoid ethnic conflicts". Next general elections are anticipated in summer or autumn this year. DUI Deputy Chairman Rafiz Aliti is self-confident: "Right now, according to the poll, we are the second-most popular party in the whole country". Since the major Macedonian parties wear themselves out with conflicts and schisms, it seems that one the three major Albanian parties will probably obtain at least a coalition partnership in any case. The Turks: The most docile minority of Macedonia Centre for Ethnic Relations of the Institute for Sociologic and Judicial Research in Skopje, in an enquiry, asked the Macedonians, Albanians and Turks, among other questions, "to describe each other". The Macedonians describe the Turks as "great warriors", while the Turks consider the Macedonians as "hard-working, peaceful and cultivated". The Albanians consider the Turks as "hard-working and peaceful", while the Turks describe the Albanians as "a militant nation". According to the Centre's director, Emilija Simoska, the most ethno-centric community in Macedonia is the Albanians, while the most positive and open one is the Turks. However, one can also argue that the low figure of Turks living in Macedonia makes them necessarily less "harmful". Though a little minority, the presence of the Turks in Macedonia goes back as far as the 14th century when the region was conquered by the Ottomans. As a political strategy, the Ottomans were used to settle many Turks from Anatolia to the newly conquered Balkan regions. As in other Balkan regions, the status of the Turks deteriorated after the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913. In 1919, Macedonia was divided up between Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. In the communist Yugoslavia after 1945, the ethnically diverse populations were ranked with a three-tier system: "peoples", "nationalities" and "ethnic groups". While the Macedonians belonged to the first rank, the Turks along with Albanians belonged to the second rank. Between 1950s and 1990s, the reliability of every census depended on the international political conjuncture. The relations between Belgrade, Moscow and Tirana, in a way, determined the figure of the Albanians and Turks in Macedonia. In periods of close contacts between Belgrade and Moscow, the Turks, who became "suspect" for having sympathy for the Western world, preferred describing themselves as Albanians or else. Therefore, while in 1953 the census showed 203.938 Turks in Macedonia, that figure suddenly dropped to 131.481 in 1960. According to the 2004 census, there are 82.000 Turks in Macedonia (3.9 percent of the population). However, like Albanians, the Turks claim that the true figure is higher, even close to 5 percent. They live scattered throughout 40 towns, including Skopje, Tetovo, Gostivar, Debar, Resen, Ohrid, Bitola, Negotino, Radovis, Valadovo. After the independence, the Turks kept their cultural rights in Macedonia. Unlike Albanians, who boycotted the referendum on independence, the Turks participated in the referendum and voted for the independence of the country. The main party of the Turks is Turkish Democratic Party (TDP), which was founded in July 1992. The first TDP President Erdogan Sarac followed an aggressive strategy. All started with the educational problems in Zupa (near Debar, in west). Contrary to the Constitution, the education language was not Turkish. Although Macedonian officials assured that there was no ethnic discrimination, but a lack of Turkish teachers, TDP went as far as to claim "genocide over Turks in Macedonia". Sarac was criticised by moderate wing of the party, which lowered its tone thereafter. In the 2002 elections, new TDP President Kenan Hasipi allied himself with Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) and obtained parliamentary representation. Party member Mahsut Ali became deputy minister in the Ministry of Finance. The Zupa event was an exception. Otherwise, 80 percent of the Turks are satisfied with Macedonia's linguistic, educational and administrative policies. Unlike Albanians, 90 percent of the Turks consider themselves as equals to the Macedonians. Macedonian officials seem to make a distinction between the "aggressive" Albanians and the Turks, who only complain about the insufficient application of the laws. Their main complaint is the lack of education in Turkish. In some regions, the Turkish identity seems to jam between the Macedonians and the Albanians. The Albanians, who claim that they make up 40 percent of the population, tend to assimilate the Turks. The common religion is a great trump. The Turks complain about the domination of Albanian-language services in mosques. Some Albanians are even keen to present the Ottoman heritage in Macedonia as Albanian. That is why, already during the 1970s and 1980s, Macedonia took a number of measures to prevent the Muslim community from being "Albanianised". However, the Ohrid Agreement, which stipulates greater decentralisation, worries the Turks, who interpret this process as greater privileges for the Albanians. The reorganisation of the municipalities in November 2004 changed the ethnic map. The little village of Vrapciste (near Gostivar, in west) is one of them. One hundred years ago, during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, Gostivar was 90 percent Turkish, with Macedonians making up the other ten percent. However, following the Second World War, many Turks either chose or were forced to immigrate to Turkey by the Yugoslav government. As in other Macedonian towns like Tetovo, and also in Kosovo, Albanians filled the vacuum created by their departure. Today, Turks officially make up only 11 percent of Gostivar's population. They complain about the increasing pressure to speak Albanian, and even to declare themselves as Albanians. On the 13th of March, TDP will boycott the local elections in Vrapciste. TDP President Kenan Hasipi stated: ""Currently, we Turks make up about 36 percent of Vrapciste's municipal population. Under the new, bigger borders, we will be only 12 percent - far below the Ohrid Agreement's stated 20 percent [for language and other rights]". The largest Turkish enclave is about to disappear. The legendary Turkish newspaper Birlik, which was first published in 1943, bid its farewell in 2003 because of financial problems. There are many other newspapers and magazines in Turkish. There is no TV channel in Turkish. Two private Turkish radios, Rumeli FM in Gostivar and Super FM in Skopje, are on air. Moreover the Turks have a lot of cultural associations. Unfortunately, Turkey does not support the Turks of Macedonia the way it should. Despite problems, the Turks form the most peaceful minority in Macedonia. Maybe just because of their peacefulness their linguistic and educational demands are neglected in the Balkans where only violence resolves the problems. Rather than to provoke the Turks, this remark has the intention to criticise the Western powers, which often appease the demands of the most tumultuous minorities in the region. Related items: The Macedonia-Greece Name Dispute: Only the Tip of the Iceberg (28.2.2006) A Long Voyage: Macedonia Sets Sail for Europe (5.2.2006) Political Solution and Terrorism in Macedonia (11.10.2005) Kosovo Presidential elections 2006 http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=663 Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
