Theories about the survival of the Macedonian nation and state
Dnevnik 18 April 2003

Ljubco Georgievski, leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party and former prime minister, has set out the case for ethnic division and territory exchange to settle Macedonia's ethnic tension. He said that the Ohrid Agreement had turned Macedonia into a binational state. The Albanians had always been a source of problems for the Macedonians, and took more than they gave to the state. If nothing was changed, there would be another "bloodbath" within three years. Georgievski therefore advocated an agreed delimitation between the Albanians and Macedonians, with Albanians moving out of Skopje, Kumanovo, Kicevo and Struga "by exchanging finances and real estate". If such a division could not be agreed, the Macedonian side should carry it out anyway along the lines of the Israeli "concrete wall" blueprint. The following is the text of a commentary by Ljubco Georgievski:

It seems that the history of the Macedonian people is rife with difficult challenges, fateful and tragic events and decisions. Since I feel that, yet again, we are faced with another such critical moment, please allow me to express my personal opinion through the following theories, as a politician who has spent 12 years as an opposition leader and former prime minister analysing the situation with the Albanians in our country:

- the Ohrid accord has definitely marked the end of the Macedonia that we remember from history and from the ideals of all the Macedonian patriots who have sacrificed their lives. - the Ohrid accord marks the end of the concept of Macedonia with which we grew up, believing that it was our fatherland. One year after signing this agreement, it is clear that the fact of the matter is not improving human rights, but of seriously altering the contents of what we still like to think of as our country.

- Under the Ohrid accord, Macedonia is definitely not a sovereign country, because of the fact that we will never regain control of certain parts of the country and because it lays the groundwork for Macedonia to function as a protectorate.

- Under the Ohrid accord, Macedonia is no longer a unitary state. Regardless of how strongly we may believe in this and despite all diplomatic efforts at persuasion, the fact remains that there is nothing left of the country's unitary structure. Once the Law on Decentralization is passed, the dissolution will only be made formal, and we will get a clearer picture of what has already become reality. The Ohrid accord has turned Macedonia into a country that we can no longer recognize, and which will increasingly exist only in virtual reality, just as neighbouring Yugoslavia as published places Kosovo in Serbia when announcing the weather forecast.

It is a painful fact that this same agreement has turned our country into something that can be defined as a cantonized, federalized, or what is perhaps the most correct definition, a binational state of Macedonians and Albanians. I know that it is hard for many citizens to accept this fact. All they need to do is take a look at the daily "functioning of the state"! This initial assertion is not designed to pass blame on others, nor do I aim to create an alibi for myself as a signatory of this agreement. Yet the Ohrid Agreement has permanently changed the concept of our country, turning Macedonia into a binational state. It is up to us to decide whether we are going to choose to subject ourselves to new painful ordeals and tragedies on a daily basis or we are going to head down a different path!

Lessons from history

The generation behind us from the period of communism, and even our own from the era of democracy, has strived, if nothing else, to at least paint a brighter picture of the historical past. Unfortunately, the facts confirm that the Macedonians and Albanians have been on opposite sides more often than they have been on the same side: the period of Ottoman slavery was a time of permanent terror and looting, carried out with the help of the well-known Kacak Turkish for outlaws, bandits gangs; the period of World War II, the massacres and killings that we kept silent about for the sake of brotherhood and unity; the various demonstrations and activity of organized gangs after World War II; the paramilitary from the time of the SDSM Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia and the PDP Party for Democratic Prosperity coalition government , as well as the VMRO-DPMNE Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity and the DPA Democratic Party of Albanians, PDSh in Albanian coalition government . It was always only the Macedonians that forgave, proving that they wanted to live together. In return, the answer we usually got was: the Albanians do not want to live together with the Macedonians; the Albanians want to live in a "Greater Albania"! The only question is, though, how much longer will they be able to cover this up?!

Demography

As responsible people, we will be committing the greatest sin against future generations if we fail to face the threat of demographic assimilation of the Macedonian people. All well-meaning ideas of having more children have become an eternally unattainable pipe dream. The facts are cruel! The problem is not only in the 19 per cent Albanian population, but also in the fact that, under the Ohrid Agreement and the reality created after its implementation, the doors have been swung wide open for mass mechanical migrations from Kosovo and Albania. Their demographic explosion shows no sign of stopping. The fact that, of all first-graders in Macedonia, 33 per cent are Albanian and the fact that six or seven new Albanian classes are opened in Skopje high schools every year are indeed disturbing! We can therefore not play deaf or blind to the reality that our nation is facing the threat of demographic annihilation. If we add to this the altered relations after last year's crisis, when the Turks, Romanies and Macedonian Muslims in the Macedonian state recognized the defeated side, then it is more than clear that the process of their assimilation will become a continuous daily trend from now on!

Ethnic cleansing

Since my latest Assembly address, I have been trying to be nicer to the international community, but there is a fact that I cannot ignore: the ethnic cleansing of our people. Unfortunately, under the auspices of certain structures of the international community, Macedonia is getting a taste of what has already taken place elsewhere in the Balkans. There are very few Serbs in Croatia today. The process of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, in the Serbian, Croatian and Muslim parts, has been brought to completion almost brilliantly. We regularly follow developments in Kosovo, and the ethnic cleansing scheme that the international community is applying there is identical to the one in Macedonia.

The Macedonians are not allowed to return to their homes! They are not rebuilding homes owned by Macedonians! On the contrary, they are torching them, and we hear about certain "incidents" every single day - about a Macedonian being beaten or killed! Skopska Crna Gora hills north of Skopje has been "purged". The same goes for a large part of the Kumanovo villages. Aracinovo, too. The Tetovo-Jazince road is under the complete control of the Albanian paramilitaries. In the Greater Albanian strategy, Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar no longer present a problem. The continuous incidents have only stepped up our people's migration. The new strategy is already recognizable. The next places waiting to be conquered are Cair, Gazi Baba Skopje quarters , the city of Kumanovo, the Kicevo and Struga areas. Regretfully, various international organizations and even governments are doing a terrific job covering up this ethnic cleansing.

About economic and other values

Our life together uncovers a painful truth. The Macedonians create, pay taxes, build values, fill the budget, develop the state... ellipsis as published As opposed to this, our neighbours ethnic Albanians are the major beneficiaries of the funds from our budget spent on education, social insurance, health and urban development. Not to mention that they are responsible for all major forms of crime, including the most dangerous of all - the spread of drugs among the young generations. If we consider their economic contribution, we can only conclude that creates a great big "black hole", the filling of which forces every Macedonian to do the work of at least two people. If we focus on the other values in the fields of culture, science, medicine and art, we will conclude that our country does not get much in return. Based on the above, my conclusion is that the destructive energy that our Albanian neighbours carry within themselves presents an enormous stone tied around our necks, on account of which we will never be able to move from the spot in which we are currently standing. Especially when the Albanian and Kosovo borders and entire parts of western Macedonia have been turned into grey economic zones - hence this burden is making us sink deeper and deeper every day!

The Macedonian security system

When the aggression against Macedonia began, the Kosovo Protection Corps was in possession of some precise information: what types of weapons Macedonia possessed, what the defence and personnel structures were like. With the help of various "experts", Macedonia was primed for quick military capitulation and humiliation, but unfortunately for the enemy, we got quickly organized and managed to defend our country!

Today, our country's security system is being shattered much more quickly and more efficiently than was done before the Tanusevci events start of 2001 conflict . They are disbanding the tank units, the air force, the Lions police rapid reaction unit , the reserve units. At the same time, they are running advertisements for admitting an enormous number of UCK National Liberation Army members into the new police and army structures. They are engaged in daily campaigns, humiliating those who had the courage to defend our country. The speed at which they are destroying Macedonia's defence system in a moral and technical sense will render Macedonia completely paralysed militarily, humiliated and crushed in less than two or three months. Perhaps this will not happen within this period, but one thing is for sure - in three years we will be even better prepared for a new bloodbath. The prospect of an internal Macedonian civil conflict is also not ruled out, given the way the new government began its term of office. In fact, the Macedonian mentality, which has been known throughout history for its lack of sense of national unity, has been confirmed once again. If we continue doing nothing after the Ohrid Agreement, this hopelessness will go on forever!

International examples

Governed by an altruistic idea of providing the ethnic Albanians with greater rights and protecting them from the "torture" of the "Slav tribes", the international community and the Kosovo Protection Corps have cracked the beautiful "vase" called Macedonia, which used to present a model for democracy and multiethnic coexistence. The "vase" was to be glued together by the Ohrid Agreement. Unfortunately, the international experience in "gluing vases together" has proven extremely unsuccessful, so, with the exception of Switzerland and Belgium, there is no other positive example. Not much time will pass from the moment of cracking to the moment of breaking. Those who harbour different illusions are definite losers.

Let us recall the breakups of Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia!? Could anyone even imagine in their wildest dreams that Bosnia-Hercegovina will become a unitary state or that Kosovo will be part of Serbia!? Let us also recall the case of Lebanon, where a Christian majority used to live some 20 years ago, which has turned into a Christian minority by now. Let us look at the latest plan for Cyprus, where the concept of a common state is no longer discussed, but rather the percentage in terms of how much each part will get. Or the Israeli model, which, after a 50-year attempt at coexistence, has again turned into a delimitation plan. In cases like ours, the international experience is well-known: the countries solve the "unsolvable" problems either by way of partition or demarcation!

Albania and Kosovo

Speaking of the extremism of the Macedonian Albanians, we cannot disregard the existence of our border with Albania and Kosovo, the policy and economy of which are spilling over into our country like a game of dominos. It started with the civil war in Albania, followed by the one in Kosovo, then came the war in southern Serbia, only to end with the one in Macedonia. Regardless of the number of positive foreign assessments that Albania and Kosovo are receiving in terms of how much they are moving in a positive direction, I am convinced that they remain centres of permanent political destabilization of our country, creating enormous uncontrolled space for all types of crime. Those countries are sinking economically, and they are exporting this to our country. Kosovo is a story in itself, which is no longer limited strictly to the Balkans. The current trend suggests that the international community is not only not protecting us from this "scourge", but is even forcing us to become increasingly integrated with Albania and Kosovo, until we are altogether assimilated!

The position of the international community

It is unlikely that anyone can make an analysis of the international community's exact position on the Balkans and Macedonia. But I have no doubts in my mind that the goal is creating an independent and "greater" Kosovo. This is suggested by the overall policy that we have been seeing for the last few years and reality itself. The only difference is that there is a much braver group led by Carl Bildt, Erhard Busek, David Owen, a number of US congressmen and senators, and the International Crisis Group, which is openly lobbying in favour of Kosovo obtaining its independence as soon as possible. And the second group, which has a more demagogical attitude for a number of reasons: the first, because they participated in the military activity; the second, because they worked too hard on creating a multiethnic Kosovo, and now they cannot erase this "track" from their minds; the third, because they get a monthly salary of 30,000 euros on account of the "problems" - Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia-Hercegovina; the fourth, because they see this kind of destabilized Balkans as an ideal opportunity to try out every possible political and military experiment, from waging the bloodiest war imaginable to peace operations worthy of the Nobel prize.

Today, the following peace treaties exist in the Balkans: the Dayton, Kumanovo, Ohrid Agreements and the Yugoslav Charter. All they are is "big ceasefire agreements" without a single lasting solution. It is only a question of time before the new Balkan conference on redrawing the Balkan borders is held. The only difference is whether we are going to do this right away and set out towards prosperity, or we are going to wait until we all sink, and do after 10 years what we can do now!

The Albanians' interest

These theories are not meant for the Macedonians alone, but also for the Albanians, and they should all think about them. Normally, every Albanian can ask himself why he should accept the draft solutions, when everything that has happened so far only furthers their cause. There is only one answer: they would be cutting short their own agony. Why should they waste 10 more gruelling years trying to accomplish their goal: "Greater Albania and their historical craving for all Albanians to live in one country", which is a basis for national prosperity and also for a stable Balkans.

Main thesis

Since the signing of the Ohrid accord and the reality in which we have been living since its implementation, Macedonia has been condemned to a guaranteed and silent annihilation in a national, demographic, economic, cultural, constituent and every other respect. Of course, provided we are not surprised in the meantime with a new bloody scenario. We are already living with our new Macedonian tragedy and agony, without a speck of hope!

Given these reasons, I offer the following draft solutions:

1. Since it is already clear that the admission of new countries to the EU is a political act, the Republic of Macedonia should apply for swift admission in the first group by the year 2005 or it should at least get an honest answer as to the final date that we can expect. An honest answer is the only decent thing that the EU can do for us at this moment, as compensation for all our suffering and sacrifices on account of the Kosovo crisis and its spread to Macedonia. If admission is to take place in a decade, as a number of reports suggest, then we must make some quick decisions without delay!

2. The urgent restoration of the theories aired by certain academicians about the exchange of territory and population or, more precisely, delimitation between the Macedonians and Albanians. Our main interests are governed by the idea of ethnically saving Kumanovo, Skopje, Kicevo and Struga, which means having the Albanian citizens emigrate from these areas by exchanging finances and real estate.

3. Building a new, independent and truly sovereign Republic of Macedonia, with broad rights for the other ethnic minorities - a state that will resemble the Republic of Slovenia as the best example and model for development. A fresh start should be made by restoring the ASNOM Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia Constitution - Macedonia as a state of the Macedonian nation and the other equal citizens.

4. Establishing a Macedonian National Council comprised of the main state officials, representatives of the larger political parties, a representative of MANU Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Macedonian Orthodox Church, who will be in charge of strategy;

5. US, EU and Russian backing for the project;

6. Organizing an international Balkan conference, which will confirm the agreement;

7. Draft solutions for settling the other Balkan problems as well. Annexing the Croat part of Bosnia to Croatia in the same way, the Serb part to Serbia, while organizing the Muslim part as a special state, and demarcating the Serb and Albanian parts of Kosovo, which is the only lasting solution to the Balkan problem;

8. If this proposal is not accepted by the Albanian national parties, then the Macedonian National Council should independently define the delimitation line following the principle of the Israeli government, erecting a concrete wall according to the Israeli blueprint.

The Ohrid accord has turned Macedonia into a patient who has already made a diagnosis for his own disease: "cancer with a galloping metastasis". It is time to take action!

Source: Dnevnik, Skopje, in Macedonian 18 Apr 03 pp 6, 7

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