Macedonia’s Ethnic Albanians: Bridging the Gulf
Macedonia’s Ethnic Albanians: Bridging the Gulf
Table of Contents
  1. Executive Summary
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Report / Europe & Central Asia 2 minutes

Macedonia’s Ethnic Albanians: Bridging the Gulf

Ten years after independence, Macedonia’s two largest ethnic groups continue to lead very separate and distinct lives.  The uneasy co-existence between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians has only just withstood the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and the continuing instability in Kosovo.

Executive Summary

Ten years after independence, Macedonia’s two largest ethnic groups continue to lead very separate and distinct lives. The uneasy co-existence between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians has only just withstood the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and the continuing instability in Kosovo. Valid concerns about Macedonia’s security are too often being used to justify postponing  hard decisions about internal problems. Political leaders on both sides of the ethnic divide, while negotiating privately for piecemeal improvements, publicly cater to the more extreme nationalists in their respective parties, and positions are hardening. There is a continued reluctance to squarely confront the compromises that would legally safeguard Macedonia’s multi-ethnic composition: if that reluctance is not soon overcome, Macedonia and the region face renewed instability.

Compared with the rest of the region (Montenegro apart) Macedonia[fn]The use of the term Macedonia in this report is purely a convenient terminology.  It recognises that historically "Macedonia” is a geographical expression - not the name of a state. It does not pre-judge any opinion on the use of "FYROM" or "Republic of Macedonia" as the correct name of the state. Hide Footnote  has been something of a multi-ethnic success story. The country has thus far managed to maintain a relatively high degree of stability.  Gloomy scenarios about the country's disintegration and a possible division amongst its neighbours have not materialised.  But its citizens’ increasingly contradictory views of inter-ethnic relations are worrying.  Ask ethnic Albanians about the state of current relations and they are likely to reply that relations have never been better.  Ask ethnic Macedonians and they are likely to respond that relations have never been worse. This gulf between these two peoples is what shapes the country’s uneasy coexistence. Albanians are by far the largest national minority in Macedonia, and their status within the state and their attitude towards it have a direct bearing upon Macedonia's long-term stability and viability.

Relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians have long been problematic. During the 1980s, Macedonia’s then-communist authorities supported Serbia’s crackdown on ethnic Albanians. Macedonian independence in 1991 brought many positive gains to the ethnic Albanians and other minorities but the overall record of inter-ethnic relations is still mixed.; Ethnic Albanians and other minorities complain that they are discriminated against daily. Ethnic Macedonians express understandable fears about their country being divided and reduced in the context of the emergence of a Greater Albania or Greater Kosovo.

Macedonia itself can do little to influence the outcome of events in Kosovo and must rely upon international guarantees for security. The Kosovo crisis exposed many of the fundamental divisions between the country’s ethnic Albanians and ethnic Macedonians. Again, the two cultures could not have been further apart in their views of the conflict. Almost all ethnic Albanians in Macedonia believe that the conflict in Kosovo was necessary and worthwhile as it brought about the "liberation" of Kosovo from Belgrade's control. Ethnic Macedonians, however, worry that growing demands for the independence of Kosovo will encourage similar territorial aspirations among Albanians in Macedonia. They view ethnic Albanians as a minority entitled to certain guaranteed rights like any other minority in the country but not at the expense of diminishing their country’s Slavic character.

What exactly ethnic Albanians in Macedonia want is one of the most sensitive questions in the southern Balkans.There is a window of opportunity that remains open for the European Union to help shape the ethnic Albanian agenda and the ethnic Macedonian response by encouraging both communities to work through their differences within a context of integration with European security, political and economic institutions. Now is the time for reaching a final status agreement: the window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.

Skopje/Washington/Brussels, 2 August 2000

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