STEVO & THE (D)RAMA QUEEN !

Photo credit: Vecer newspaper 

Hypocrisy without End- the West’s Disgraceful Treatment of Macedonia and Albania 

By Sasha Uzunov 

As readers know, Macedonia was plunged into a political crisis in early 2015 after then opposition leader (and since 2017, prime minister) Zoran Zaev started publishing wiretapped ‘bombs’ allegedly implicating the government of VMRO-DPMNE’s Nikola Gruevski in acts of corruption. The Western media ran with the story, demonising the government and heaping praise upon Zaev as a pro-Western reformer visionary, while youth activists from the USAID backed Colour Revolution filled the streets in 2016, leading to a new government in December of that year.

Fast-forward three years, and Macedonia under Zaev has voluntarily given away its name and identity to Greece (the Prespa Agreement) and seen the economy sputter to a halt while crime and corruption are at an all-time high.

Yet curiously enough, at the same time, neighbouring Albania has been in political crisis for months, with street protests against the long-time rule of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Socialist Party. As was the case in Macedonia, wiretaps revealing corruption – this time, leaked to the German newspaper Bild – have fuelled the anger of the Albanian opposition, which threatens to boycott the upcoming elections. Rama defiantly threatens to hold despite the decision of President Ilir Meta to postpone them. In fact, Rama’s parliament seeks to impeach the president out of spite.

Yet unlike the case in Macedonia, Western diplomats and media are not screaming for Rama’s head- quite the opposite. The visible signs of protests led by Rama’s arch-enemy, Lulzim Basha are too big to ignore, so they are reported on- as was the case with this Deutsche Welle footage from the middle of May. It revealed protesters outside Rama’s office, lobbing Molotov cocktails and demanding Rama resign immediately- a spectacle far beyond anything seen in Macedonia.

THE WESTERN MEDIA AND RAMA’S PERSONALITY CULT

Two things are odd about this. One, Albania’s street protests, unlike the US-backed Colour Revolution, seem to have a local flavour. Western interests have staunchly supported Rama and his rivals have to know that by protesting against him, they are also going against the will of Albania’s historic puppet-master, the United States. Yet they protest anyway.

Second, unlike the case with Gruevski, who was chronically depicted in the Western press as a ‘Balkan strongman’ and sort of ‘mini-Putin,’ Edi Rama is depicted by the same media as an ‘unconventional’ prime minister, and an ‘artist’ and former basketball player by the Guardian.

Possibly appealing to the newspaper’s centre-left readership, the article even lets slip that Rama considers Tony Blair to be his political role model. Of course, the article dutifully mentions that there have been allegations of corruption against Rama, and that these pesky protests are continuing, but all in all it’s hard to see how this isn’t a political whitewash, an obvious attempt to keep up the cult of personality for Rama who is possibly facing his political demise.

The Guardian goes further, though, in quoting Rama’s peculiar take on history. According to the Albanian leader, he is a staunch anti-Communist (while ironically also leading a party that has close cooperation with far left elements like George Soros), representing a country that was the most persecuted such state in the Cold War. Rama states that joining the EU means “finally having the possibility to place ourselves in a safe zone from the curse of history”.

One has to wonder- what does Rama mean by that? Perhaps, finally coming clean on the role of Albanian Nazi collaborators in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo during WWII?

The answer of course, is no.

RAMA AND AHMETI REWRITING HISTORY- WHITEWASHING THE ALBANIAN NAZI COLLABORATIONIST PAST

Indeed, at the same time that the rest of the world is commemorating D-Day’s 75th anniversary, Rama and his sidekick in Macedonia (and perennial governing coalition partner) Ali Ahmeti are erecting statues to Nazi collaborators and holding elaborate ceremonies to commemorate them.

In fact, just last November Rama also rehabilitated notorious WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator Midhat Frasheri with an elaborate state funeral in Tirana- reburying the leader of the Balli Kombetare, a Nazi quisling militia that ran roughshod over Albania and Macedonia, murdering innocent civilians and clashing with Partisans. After the war, Frasheri escaped to New York, where he lived out his days and was buried.

This leads to an intriguing question- why was it deemed necessary to reinter Frasheri in Albania? Who was behind the logistics of this process, and why did it have to happen when it did?

Balkan Insight reported about the state funeral at the time, noting that while many supported Rama’s rehabilitation of Frasheri, “others argued that the ceremony represented the rehabilitation of a Nazi collaborator.”

Nevertheless, “Aurel Plasari, an Albanian historian, gave the main speech during the ceremony and condemned what he called the “lies” spread about Frasheri in the Communist era.  Prime Minister Edi Rama said Frasheri was a great Albanian who helped create the modern Albanian alphabet and founded the country’s Institute of Albanology, the predecessor of Albanian Academy of Sciences, but “has a problem in his biography”. 

That last phrase is surely one of the oddest ways anyone has yet come up with to say ‘Nazi collaborator’. One has to wonder what exactly Rama meant- surely, he must know deep down that the burial stunt is a historical hoax of epic proportions, and deeply offensive to all victims of the Balli Kombetare and Naziism in general. link to Balkan Insight article 

THE WEST IGNORES THE ISSUE- EVEN AS IT MARKS THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY !

TEAM UZUNOV has also reported extensively on how Rama’s allies in Macedonia, Albanian nationalists Ali Ahmeti and DUI, have gone out of their way to erect statues to Frasheri’s direct Balli Kombetar commander in Macedonia during WWII, Xhem Hasa Gostivari. So, at the exact moment that the West has been busy overseeing the complete and total destruction of any trace of the Macedonian identity, history and culture, it has been silently complicit in the Albanian creation of a new historical narrative based on nationalist Nazi war quislings. -More on Ali Ahmeti's Neo-Nazi ideology at this link

Western diplomats are surely aware of the hypocrisy, and they have unsurprisingly failed to tackle the issue at all. On 19 November 2018, a few days after the reburial, we rang up the US Embassy in Tirana asking if they would be commenting on the allegations of Frasheri as a Nazi collaborator. At that time, the embassy said that an answer would be forthcoming. Eight months later, and still no response.

Reburying Albania’s top Nazi collaborator while erecting statues in Macedonia to his local commander Xhem Hasa Gostivari who was a proven Nazi collaborator- it just adds insult to injury, but the West doesn’t seem to care. Western diplomats either avoid, or carefully dance around the question, as was the case with the US Deputy Consul in Melbourne, when asked about why the US supports Nazi collaborationist historical revisionists in Macedonia, at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

The Assistant Consul General in Melbourne Megan Douglas could probably be forgiven for not being up on her Albanian history. But one woman who has no excuse for keeping quiet- and who surely knows the local reality all too well- is Victoria Nuland, one of the most important US diplomats overseeing the ‘Colourful Revolution’ in Macedonia. She has also refused to comment for our request for clarification. Readers can hear the specific questions we left in this phone call to Anna Newby spokeswoman of the Brookings Institute, where Nuland is now employed.

FURTHER HYPOCRISY- AND WHY RAMA IS INDISPENSABLE TO THE WEST

The boundless hypocrisy concerning Edi Rama and his political rivals, as depicted in the Western media and diplomatic behaviour, has also been abundantly on display in how they have treated events involving both countries’ heads of state.

On 8 June, the AP reported Albanian President Ilir Meta was postponing local elections that are scheduled for late June, in order to reduce political tensions in the country, due to the ongoing protests and political crisis.

Despite the President’s intervention, the West has not stepped in in his defence of stability, allowing Rama to intimidate and attempt to overthrow President Meta through an impeachment procedure, which the government is trying to do. In fact, Western officials threw their weight in behind Rama by issuing veiled threats to the opposition. As the AP reported about the anti-Rama protesters:

“The United States and the European Union urged them to disavow violence and sit in a dialogue with government representatives to resolve the political crisis.  In an interview with private TV station Top Channel, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mathew Palmer warned opposition political leaders “if there are acts of violence in future protests, we will consider them responsible.”

Meta is Rama’s political rival, of course, but his stated rhetoric about putting the state’s interests first was oddly reminiscent of how former Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov announced a blanket pardon for all implicated in the wiretap scandal in Macedonia, in April 2016, as a way of calming tensions.

Of course in the latter case too, the West wanted nothing to do with that idea as it needed Zoran Zaev as the preferred puppet for future use in changing Macedonia’s name. But it did use Ivanov’s decision as a convenient pretext to launch its ‘Colourful Revolution’ of USAID funded demonstrators- which had already been planned and funded months in advance. 

As TEAM UZUNOV has exclusively reported, Edi Rama’s tentacles extended deeply into that operation as well- his ex-wife, Delina Fico, being on the board of directors of a shady New York-based State Department-funded group, the East-West Management Institute. The EWMI was part of the larger US-led coup plot to not only overthrow the Gruevski government but also flesh out the incoming Zaev government with ‘new faces’ (some of whom, like former Colour Revolutionary Pavle Bogoevski have since been disgraced and have been forced to resign from parliament -which is still pending !). - Go to Unmasking OTI story 

As we recounted in the above article, Rama “unleashed several months of political crisis in Macedonia in early 2017 by inviting ethnic Albanian politicians from Macedonia to his office, where they created the so-called ‘Tirana Platform’ of aggressive ultra-nationalist demands that were not part of the December 2016 election, that was frantically organised by Western powers to drive the name-change process faster.”

A detail that has been overlooked from that period, which may help explain why the West has been steadfast in its support for Mr. Rama while the proverbial castle walls seem to be falling down around him, is his probable role as a CIA asset in the crucial weeks after the December 2016 Macedonian elections. It is interesting to remember that was also the period of transition in the States between the Obama and Trump administrations. Surely, at such a sensitive time, senior intel officials would have more important things to do than fly out to the Balkans?

Apparently, not. On 7 December, just days before Macedonia’s crucial vote, Obama’s powerful CIA director, John Brennan, visited Albania on what the Tirana Times dubbed an “unannounced visit.” America’s top spook travelled all the way to Tirana to discuss “regional security, counter-terrorism cooperation, intelligence sharing, and other bilateral affairs,” according to a statement released by the United States embassy.” Did interfering in Macedonia’s election and ethnic affairs count as one of those “other bilateral affairs?” - Tirana Times story 

FAST EDI RAMA PUTS SLOW STEVO PENDAROVSKI IN HIS PLACE

Still, despite his CIA ties and role in the Macedonian ethnic meddling and subsequent government formation, Edi Rama is damaged goods and has, one would think, lasted long beyond his expiry date. After all, the situation in Albania is worsening by the day and if the upcoming elections take a turn for the worse, the country might be back to the situation it was in in 1997, when state arsenals were raided and anarchy prevailed briefly.

The answer for why Rama is still indispensable for the West is probably because his mission is not yet finished: that is, the mission to bring Macedonia down to the Albanian level, which is the lowest in every respect in the region. While one might criticise the former VMRO-DPMNE government for any number of reasons, the fact is that while it was in power, Macedonia was the fastest-growing economy in the region and starting to build an industrial base, increasing its distance from other would-be EU members.

This situation was highly alarming for Greece, but not only for them, because it meant that Macedonia could look forward to a brighter future and let other countries to make do as best they could. It appears, looking in the rear-view mirror, that a large part of the Zaev-Tsipras-Rama romance was not just about changing Macedonia’s name and giving ethnic Albanians more rights- it was actually about reducing the Macedonian standard of living, economy, reform progress, and bringing it in every way in line with Albania- even if that process means glorifying Albanian Nazi war collaborators while deleting Macedonian history to please the Greeks and Bulgarians.

The Macedonian media recently reported on this by citing an interview with VMRO-DPMNE Vice-President Aleksandar Nikoloski. According to Nezavisen, Nikoloski recounted it thus

“Last year, at the beginning of April, I informed the Macedonian public that there is an agreement between the governments of Zaev and Edi Rama - operationalised through Bujar Osmani and then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Ditmir Bushati, which aimed to create a group Macedonia - Albania. Part of the deal was to slow down (Macedonian) reforms with the goal of not getting a date for (EU) negotiations in 2018… despite the fact that Zaev and Dimitrov decided to sign the embarrassing Prespa deal, (Macedonia) did not get a date and did not start negotiations in 2018! Now Macedonia is not getting a date this June and will not start negotiations in 2019“.

Whether or not this was the plan from the beginning, as Nikoloski alleges, it was picked up on recently when the recently elected Macedonian president, SDSM’s Stevo Pendarovski, briefly made waves by suggesting that Macedonia should not be coupled up with Albania in the long and probably fruitless quest to join the European Union. 

Pendarovski, a longtime US asset who knows on which side his bread is buttered, quickly changed his mind when Albanian politicians reminded him that he had only been elected because of them. Although hitching Macedonian wagons to the dead horse that is Albania had not previously been a precondition, Pendarovski quickly walked his idea back, and now the secret plan Nikoloski alluded to is the reality.

To add insult to injury, the head capo of this farcical film, Edi Rama, announced that the Macedonian stooge statesman is again in his good graces during an appearance in the beleaguered ethnic Macedonian enclave of Pustec, in Mala Prespa. Ironically enough, it was on a campaign stop for the controversial upcoming elections. Rama “praised” Pendarovski, and “contrasted him to his political opponent, the Albanian President Ilir Meta.”

According to the pro-VMRO-DPMNE newspaper (more like a mouthpiece) Republika, now that Pendarovski has gone back to the single-track model for EU accession, Rama is even referring to him as “my good friend.” This smacks of the kind of lines uttered in mob films and Macedonia is now clearly under the complete control of Albania- which is apparently how the West likes it.

As the protests continue in Tirana however and as the Zaev government continues to disappoint Macedonians, one has to wonder what will happen if the ‘experiment’ goes wrong. If Rama is toppled before delivering the goods, or if something goes wrong with the Prespa Agreement after Greece holds elections in July- which will likely see the political demise of Zaev’s own “good friend,” the leftist PM Alexis Tsipras- the whole carefully constructed house of cards could still come crashing down.

IN SUMMARY:

The EU / US combination has blatant double standards - it's dismantled Macedonian identity, imposed name change, in order to lower enough Greek and Bulgarian opposition to Macedonia inorder to sneak Macedonia into NATO for US strategic needs. Both Greece and Bulgaria are EU and NATO members and have used their power to veto Macedonia's membership of both as powerful leverage. More on the Prespa Agreement and the Goodneighbourly Agreement with Bulgaria at this link and link.

But the EU/US combo has at the same time endorsed Edi Rama the Prime Minister in Albania & Ali Ahmeti ex Albanian terrorist turned political kingmaker in Macedonia who venerate notorious WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborators Midhat Frasheri and Xhem Hasa Gostivari and the fascist ideology that these two historical figures espoused. 

Moreover, Rama and Ahmeti are corrupt and no better than any other Balkan leader for that matter. But they serve a purpose- and morality, democracy have nothing to do with it ! It's pure strategic self interest for the US. Nothing more. 

FEDERALISING ALBANIA - an idea whose time has come? 

In 2017 I broached the idea of Federalising Albania: granting the large Greek minority in the south it's own "republic" & giving ethnic Macedonians, Montenegrins, Aromanians (Vlachs) etc equal rights. Maybe that could help Albania get into EU quicker & tackle its endemic corruption problem? Food for thought!

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GOLDEN DUI & the Axis of Silence

by Sasha Uzunov

There isn’t that much difference between Nikos Michaloliakos of Greek Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and Ali Ahmeti of Albanian nationalist party in Macedonia, DUI (or BDI). Ahmeti has gone “one better” than Golden Dawn, he’s actually managed to impose World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia -post-2001 – without the European Union or the United States batting an eyelid.

Nazi statues are banned in Germany – an EU and NATO member. Yet Ahmeti has managed to get EU tacit approval to build Albanian Nazi statues in Macedonia. That’s an incredible and frightening phenomenon which he has managed to pull off. Something Golden Dawn hasn’t managed to do in Greece – build Greek Nazi collaborator statues.

Greek Neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn is largely condemned by the mainstream Western media for being extremist. Not so with the Albanian DUI, which has been given a “makeover” by the US and EU.

DUI’s genesis goes back to the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army’s “Macedonian franchise” led by Ali Ahmeti who started a war in Macedonia in 2001, ostensibly to grab territory and create a Greater Albania. When the US’s link to it was revealed, the narrative changed from Ahmeti being a terrorist thug to human rights activist, even though he was espousing Neo-Nazi ideology, including ethnic cleansing of Macedonia, or “Slavs” as he referred to them. The same terminology used by Greek Golden Dawn for Macedonians.  – – more on Ali Ahmeti and Albanian Nazi collaborator statues at this link:  

To cover up US complicity in letting loose Ahmeti in Macedonia, the Ohrid Framework Agreement was signed in 2001 which created a defacto Albanian state within Macedonia and concreted a loyal US ally within Macedonia. This meant the Macedonian state would never be able to act independently unless it got approval from the Albanian political bloc – which in reality meant Washington. 

The end result of this is the controversial Prespa Agreement signed with Greece in 2018 and the constitutional changes that went with it, which in effect wipes out a Macedonian identity and renames Macedonia as North Macedonia to satisfy Greek demands in return for Macedonia being able to overcome a Greek blockade over NATO and EU membership. – more at these links here and here and here

A recent Time magazine article acknowledges the crucial importance of ethnic Albanian backing for the EU (and by extension the US) in Macedonia:

“In Macedonia the name-change is supported by a coalition of a minority of the dominant Slav-Macedonian ethnic group and Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian minority, while it is opposed by the majority of Slav-Macedonians. In other words, the deal pits a coalition of minorities against a majority of the majority. Such an arrangement is bound to reignite ethnic tensions and increase political polarization in Macedonia—the exact opposite of the E.U.’s intention.” – link here

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PARALLELS TO GOLDEN DAWN

"Golden Dawn was founded by some of the key people who ruled during the 1967-74 junta, and Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, the leader of the colonels who led the 1967 coup, groomed the party’s founder and current leader, Nikos Michaloliakos. Papadopoulos was a Nazi collaborator and served with the German “security battalions” that executed 130,000 Greek civilians during World War II. Papadopoulos was trained by the US Army and recruited by the CIA. Indeed, he was the first CIA asset to govern a European country." - link here

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The amended Macedonian Constitution now enshrines the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the US’s get of jail card for letting loose the KLA in Macedonia in the 2001 war.

Not surprisingly post 2001 war, former KLA commanders in Macedonia such as Nevzat Bejta, now a loyal Ahmeti lieutenant, felt confident enough, no doubt with tacit US and EU approval or at least a willingness for Washington and Brussels to remain silent, to embark on a program to build – first in 2006 and later in 2013 – statues to notorious World War II Albanian Nazi collaborators such as Xhem Hasa Gostivari, who murdered Macedonians and Albanians opposed to fascism. Such statues don’t represent “peaceful ethnic co-existence.” 

They are a deliberate message, reminder, to Macedonians of what the majority of the Albanian political bloc in Macedonia really believes in, despite the Western spin and gloss, polish placed on Ahmeti and others such as another DUI party member Bujar Osmani, deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia in the Zaev coalition government.

The interesting thing is Nazi statues are banned in Germany. But here in Macedonia, which has a proud history of an anti-Nazi resistance movement, the Partizans, there were now Albanian Nazi collaborator statues.

For more than a decade there has been an incredible silence which even now still continues in and outside of Macedonia. Not one US or EU official is willing to comment or condemn or even explain the unwillingness to comment about World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia.

The reason is obvious – if the US and EU need the support of extremists, Albanian Neo-Nazis such Ali Ahmeti, to achieve their objectives in Macedonia what does that tell you about the values espoused by the US and EU? So silence has become a deliberate strategy.

It has now got to a point where flaunting Albanian Neo-Nazi ideology – such as a Greater Albania, veneration of Nazi collaborators – has become commonplace, brazen. A number of Albanian football (soccer) fans in Macedonia calls themselves the Ballists – after the WWII Albanian Nazi quisling militia, the Balli Kombetar. Some even advertise Xhem Hasa Gostivari as a “hero.”

There are no German football fans calling themselves the “Gestapo” or the “SS.”

In essence, those who venerate Nazi collaborators don’t really believe in democracy or human rights or even co-existence, otherwise, why would you regard them as “heroes” to begin with?

The Ballist football supporters even received a Macedonian government grant from the Culture Minister, an Albanian belonging to the Besa party, which was seen as offensive by Macedonians.

Christopher Simpson, in his book Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and its Effects on the Cold War, noted that relatively few [Albanian] Jews were captured and killed but “not for lack of trying by the Balli Kombetar organization and the Albanian SS” which had orchestrated “a series of anti-Semitic purges that rounded up about 800 people, the majority of whom were deported and murdered.”

source: Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy - Christopher Simpson Open Road Media, 2014

Zhivan Rendev, one of the administrators of a popular Macedonian Social Media page quipped:

“..the silence you have encountered to your questions about the rehabilitation of Nazism by Albanians in Macedonia is very disturbing but in my opinion not unexpected in fact it’s straight out of the western world’s heart and soul. They have done the same thing in the Baltic states and in the Ukraine.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg endorsing Ali Ahmeti, as have EU and US officials.

Macedonia doesn’t have a long term future within or without the EU if a segment of the population and its “mainstream” political leaders hold Neo-Nazi views such as the Albanian political bloc. That doesn’t make for peaceful vo-existence.

Albanian Nazi collaborator Xhem Hasa Gostivari took part in ethnic cleansing of Macedonians during World War II. He also murdered Albanians who didn’t support fascism. Building a statue to him post-2001 signifies that Albanian leaders hold these alarming views now in the 21st century. The EU and US deliberately say nothing.

Comment by Canadian-Macedonian pundit Mark Branov (right) about the disturbing parallels between Golden Dawn and DUI: 

"Ahmeti and Co. are a creation of the Euroatlantic power structure. Originally deployed in Kosovo, the UCK [KLA] became the ONA [NLA] in 2001, which in turn became DUI in 2002, but the terrorists remained a tool of Macedonia's oppression by foreign interests. Meanwhile, the Chrysi Avgi [Golden Dawn] appear to simply be those Greeks who openly admit to the racism and xenophobia which is commonplace in modern Greek culture, and they are endorsed by agents of the Greek state, such as the police and the Greek Orthodox church."

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ETHNIC CLEANSING

Just to reiterate, as we have pointed out above, there isn't that much difference between Greek Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and Albanian nationalist party in Macedonia (DUI/BDI): both believe in ethnic cleansing, part of the Neo-Nazi mantra. DUI has gone one step further, it has supported the building of statues to WWII Albanian Nazi collaborators such as Xhem Hasa Gostivari. Gostvari was financed by The Third Reich and took part in ethnic cleansing operations during WWII.

Golden Dawn:

"called to push for the complete Hellenisation of Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace through the expulsion of Northern Greece's last remaining Macedonian-speaking minority (or so-called Slavophone Greeks)"

Ali Ahmeti, leader of DUI:

His racist motivation in starting the 2001 war in Macedonia:

"Our sole aim is to remove Slav [Macedonian] forces from territory which is historically Albanian."

One of Ahmeti's commanders: "Like all wars, ours was for territory - not because of some human rights problem!

-The Coming Balkan Caliphate, by Chris Deliso - link - extract below:

US AMBASSADOR REEKER remained silent about WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built in Macedonia by Albanian leaders but later cynically became Special Envoy for Holocaust issues!

Imagine if a US Ambassador in Athens met with Greek Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn leader and had a media photo session with handshakes and smiles. What would the reaction be? Probably condemnation.

Yet in Macedonia back in 2010 US Ambassador Philip T. Reeker is all smiles with Albanian nationalist leader Ali Ahmeti who has supported the building of WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborator statues!

There is not a single condemnation by Reeker in any of the Wikileaks US diplomatic cables which also reveal Macedonia’s now Foreign Minister Slick Nick Dimitrov as a protected confidential source for then-Ambassador Reeker. see link here
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You can see below the list of people – US, EU officials, Macedonian and Albanian “experts” – all refusing in some manner or another to comment on Albanian Neo-Nazism in Macedonia.

GREECE STEPS UP US SPIN CAMPAIGN

GREECE THROWS IN “BORROWED GERMAN CASH” AT US SPIN CAMPAIGN!
by Sasha Uzunov

Greece’s Ambassador to the US, Mr Theocharis Lalacos, formerly Greek Ambassador to Macedonia, signed in September a million dollar deal with a leading US lobby firm to push Greece’s national agenda in Washington, according to US Justice Department documents.

Cash-strapped” Greece turning up the Diplomatic Hellenic Heat !

September 2018 - Greek Embassy in Washington DC hires US lobby firm DLA Piper at $75,000 USD per month retainer to lobby US government over Greece’s national interests. That’s $900,000 USD -close to a million dollars in official influence peddling.

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/3712-Exhibit-AB-20180928-34.pdf

MACEDONIAN REACTION:

Mr Mark Branov, a long time Canadian Macedonian advocate and an international education consultant by profession, gave this statement to TEAM UZUNOV Blog:

“It seems like Athens will spare no amount of borrowed German Euros in pursuit of age old strategic goals, including the cultural genocide of Aegean Macedonians [ethnic Macedonians in Greece].

“And considering U.S. dominance in the [Balkan] region, many of the major decisions actually take place in Washington, a town where money talks.”

The US Justice Department’s FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) website lists no active US lobbyists engaged by the Republic of Macedonia.

Greece and Bulgaria deny the existence of a Macedonian identity and has blocked the Republic of Macedonia from joining the European Union and NATO. A pro US government was installed in Macedonia in early 2017 led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev who has signed a  number of controversial agreements with neighbouring Bulgaria and Greece which aims to erase Macedonian identity in order to satisfy Bulgarian and Greek demands; both staunch allies of the US.

In 1912 after nearly five centuries of Ottoman Turkish occupation, Macedonia was partitioned among Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. All three pursued a brutal colonial campaign of assimilating Macedonians by force. The part of Macedonia under Serbian colonial rule became after World War II  a republic within Tito’s Federal Communist Yugoslavia. In 1991 it declared independence from Yugoslavia and Greece from day one has blocked its entry into the EU and NATO.

Macedonia signed the controversial Prespa Agreement earlier this year with Greece which will see Macedonia change its name to North Macedonia and remove “Macedonian” as a specific nationality or ethnicity. This has angered many Macedonians who boycotted in large numbers a referendum held on 30 September this year to accept the Agreement.

On 19 October under murky circumstances the government managed to secure two-thirds majority in a parliamentary vote to “open up” the Macedonian constitution to make the necessary changes to satisfy Greek demands made in the Prespa Agreement.

Controversial US Ambassador to Macedonia Jess Baily. His path has crossed Ambassador Lalacos’ a few times in Turkey and in Macedonia. See link here and here 

WIRETAPS -GERMAN EMBASSY CONTRADICTS ITSELF

TEAM UZUNOV BLOG IS AUTHORISED TO ANNOUNCE...
by Sasha Uzunov

The man at the centre of Macedonia’s wiretap controversy which brought down the Nikola Gruevski government in 2016 may have been acting on behalf of German intelligence (BND) rather than as an “anti-corruption” campaigner.

Western intelligence sources, including an ex Macedonian intelligence officer, have told TEAM UZUNOV blog that George “Lazenby” Lazarevski, the man hailed as a hero whistleblower intelligence officer had given unauthorised access to the surveillance system - including the bugged telephone conversations of Macedonia politicians namely the then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski -to a diplomat at the German Embassy in Macedonia.

Our story on Lazarevski here at this link

According to our sources, the German diplomat is Ralf Brandlts, believed to be the BND resident under diplomatic cover.

Lazarevski is also alleged to have given access to US and other foreign intelligence services.

TEAM UZUNOV blog on 30 October 2018 went to the German Embassy to check out the claims - we were told to turn off the camera. Later an email response (see below).

The official response is puzzling and contradictory, suggesting the German Embassy had been caught out. First, there is no denial of the allegation against Mr Brandts. Second, the German Embassy says it does not comment on “home affairs” in Macedonia. That’s an outright lie. The then Deputy German Ambassador Mr Marco Aquatacci gave a statement to TEAM UZUNOV about World War II Albanian collaborator statues built in Macedonia post-2001 war by Albanian politicians. You can see the link here

TEAM UZUNOV blog also contacted Mr Lazarevski but has not yet received a response. 

ZORAN VERUSEVSKI

The controversial svengali like Zoran Verusevski is a man who knows many secrets - in fact, he was a Russian intelligence (GRU - Russian Military Intelligence) asset who had been turned - recruited - by the CIA. He remains a prized catch. This is what our sources tell us.

Verusevski was the Director of Macedonian Intelligence (UBK) for a short period in 1998 and in 2006 named as an advisor to the Macedonian Embassy in Rome, Italy.

He has been close to the SDSM party, of which current Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev belongs.

In 2015 Verusevski was arrested by the Gruevski VMRO-DPMNE government.

Verusevski is central to the whole wiretapping scandal in Macedonia which erupted in 2015-16 and led to the Colour Revolution toppling Nikola Gruevski as Prime Minister.

According to OCCRP website, Lazarevski approached Verusevski with his “concerns” over wiretapping. see link here

What has remained puzzling about the “wiretaps” is nothing has ever been released involving Albanian leader Ali Ahmeti, who had been in the coalition government with Nikola Gruevski for a decade (2006-2016). Absolutely no mention of corrupt behaviour on Ahmeti’s part. Yet this is incredulous. How is it possible for massive corruption to exist under Gruevski’s rule without Ahmeti’s involvement? Simply not possible.

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE? - Spiritual Security?

Our sources have told us that Russian Military intelligence (GRU) operates on Macedonian soil with a team of no more than 20 personnel - small in comparison to the US and Western agencies - and about 70% of paid Russian informers are ethnic Albanians, including the female relative of a prominent Albanian politician.

The wiretaps - under US orders - only target Macedonians and don’t include Albanian political bloc for 2 reasons - most obvious is to hide corruption link to Gruevski but more importantly the embarrassing admission that 70% of Russian intelligence informants are ethnic Albanians, the US’s “solid ally” in Macedonia.

Russian intelligence focuses on “spiritual security” in Macedonia - the top 5 priorities of GRU:
1. The status of the Macedonian Orthodox Church
2. Combatting radical Islam/Jihadists and monitoring extremists linked to Chechnya
3. Albanian politicians' behaviour towards Macedonians
4. Countering British influence in Europe- seen as Russia’s “arch and main enemy”
5. Monitoring US intelligence operations in Macedonia.

Russian intelligence operations in Macedonia are more to do with guarding Russia against Islamist terrorism (ISIS) linked to Chechnya than “interfering” in Macedonia, as hysterically has been claimed. [The Caucasus region -Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc. remains Russia's soft underbelly].

A high percentage of ethnic Albanians from Macedonia and Kosovo are members of ISIS fighting in Iraq and Syria. This explains the large number of Albanian informants in Macedonia used by GRU - Russian military intelligence.

Some of the favourite rendezvous points for GRU handlers and their Albanian informers include places or locations that are mainly frequented by ethnic Macedonians so as not to arouse suspicion within the Albanian community.

Our sources have given a list but we will publish one as an example:

1. The Lesok Macedonian Orthodox Monastery near Tetovo. Ironically it was bombed by the Albanian KLA’s terrorist franchise in Macedonia the NLA during the 2001 war. Rebuilt with EU funding.

-----------------------------
The full email exchange with the German Embassy over wiretap claims.

From: .SKOP V Schaller, Peter
Sent: Wednesday, 31 October 2018 7:13 PM
To: sashauzunov@hotmail.com
Subject: media questions

Dear Mr Uzunov,

thanks for your email.

We do not comment on internal issues of the Embassy and also not on home affairs of Macedonia.

Regards
Peter Schaller

Peter Schaller
Deputy Head
Embassy of The Federal Republic of Germany
Lerinskaa 59, 1000 Skopje
Tel.: +389 (0) 2 3093 900
Fax: +389 (0) 2 3093 899
Email: v@skop.diplo.de
Internet: www.skopje.diplo.de
-----------------------------

Mr Ralf Brandts
Germany Embassy
Skopje, Macedonia


Dear Mr Brandts

My name is Sasha Uzunov, an Australian journalist based in Macedonia.

I need to ask you some serious questions:

1.            Did you have unauthorised access to Macedonian Intelligence intercepts (surveillance records, wiretaps)?
2.            . Did Macedonian Intelligence officer George Lazarevski give you access to the surveillance system with a login pass?
3.            Are you a German Intelligence officer (BND) under diplomatic cover ?
4.            Germany has done nothing to persuade Albanian leaders in Macedonia to remove a controversial WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborator statue of Xhem Hasa. Why is that?

I am available to come to the German Embassy for an interview.

Regards

Sasha Uzunov
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DUTCH SILENCE OVER BESA LINKS?

Dutch Ambassador to Macedonia silent over “links” to Albanian party Besa.

by Sasha Uzunov

The Netherlands Ambassador to Macedonia Mr Wouter Plomp has declined to comment over claims that his country has financed or assisted Albanian political party Besa.

Besa leader Bilall Kasami was contacted for a comment and he too has not responded.

Besa is an ethnic Albanian political party, recently formed in Macedonia and a member of the current coalition govetrment led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. The controversial Culture Minister is Asaf Ademi from Besa.

Besa has been portrayed as an Erdogan inspired Islamist party but Dutch diplomatic sources have told TEAM UZUNOV that this is simply a political smokescreen to hide Dutch and US influence. 

Besa is demanding that Albanian be made the second official language in Macedonia on par with Macedonian and embedded in the constitution despite language rights already guaranteed by 2001 Ohrid Framework Agreement. 

Besa supports name change for Macedonia and the Prespa Agreement and has threatened to remove its support in parliamentary votes now being undertaken to implement constitutional changes in line with the Prespa Agreement. Many Macedonians see the Agreement as a western sponsored plan to erase Macedonian identity to satisfy Greek and Bulgarian nationalist demands in order for Macedonia to gain entry into the EU and NATO

Both Greece and Bulgaria are EU and NATO members and have in effect blackmailed Macedonia unless it makes dramatic changes to its identity, something extraordinary in terms of demands.

Macedonia’s Culture Minister Ademi, from Besa, sought to ban a Macedonian film by director Jani Bojadzi called The Mocking of Christ which has a scene depicting Albanian terrorists based on a real life event from the 2001 ethnic Albanian war in Macedonia. The ban was overturned in court but most cinemas, which are under state control or influence, have declined to show. So an unofficial ban and censorship is in place. 

A Dutch diplomat, who has asked not to be named and who has worked in most parts of the Balkans has told TEAM UZUNOV blog that the Netherland’s Embassy in Macedonia acts as a kind of grooming or “Swiss finishing school” for budding ethnic Albanian politicians.

“It’s not about handing over bags of cash. It’s not that crude. It’s more like investing time and money in taking some Albanian political proteges, teaching them how to speak in front of the media, social networking, even the way they dress. They are then placed in positions of power and push an agenda that’s favourable to the Netherlands in Macedonia.”

PROMINENT DUTCH PROTEGES - Artan Grubi, Kastriot Rexhepi 

ARTAN GRUBI - began working for the Netherlands Embassy and branched out as a “civic activist” which in reality meant Albanian nationalist activist. He made a name for himself in violent clashes over the building of a possible Macedonian Orthodox Church in Skopje. 

He holds extremist views, labelling Macedonians as “Slavs” and advocating ethnic cleansing of Macedonians. Not surprisingly he was recruited by the main ethnic Albanian political party DUI led by ex terrorist turned politician Ali AHmeti who started the 2001 war in Macedonia ostensibly for a land grab rather than for human rights. 

An article from Balkan Insight website, largely pro Albanian portal purporting to be impartial, had this to report about Grubi back in 2013 -see link here

Skopje criminal court on Tuesday handed down seven-month suspended sentences to participants in the clashes between ethnic Albanians, who were angry about the controversial building of a museum in the style of a church at the fortress, and Macedonians who said they came to defend the construction site.

They were convicted of taking part in a mass brawl and obstructing officials, but will only face jail if they reoffend within two years.

Eight people were injured in the violence in February 2011.

It erupted amid fears raised by some Albanian Muslims that the church-like museum, which stands on the site of a demolished medieval church, would at some stage become an active Christian place of worship in an area of the city that they see as their own.

The violence was organised on over social networks by the ethnic Macedonian group, which was mainly composed of football fans, and the ethnic Albanians who were mobilised by an NGO called Razbudi se (Wake Up).

The leader of Razbudi se was Artan Grubi, who has since entered politics. He has been nominated by the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, the ethnic Albanian party that’s the junior partner in Macedonia’s ruling coalition, as its candidate for mayor of Skopje in the upcoming local elections scheduled for March 24.

The fortress clashes also provoked debates about the actions of deputy interior minister Xhevat Buci, an ethnic Albanian who was observed at the scene of the violence taking handcuffs off some of those arrested by the police.

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GRUBI’s VIEWS ABOUT MACEDONIANS - he subscribes to the Greek/Serb/Bulgar colonial theory that Macedonians are Slavs who arrived in Macedonia in the 7th century, a claim disputed by mainstream academic Dr Florin Curta who says there was no Slavic migration. see link here

Grubi also advocates the ultra nationalist view that Albanians are “indigenous” and Macedonians should be deported back - ethnic cleansed - over the Carpathian Mountains - now in the Ukraine as alleged Slavs. 

That the Western backers of Grubi have deliberately turned a blind eye to his extremism and penchant for violence is alarming and indicates a hidden agenda.

ALARMING STATUES

Within DUI’s ranks is ex Gostivar Mayor and former Macedonia Minister Nevzat Bejta who has built World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia. This is a touchy subject for Western backers, including the Dutch, of Albanian leaders. So much so that current Dutch Ambassador Wouter Plomp has nervously refused to comment on it.

Dutch Ambassador Plomp’s refusal to comment on WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues. No doubt inspired by having Artan Grubi once working for the Netherlands Embassy and would raise questions about pandering if not promoting Albanian extremism in Macedonia by the Netherlands.

KASTRIOT REXHEPI - Besa Vice President.

Another protege of the Dutch Embassy is Kastriot Rexhepi who has advertised it loudly and predominately on social media. As mentioned above Besa has made a number of nationalist demands including language “rights” and seeking a ban on a Macedonian film which portrays a real life event - Albanian terrorists from the 2001 war in Macedonia.

QUESTIONS POSED TO THE NETHERLAND’S AMBASSADOR TO MACEDONIA 

1. Ambassador Plomp, does The Netherlands government or any Netherlands institutions or organisations either private or public finance the ethnic Albanian political party in Macedonia called BESA? 

2. Ambassador Plomp, The Netherlands was a victim of Nazi occupation during WWII but has remained silent over the building of Albanian Nazi statues in Macedonia. Sir, will you be issuing an official statement condemning WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built in Macedonia by Albanian politicians?

QUESTIONS POSED TO BILALL KASAMI LEADER OF BESA:

1. Dali Besa dobiva pomos od Ambasadata na Holandija vo Makedonija?

2. Dali Besa dobiva finansiski donacii (paricni) od Holandija - od drzavni institucii ili privatni NGO (ne vladini organizacii)?

3. Dali Besa kje pobara da se trgne spomenikot vo Simnica za Xhem Hasa, Albanski nacist i sorabotnik na Hitlerova Germanija vo vremeto na Vtorata Svetska Vojna?

4. Albanski politicari koj barat imeto na Makedonija da se smeni, mnogu makedonci go tolkuvat kako Albanski rasizam kon makedonci. Sto e tvojata reakcija?

5. Hipoteticki, dali bi reagiral ako etnicki Grk politicar vo Albania pobaral imeto na Albanija da se smeni?

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

1. Does Besa receive assistance from the Netherlands Embassy in Macedonia?
2. Does Besa receive any financial donations from the Netherlands - either from state institutions or private NGOs (Non Government Organisations)?
3. Will Besa seek to remove the statue in Simnica of Xhem Hasa, the Albanian Nazi and collaborator with Hitler’s Germany during World War II?
4. Albanian politicians who seek to change Macedonia’s name are regarded by many Macedonians as being Albanian racism towards Macedonians. What is you reaction to that?
5. Hypothetically if an ethnic Greek politician in Albania campaigned to change Albania’s name would you react?


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