CULTURAL CRISIS IN MACEDONIA?

- CULTURAL CRISIS IN MACEDONIA - expert says

 interview with Dr Ico Najdovski-Perin about the crisis in Macedonia.

Dr Najdovski-Perin hosts the influential Macedonian language program on 3ZZZ ethnic radio in Melbourne. He is known for his no-holds barred views and is the Australian-Macedonian version of Melbourne radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell.

He has Bachelor and Masters degrees from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia and a PhD in history from the St Cyril and Methodius University (UKiM) in Skopje, the Republic of Macedonia and authored a number of books on the Australian-Macedonian community. He was born and raised in Macedonia before emigrating to Australia in the mid 1980s. He has spent half his life in both countries and regularly travels to the Balkans region to keep up to date with political developments.


Question 1: Your thoughts on the political situation in the Balkans, especially the political crisis in Macedonia and human rights issues as a whole? And your thoughts on the role of the European Union. Overall, has the EU's behaviour towards Macedonia been hypocritical?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: The Republic of Macedonia is in a very deep political crisis and how that crisis will play out, only God knows! We know today Macedonia hasn’t got a government; there is a caretaker government established under instructions from the United States and European Union. Besides the political crises we know Macedonia has deep ethnic problems with the Albanian minority, and an element within its leadership which wants to federalise Macedonia and in the near future and probably proclaim an independent Albanian state called "Ilirida".

I think the problem in Macedonia lies with the Macedonian people; they still cannot accept the fact that Yugoslavia does not exist anymore. The majority of the population is pro-Yugoslav nostalgic or pro-Serbian, including the Macedonian media and, some of them are pro-Bulgarian.

For example, for the 2016 New Year's Eve celebrations most of the Macedonian television stations broadcast hours and hours and hours of Serbian music and entertainment. It has got to a point where the local Macedonian entertainment and music industries are being deliberately killed off by a handful of powerful people, who have a financial interest in Serbian turbo-folk, and local Macedonian musicians are out of work and can't feed their families. Some are then forced to perform in Serbian in order to put food on the table and feed their families. Shameful. Very shameful.

On the other hand there are a number of ethnic Macedonians have made the cynical choice to obtain Bulgarian passports, because Bulgaria is a member of the European Union. This is a deliberately and clever ploy by Sofia to gradually "Bulgarianise" Macedonians.

Regarding human rights in The Republic of Macedonia I think there is a double standard. Activists in the republic have never ever raised questions about the human rights of the Macedonians in the neighbouring countries-Greece, Bulgaria, Albania or the ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia who were displaced during the ethnic Albanian uprising / war in Macedonia in 2001. However, these activists, have brought up the issue about a corrupt, so called, ”Archbishop” Jovan - Zoran Vraniskovski, a fanatical pro-Serb nationalist priest in Macedonia who is openly funded by the nominally secular Republic of Serbia to destabilise Macedonia.

The role of the European Union is hypocritical. The leading countries of the EU have the same political and territorial strategies about Macedonia and its people as its predecessors did - going back to the Berlin Congress of 1878.

Also in 1878 was the “Prizren League” which called for the creation of a Greater Albania. Today we can still see the double standard of those countries and implementation of the resolutions of the Berlin Congress and later the Bucharest Congress of 1913 when Macedonia was physically partitioned. In recent times the EU, created and recognised Kosovo as an independent country and, on the other hand, it doesn’t recognise Macedonia under its constitutional name because of EU member Greece's veto.

One of the issues which does unite both Macedonians and Albanians is the genuine fear of domination by Belgrade and Sofia. Rather than focus upon that to unite both Macedonians and Albanians, the scenario by both the Left and Right in Macedonia is to deliberately provoke a "fight" between Macedonians and Albanians whilst keeping Belgrade's or Sofia's hands "clean." This also plays into the hands of Albanian nationalists. So it becomes a vicious cycle which then feeds upon itself.

Question 2. In Australia amongst the Macedonian community, in the early 1990s you had a kind of “consensus” between supporters of the two major political parties VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM. That consensus has now disappeared in Australia. Why is that? The community is divided.

Dr Najdovski-Perin: In the 1990s we had established common national goals - an independent country. The Macedonian Community in Australia fought for years and years against the intelligence services of Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria. We had a number of demonstrations in front of the Yugoslav, Greek and Bulgarian Embassies or Consulates which kept us together and strong. Also, we had built strong national feelings through the culture, traditions and the Macedonian language.

The elite in Macedonia deliberately portray Macedonians in Australia as “extremists” even though not one Australian-Macedonian ever committed an act of terrorism on Macedonian soil, unlike say Ali Ahmeti. Nor did Australian-Macedonians ever bomb Yugoslav, Greek, Bulgaria or Albanian Embassies in Australia. It was both the Yugoslav and Greek secret police which threatened violence or death towards Macedonians in Australia during the 1970s and 80s.

No Australian-Macedonians are fighting in Iraq and Syria for ISIS. However, there are growing numbers of Kosovar Albanians and Albanians in The Republic of Macedonia who are fighting for ISIS. The question is when they return will they buy the European “utopia” that is being pushed by Brussels? These people will pose a threat to both the Albanian community as well as Macedonians and the West in general. So it seems strange that the Macedonian diaspora is being unfairly demonised.

In the Kosovo War in 1999 and in the ethnic Albanian uprising in Macedonia in 2001, a large body of fighters came from the Albanian diaspora. These are indisputable facts.

Question 3. The current crop of “human rights activists” in the Republic of Macedonia seem to have some puzzling or confusing or contradictory views - for instance they confuse Belgrade urban Serb culture or former Yugoslavist culture with internationalism, but with a slight Western veneer on top for public consumption. For instance, one 'activist" defends an ultra Serb nationalist priest in Macedonia, Zoran Vraniskovski, who is being openly funded by Belgrade to destabilise Macedonia and whilst another activist strangely calls ultra nationalist Serb journalists as “respected colleague (poshtovane kolega)” and incites people to violence by using swear words on Twitter.

Many of these people who now claim to be human rights activists were no where to be seen back in the 1980s. For instance, they never complained to Amnesty International or the United Nations or Helsinki Committee over the illegal imprisonment of Macedonian dissident Dragan Bogdanovski. None of these people ever visited Bogdanovski in jail or brought him food.

Some of the views of these "human rights activists" such as their Yugoslavist nostalgia is deeply authoritarian as SFR Yugoslavia was a one party state and opposition parties where banned in Tito’s Yugoslavia. Are you concerned at the inconsistency?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: I said this in my previous answer that the majority of the Macedonians are pro-Yugoslav or pro-Serbian and Bulgarian. They have been flooded through the media with Serbian music every day. The culmination of this was on the eve of 2016 when four Macedonian national television stations broadcast only in Serbian; a person would think that they were living in Serbia.

In terms of those so called human rights activists in Macedonia I think either they are very misguided or they don’t know their tasks very well. It’s not possible to be more concerned about Zoran Vraniskovski, Ali Ahmeti [Albanian nationalist politician who started the war in Macedonia in 2001], Serb nationalists Vojislav Seselj, Draza Mihajlovic, Marshal Tito, Albanian nationalist Hasan Prishtina and many more foreign people than say the Macedonians such as political dissidents Dragan Bogdanovski, Blagoja Shambevski, ex Army General Vasko Karangelevski killed in mysterious circumstances in 1977, political leader Metodija Andonov – Cento imprisoned on false charges in 1946 by the Tito regime in Yugoslavia, and more recently Macedonian Priest, the Archimandrite Nikodim Carknjas from S’btsko Aegean Macedonia, the Macedonian minority in Albania (Golo Brdo and Gora), the Macedonians in Bulgaria (Pirin Macedonia), the Macedonians in Greece and the Macedonians in Serbia who are not even allowed to worship in the Macedonian language. In Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece there is not even a single church where the Macedonians can have their services.  It seems the human rights activists are more interested about their own lifestyle and future prospects than about people who had suffered or still are suffering because of their national identity.

4. Do you think it strange that neither the Macedonian government or opposition, including human rights activists or Macedonian patriots condemned the 14 May 2015 decision by the Serbian High Court to officially rehabilitate ultra Serb nationalist leader Draza Mihailovic who was anti Macedonian?

Recently, the Macedonian Foreign Ministry reacted to the provocative nationalist posturing of Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic over a controversial road sign. There was silence from Macedonia's normally very loud human rights activists.

In your opinion, why does Serb cultural hegemony get a free pass in Macedonia? Are you concerned by Macedonian Opposition party, SDSM,  consulting a controversial Serbian Public Relations firm, Ruskin & Hunt or the fact that the Macedonian government has handed a large chunk of media ownership to a foreign citizen, Serb-American businessman Veselin Jevrosimovic?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: I am not surprised at this behaviour from both the ruling party and from the opposition. They refuse to see the obvious - which anyone can see from outside the country.

Instead of condemning the Serbian High Court decision, or the road sign in Serbia where Macedonia is presented as the insulting FYROM,  there is strengthening of the Serbian culture in Macedonia. I think the mentality and the political connections have not change much since Macedonia became independent from Yugoslavia. On Macedonian national Day “Ilinden” they have “popular” singers from Serbia such as Ceca Raznjatovic – Arkan, Miroslav Ilic, Saban Saulic, Lepa Brena etc singing.

Question 5. Likewise, many current Macedonian “patriots” were no where to be seen in the 1980s. Why do you think that is?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: When we were fighting for the Macedonian cause in Europe, Australia, US and Canada the Macedonian “patriots” had a luxurious cafe life within Yugoslavia which was financially supported by the West. They never thought that one day they would live independently. Having an independent country is a very difficult task. These young and inexperienced Macedonian politicians have no idea how to run a country nor understand vital strategic national interests.

Question 6. Why do you see the need to defend Macedonian national identity and the name?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: Macedonian politicians proved themselves incapable of governing an independent Macedonia. They failed to register Macedonia in the UN in 1991, in 1995 the Constitution and the national flag were changed in order to satisfied Greece, the war broke out in 2001; the absurd push to celebrate our national history with Bulgaria, opening joint diplomatic missions with Serbia etc…All these of crazy moves  telling us we have to monitor every decision made by Macedonian governments towards changing the name. I am afraid of having a referendum in Macedonia where the name will be in the hands of those who have no feeling towards Macedonian identity. Some are more Internationalist than Macedonian, which in effect means they are de-facto Belgraders or Serbs, as they seem to confuse both. Also, the Albanian nationalist bloc would not be defending Macedonia’s name. It’s probably why the diaspora will be kept out of the decision making process, even though the authorities in Skopje, arrogantly and hypocritically interfere in the affairs of the Macedonian community in Australia; and are happy to take the money coming into the country from the diaspora.

Simply put if Macedonia changes its name, Macedonian identity is finished. It’s what Greece wants.

Question 7. Why is that Macedonia's cultural and ruling political classes remain largely silent on the rights of Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: Why? It remains a mystery. The elite doesn’t know the power and help it can get from the Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania as a counter-balance.

Secondly, there still is prejudice and the underestimation of the abilities of ethnic Macedonians in the neighbouring counties. It's a continuation of the Yugoslavist era pushed by Belgrade. The elite needs to learn from the Jewish, Irish, Albanian and other activists in bringing and uniting people together.

Question 8. Are you alarmed at the creeping Bulgarianisation of Macedonian history; the rehabilitation of controversial figures such as Todor Alexandrov and the deliberate downplaying of Macedonia's partizan resistance during World War II ? Are you concerned at the deliberate sidelining of prominent Macedonian historian Dr Theodore (Todor) Chepreganov by Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in favour of the late Dr Zoran Todorovski, the Director of the National Archive of Macedonia, who played a leading role in the rehabilitation of Alexandrov?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: The Bulgarianisation of Macedonian history already started with meetings between Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts  (MANU) and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAN) and joint church services at the highest level. This trend will not stop, it will continue in the future - celebrating as "one nation in two countries."

The controversial figure Todor Aleksandrov was rehabilitated from the then Macedonian Premier Ljubco Georgievski and the Macedonian Orthodox Primate Archbishop Stephen (Stefan). The rehabilitation was more secret than public. This proves that Todor Aleksandrov was and is a controversial figure in Macedonian history. During the Second World War in Macedonia there where no Partizan resistance brigades named after him. The brigades were named with popular leaders from the “Ilinden Uprising of 1903”. ie Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev and so on.

The idea to rehabilitate Todor Aleksandrov, who was pro-Bulgarian, marked the beginning of one nation, one history in two countries concept. The late Director of the Macedonian Archives, Dr Zoran Todorovski, according to a number of workers employed in the Archives,  falsified the original documents bought from the Bulgarian Archives to the Macedonian Archives.. If Todor Aleksandrov is not controversial than why there is no place for him in Skopje next to Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev, Pitu Guli, Cento and many others? His monument in Skopje was erected in secrecy and without his name because the authorities did not know what kind of reaction there would be.

We have seen the predatory behaviour of two Bulgarian ultra nationalist politicians, Kressimir Karakachanov and Angel Djambaski allowed to spread their nasty propaganda in Macedonia without any kind of intellectual response from the Macedonian government or opposition to counter some of the false views of Macedonian history and to whitewash Bulgaria’s role in the Jewish holocaust in Macedonia during the Second World War.

Question 9. Are you concerned at the “tribalisation” of Macedonian politics into two warring camps: VMRO-DMPNE and SDSM? If you criticise VMRO-DPMNE you get accused of being a spy for SDSM or if you criticise SDSM you get accused of being a spy for VMRO-DPMNE. In effect, any form of party neutrality is thrown out the window

Dr Najdovski-Perin: Very good question! If one would go visit Macedonia right now, especially Macedonians who live abroad, you are immediately forced to take the neutral corner. You cannot have an independent opinion or you will be labelled as a spy or someone who works for other countries' interests. Today we have more political parties members than during the Communist era 1945-1991 in Macedonia. The Macedonians of today are divided like two “tribes” or like two groups of rivalry soccer fans. Our people have a tendency to build cults glorifying their party political leaders than to fight for their rights and for better future. These “leaders” do not bring democracy. We have seen it in the past and we should know by now that the power is in their hands and not in the hands of the members of those political parties

Question 10. What are your thoughts of the nasty name calling and divisive use of the term “egejizacija” (ethnic Macedonians from the Aegean region which is now in present day Greece) as a pejorative? Opponents of Macedonia’s Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski have used this term as an attack on him. In a democracy criticising any politician, including Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, should be encouraged but is it fair to tar a whole group with the same brush over one individual? For instance would you use the racist term “Africanisation” to target an Afro-American politician, senator, president etc.? On the subject of stereotyping, why is that Macedonia’s cultural elite, both on the left and right can’t relate to Macedonians outside the capital city, Skopje? Why is there an obsession with status, titles, degrees, positions etc?
For instance, ex Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska’s patronising comments about ethnic Macedonians in Mala Prespa, Albania and journalist Olivera Trajkovska’s disparaging comments about Opposition leader Zoran Zaev’s provincial city background..

Dr Najdovski-Perin: I will not comment on this as it is ridiculous and insulting talking about “egeizacija”. We are all Macedonians and I would like to advise our people not to mention this term “egeizacija’ in the future.

The second part of your question is about Skopjanisation of Macedonia which is a deliberate show of “superiority" over the other Macedonians from the small cities and villages. We know the consequences of Skopjanisation. It's noticeable in the way they, elite members, speak, read and write. The accent of the Macedonian standard language has been changed. It's noticeable even you watch television, listen to a radio or just very day simple conversation. This is changing our culture and traditions silently and slowly.

Question 11. Why do educated Macedonians from the capital city, Skopje, deliberately use the term "u" instead of "vo?" "U" could be construed as insulting or chauvinistic to a number of Macedonians who don't use "U." To give you an Australian analogy, no one uses the term "mankind" because it excludes women. The term "humankind" is used, likewise "spokesperson" is used as a generic term rather than "spokesman."

Dr Ico Najdovski-Perin: The influence of the Serbian language in Skopje is heavily visible and is used to demonstrate "cultural superiority” over other Macedonians. However, there many regions in ethnic Macedonia where “u’ is used instead of “vo”.

Question 12. Your thoughts on the Albanian nationalist bloc in Macedonia? Federalisation?

Dr Najdovski-Perin: Very short, the Albanian nationalist block has fulfilled the resolution from the “Prizren League of 1878”. They know the Albanian nationalist red line. Macedonia since 2004 is practically cantonised. It is a matter of time when they will put an ultimatum for federalisation of Macedonia. Even today they act like a separate Government led by Ali Ahmeti. Recently he visited Greece to negotiate our national name – Macedonia. It is absurd for him not to be reprimanded by the Government of Macedonia or the Parliament of Macedonia.

Even the Albanian people in Macedonia have been fooled into believing the extremist nationalist agenda pushed by the likes of Ali Ahmeti. It’s deliberately fanning divisions between Albanians and Macedonians and also further provoked by outside forces. It doesn’t help when the Macedonian media and elite buy into the nationalistic rhetoric from the Serbian tabloid media. It feeds the problem. Not solves it.

It was ex-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who said that an independent Kosovo would lead to the annexation of Western Macedonia, where this a large ethnic Albanian grouping. But this would be disguised as a “fight for civil rights.” We saw the 1999 war in Kosovo and two years later, elements from Kosovo invaded Macedonia. Then came the Ohrid Framework Agreement, pushed by the West, as a kind of settlement but instead has set Macedonia upon the path of federalisation. If Federalisation happens, that is there is an “Albanian Republic within a Federal Macedonia, Macedonia is finished as a nation-state. Whatever is left will out of desperation gravitate towards Serbia or Bulgaria, perhaps even Greece.

Greece has played a very large part in the destabilisation of Macedonia by blocking Macedonia's membership of the European Union and NATO. Greece has time on its side. It can just wait until Macedonia falls apart - though Greece’s own economic stability is shaky.

- ETHNOS-DEMOS: failed 1970s naive utopian social theory pushed in Macedonia ?  -

Question 13. Why is Macedonian academic “Professor Doctor" Biljana Vankovska Phd (UKiM) fanatically obsessed with a failed 1970s utopian social theory called "ethos-demos" in Macedonia? The theory is that by stripping Macedonians of their ethnic identity, "utopia" will reign in Macedonia. But we have seen in the West where young people have been radicalised and joined the ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), where "ethnos-demos" has clearly failed. We saw in Yugoslavia, a kind of ethnos-demos also failed with Vladimir Gligorov, the son of Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, and Bobby Despotovski an "international" soccer player of Macedonian background, both embraced a Serbian identity, not an internationalist one. In Despotovski’s case, he was raised in the Yugoslavist diversity quilt showpiece of Vojvodina and instead of becoming an “internationalist” as it was naively intended, he became a hardcore Serbian nationalist who almost provoked a riot at a soccer match in Australia in 2001 making a political gesture. It was more an issue of Strong Identity, Soft Identity.

Dr Najdovski-Perin: We cannot today rely on “ethnos-demos” when we see the European Union member states are, hypocritically, building fences to protect their countries from the migrants who are coming from Middle East and Africa and holding moral lectures. Today we need to have a strong Macedonian identity in order to protect ourselves and our country called Macedonia.

CROAT-MACEDONIAN RELATIONS

CROAT-MACEDONIAN RELATIONS 
by Sasha Uzunov

Mr Branko Miletic is an Australian-Croat journalist, often cited in the Australian media about Croatian affairs. He is also a long time observer of the Balkans.

Question 1. Have successive Croatian governments dropped the ball in winning the diplomatic war for influence in the southern Balkans, namely in Macedonia by allowing Serbia virtually a free hand to exert its influence? In the early 1990s Croatia was very active in pushing for Macedonia diplomatic recognition whilst Serbia was actively against it, even threatening Macedonia with invasion in the early 1990s until the Dayton Agreement of 1995. (see link).

Branko Miletic: Yes they have. Thanks to 2 reasons- one, is the need to fix the economy- regional politics takes a back seat to micro-economics....the second reason is the fact that the European Union keeps pushing this 'rapproachment' theory vis-a-vis Belgrade and now in Croatia for example you have a revitalised neo-Marxist pro-Belgrade Left made up mostly of unemployed actors, artists and poets ( whatever that means) trying to bring down a democratically elected government that is not to their taste. One wonders what the relatives and friends of all those Croatian soldiers, that died on the battlefields (along with surviving war veterans) in places like Vukovar think of all this.

Question 2. Are you concerned that there are leading public figures in Macedonia who claim to be pro NATO but strangely back the centre-right regime in Belgrade, Serbia which is anti-NATO?

For example Macedonian journalist Borjan Jovanovski says he is staunchly pro NATO but rarely if ever defends Croatia which is a NATO member from attacks by the Alexander Vucic regime in Belgrade and instead gives Belgrade a clean bill of health when it has human rights issues to deal with. (see link). Prime Minister Vucic years ago threatened to murder 100 Muslim Bosnians if one Bosnian Serb was killed. Since then Vucic has toned it down somewhat and is threatening Croatia with Russian missiles ! There has been silence from Mr Jovanovski and others over the recent official rehabilitation by the Serbian High Court of controversial World War II leader and ultra Serb nationalist Draza Mihailovic who was anti Macedonian, anti Croat, anti Albanian and anti Muslim as well as the recent the provocative nationalistic statements from Serbian foreign minister Ivica Dacic. (see link).

Some of these leading Macedonian figures even appear on Serbian television but never defend Croatia, which is both an EU and NATO member, whilst Serbia isn't.

Branko Miletic: I am concerned but not surprised. We have the same issues in Croatia. The politics of social engineering from the EU has given rise to this class of political zombies that seems to want to constantly gravitate to Belgrade. As for the EU, it is as if the politicians in Brussels miss dealing with only one Balkan country rather than say six or seven.

Question 3. You were quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in 2012 as saying the Croats were the Muslims of 1970s Australia, as in unfairly being labelled as terrorists by the media because of clever Yugoslav secret police false flag terrorist operations, which amongst other things saw six local Croats set up and imprisoned for crimes they never committed. (see link).

Are you puzzled that there are leading figures in Macedonia who say they are pro NATO and pro West who still defend the old Yugoslavist "utopia?"

Branko Miltetic: No, sadly as I mentioned earlier, this is a 'wave' or a ' mini movement' that is sweeping the Balkans. Not sure where its coming from- the conspiracy theories range from George Soros to the EU all the way to the Illuminati ( no-I'm not kidding, this is what some people think) however I think its sadly the human condition of short term political memory loss and the 'grass was always greener in history' condition. There are also way to many people ( as in the West) that are obsessed with their childhood and 'how wonderful things were' - or should I say that's what they think anyway. This leads to this kind of myopia that takes hold of a loud and culturally influential class that then spends most of its unemployed time pushing this Red Revisionism...I hope, much like Ebola, it will pass with time.
------

On a positive note, Croatian Member of the European Parliament, Marijana Petir, has recently set up an informal Friends of Macedonian parliamentary group. see link 

COOL HAHN LUKE - EU Chief keeps calm over critics

Exclusive - Team Uzunov contacts European Union Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn

COOL HAHN LUKE - EU Chief keeps calm over critics
By Sasha Uzunov

The European Union's troubleshooter for Macedonia, Commissioner Johannes Hahn, has played it cool and calm by not buying into repeated attacks launched against him on social and mainstream media by a member of Macedonia's influential capital city cultural elite. 

Mr Borjan Jovanovski, a journalist, former Macedonian Presidential media advisor and self-proclaimed human rights activist, on his infamous Twitter account as well as his television appearances has constantly accused Commissioner Hahn of bias against the Opposition party, SDSM.

Mr Jovanovski belongs to a very powerful political dynasty in Macedonia established during the Yugoslav communist period by his father Meto, a prominent writer and head of foreign programming at Radio Television Skopje (RTS), the forerunner of Macedonian State Broadcaster. Mr Jovanovski has declared his support for the European Union and NATO but his endorsement of the regime in Serbia contradicts those positions.

Mr Hahn was sent to Macedonia by Brussels after massive demonstrations last year led by the Opposition SDSM against the Macedonian government led by then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski over an alleged wiretapping and corruption scandal brought the country to its knees. Two government ministers and the head of Macedonian Intelligence, the Prime Minister's first cousin Saso Mijalkov, were forced to resign. Prime Minister Gruevski tendered his resignation nearly a month ago as part of an EU brokered agreement, known as the Przino Agreement, with a caretaker government led by a member from Mr Gruevski's party, VMRO-DPMNE, at the helm until new elections in April this year.

But those elections could be in doubt with the Opposition claiming that more time is needed to update the electoral rolls and check for false voters.

TEAM UZUNOV contacted Mr Hahn's office for a response to the constant attacks against him, asking if the EU Commissioner was aware of the contradictory views of Mr Jovanovski. The EU Chief has deftly downplayed the criticism.

TEAM UZUNOV: "Mr Hahn, you have a very difficult task in trying to resolve the political crisis in Macedonia and to make everyone happy !

"One of your staunchest critics in Macedonia is a journalist and “human rights activist” by the name of Borjan Jovanovski. Mr Jovanovski says he is pro-NATO, pro-EU, but has some contradictory views. For instance he has endorsed the regime in Serbia, [a non-EU member] which is anti-NATO and has a very bad human rights record. Mr Jovanovski has called for demonstrations against EU and NATO member Hungary but none against Serbia.

"Mr Hahn, are you concerned by Mr Jovanovski’s contradictory views, especially his endorsement of Serbia?"

Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for Commissioner Hahn:

"Commissioner Hahn has been very vocal regarding the expectations he has when it comes to constructive attitude of relevant stakeholders in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."

Mr Jovanovski in a Twitter message, written in a mixture of Macedonian and Serbian, on October 17, 2015, said concerns about the lack of freedoms in Serbia were largely exaggerated.

Mr Jovanovski’s October 17, 2015 Twitter message, written in a mixture of Macedonian and some Serbian in which “concerns about some things being banned in Serbia are largely exaggerated."

 This is in direct contradiction to a 2015 Human Rights Watch report (see link) which condemns Serbia for no improvement in an already worse human rights record, as well as rising nationalism being fostered by the Serbian government of Prime Minister Alexander Vucic, who has also threatened to start an arms race against NATO member and neighbour and rival, Croatia. Serbia's Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, made a number of provocative and nasty statements about Macedonia's support for Kosovo's application to join UNESCO.

Belgrade has been strongly opposed to neighbouring state of Montenegro joining NATO, and via Republika Srpska, the Serb enclave in Bosnia-Hercegovina, has blocked Sarajevo's bid to join NATO.

Mr Jovanovski on Twitter has called for demonstrations against Hungarian diplomatic missions throughout Europe over the Budapest's proposal to build a wall to keep out refugees, but has remained silent over a controversial May 2015 ruling by the Serbian High Court which rehabilitated an ultra Serb nationalist leader Draza Mihailovic, a World War II leader whose followers collaborated with the Nazis, and who was anti-Macedonian, Albanian and Croat.

Oddly, Mr Jovanovski has deferentially referred to ultra nationalist Serb journalists as "poshtovane kolega " (respected colleagues).

Related stories -

(ROAD) SIGN OF THE TIMES - Serbia’s rocky relationship with Macedonia - see link

ON MACEDONIAN MATTERS  - see link 

ON MACEDONIAN MATTERS

INTERVIEW WITH DR CHRIS POPOV ON THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA.

TEAM UZUNOV ASKED DR POPOV 12 QUESTIONS:

BIOGRPAHY:

Dr Chris Popov was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1953 to parents originating from the Lerin and Kostur regions of Macedonia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Ph.D. in History. Dr Popov is active in Macedonian community circles in Melbourne and Australia.  He is retired and was employed for 24 years by the Federal Department of Immigration (Australia) before his retirement.

In the late 1980s he was president of the Australian Macedonian Progressive Society and from 1994 until 2001 he was president of the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee and the Macedonian Human Rights Committee of Melbourne and Victoria. He has served on the Executive of the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee from 2008. He is a regular contributor to the Macedonian press and radio and on-line media both in Australia and Macedonia and has also contributed to the Melbourne Age, SBS Radio and Television (Australia).

1. Your thoughts on the political situation in Macedonia and the Balkans as a whole, especially the political crisis in Macedonia and human rights issues as a whole?

Dr Popov: The political crisis in Macedonia which erupted with full force at the beginning of  2015 is the result of the increasing dissatisfaction of Macedonians in general at the corruption, authoritarian tendencies and lack of economic opportunity which has marked the [outgoing] Gruevski government’s time in power , but also importantly that of its main rivals, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia.

It is apparent that as the political crisis in Macedonia deepened in February 2015 when SDSM Leader Zoran Zaev began making public secretly recorded tapes  (“bombs”) which allegedly exposed ( if the current investigation headed by the newly-appointed special prosecutor  proves them to be authentic) high-level government corruption and involvement in illegal activities, both the EU and the USA increasingly began to support Zaev’s campaign for early elections. A reason for such support may have been the Gruevski government’s intention to participate in the “Turkish Stream” project and its refusal to impose sanctions on Russia, which was seen as a challenge to the West’s campaign to punish Russia and limit its influence in the Balkans. It may also be that the West reasoned that Zaev and the SDSM would be more “flexible” in solving the name issue, a view which Zaev’s statements have provided justification for. The EU, USA and the West in general see in the SDSM and Zaev a compliant partner willing to do their bidding in their attempts to “mould” Macedonia to suit their geopolitical, economic and security interests.

Gruevski’s agreement to early elections on 24 April 2016 and to resign as Premier 100 days before the holding of these elections - which he did on 15 January 2016 as per the Przino Agreement mediated under EU and US pressure in July 2015-is viewed by him as a necessary compromise designed to reduce European pressure and place the onus on Zaev to offer something in return. The release of the “bombs” has done little to shake Gruevski’s control of VMRO-DPMNE and the government (albeit transitional) in general. A viable solution to the current crisis is only possible if both sides abandon their maximalist demands and work together in the interests of society and the state as a whole, rather than narrow political interests. In order for that to happen all major  and minor Macedonian parties must rid themselves of the clientelism, corruption, illegal practices, media control and vote rigging which has marked their periods in power and commit to an open, democratic society in which the population’s basic human, economic, social and political rights are guaranteed and observed. They must go beyond merely declarative support for radical reform of Macedonian society.

Nevertheless, any new government that emerges after the elections will be led by either VMRO-DPMNE or the SDSM which, given their track record, may soon revert to past patterns of governance in the absence of sustained public pressure for greater democracy, equality and improvements in living standards. In short, a radical change in the political and moral culture of the country is needed which must be led by honest, progressive political actors untainted by their association with dubious practices of the past. It is only through internal, far-reaching party political reform and cultural change that any solution to the current crisis reached will contribute to the creation of a society where the interests of the people are safeguarded and promoted. While such change will take at least a generation to occur, a credible start on bringing it about must begin as soon as possible if Macedonians are to be given hope that a better and more just society is possible.

Such a process of change must of necessity begin with the Macedonian authorities initiating an independent, impartial investigation to determine whether the recordings are authentic (something they say they are committed to with the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor)- while at the same time calling on Zaev to release all recordings in his possession and not just those that implicate the government in wrongdoing - and to sanction those who have broken the law and violated the rights of the people, irrespective of their party political affiliation, government position or social standing. Moreover, the European Union and other European institutions, Russia and the USA must refrain from trying to impose plans which serve their economic, political and strategic interests (although I realise that in today’s world this is a forlorn hope) and allow the Macedonian people and Macedonia’s institutions to craft a solution which has the broadest possible support across all sectors of Macedonian society.

Finally, all Macedonian political parties must recommit to a policy of defence of Macedonia’s name as part of any agreement on the country’s future and resist calls to change the official name of the country, Republic of Macedonia, as part of any deal to advance Macedonia’s accession to NATO and the EU. Progressive internal political, social, human rights  and economic reforms will count for nought if a name change which erodes Macedonian identity, culture and sovereignty is allowed to occur.

2. Tell us about any possible interference you may have encountered from the then Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria etc. in your travels to various international human rights conferences held in Copenhagen, Moscow and Helsinki in the 1980s and 1990s? 

Dr Popov: My participation at these conferences was as part of the Australian Macedonian delegation which formed part of a wider delegation which included representatives of Macedonian human rights groups from Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Canada, the then Czechoslovakia and the Republic of Macedonia. Our express goal was to lobby European governments in order to bring about the recognition and respect for the human rights of the Macedonian minorities which continue to live compactly in the Aegean Macedonia in Greece, Pirin Macedonia in Bulgaria and in Mala Prespa, Gora and other parts of Albania. In retrospect I must state that these delegations achieved considerable success in sensitising Europe to the gross violations of Macedonians’ human rights in the Balkans and assisted in creating the momentum for the formation of viable Macedonian human rights movements in Greece ( the EFA-Rainbow Party), Bulgaria (OMO-Ilinden –PIRIN) and Albania ( Macedonian Alliance for European  Integration, Prespa, Macedonian Alliance ) which to this day are still in existence and leading the struggle for respect for the human rights of the Macedonians in their respective states, in the face of official policies of denial and non-recognition by especially Greece and Bulgaria .

GREEK CLOAK & DAGGER IN COPENHAGEN & MOSCOW

Open interference at these conferences came almost exclusively from Greece which attempted to stop our delegation from presenting its case effectively at both the OSCE Human Dimension Conferences (HDC) in both Copenhagen in 1990 and Moscow in 1991. In Copenhagen the deputy head of the official Greek delegation was caught red-handed by the people at the NGO literature desk removing large quantities of our Macedonian delegation’s brochure with a view to disposing of them. The Greek delegation was officially requested to desist from such action by the supervisor of the NGO desk. On the following day the Head of the Greek delegation officially requested from the HDC Secretariat the removal of the NGO Information stand. His request was denied. The Greeks then asked for our use of this facility to be suspended. The Head of HDC security confirmed to us that the Greeks had protested about our use of the facility. After a brief investigation the Greek “request” was denied. Danish and international media were made aware by us of the Greek attempts at hinder our participation and we held a press conference at which we severely embarrassed the Greek delegation for its blatant attempt at censorship at a major human rights conference.

In Moscow in October 1991, a Russian photographer followed members of the Macedonian NGO delegation around the conference centre and took photos of them at very close range, so close that the camera lens was nearly touching out faces. We did not observe him or any other photographer taking such photos of other NGO delegations at the conference. We confronted him and asked whether he had been hired by the Greeks to photograph us. He replied that he was an independent photographer and had not been hired by anyone. We also asked the Head of the official Greek delegation whether he had been engaged by them, to which he replied that he did not know what we were talking about. Given the conduct of the official Greek delegation in Copenhagen and the embarrassment that it suffered due to its clumsy attempt at censorship and the inadequate response of the head of the Greek delegation in Moscow to our enquiry, we concluded that this was in all likelihood another attempt by the official Greek delegates to intimidate our delegation.

There was no such open interference from the official Bulgarian delegations to these conferences. However in our meetings with the Bulgarian delegations in both Copenhagen and Moscow, it was made abundantly clear that Bulgaria did not and would not recognise the existence of a distinct Macedonian ethnicity within Bulgaria or throughout the Balkan region. Likewise, in Copenhagen the official Greek delegation made clear its position that a Macedonian minority did not exist in Greece and that our demands for “rights” for the “artificial Macedonian nation” dovetail with Skopje’s plans for the annexation of Aegean Macedonia. In Moscow, the Greek delegation refused to meet with us and was only willing to accept written material from our delegation. The official Greek and Bulgarian positions regarding the Macedonian minorities in their respective countries have not changed to this day.

At none of these conferences was there any interference from the official Yugoslav delegation. In fact in Copenhagen, they sponsored our press conference and assisted us in arranging meetings with relevant officials, official national delegations etc.

3. You worked alongside such leading Macedonian political and media figures as Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, Canadian-Macedonian businessman and lobbyist John Bitove, journalist Saso Ordanoski and theatre director Vladimir Milcin in the early 1990s via the Ilinden Foundation. 

You hosted Milcin in Melbourne, Australia during a visit. It was a very different political environment back then within the Australian-Macedonian community. You had a kind of “consensus” between VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM supporters. That consensus has now disappeared in Australia. Why is that? The community is divided.

Dr Popov: In the early 1990s, the euphoria associated with Macedonia attaining its independence led people on both sides of the political divide to collaborate in the interests of strengthening and deepening Macedonia’s statehood. However, with the passage of time narrow political interests and the desire to retain power in order to reap concrete political and economic rewards has taken precedence over what should be considered non- negotiable national goals and interests (such as defence of Macedonia’s name, territorial integrity, economic and social development) and led to open political warfare and a hardening of attitudes towards one’s political opponents. This enmity is reflected in Macedonian Diaspora communities, although it must be said that the supporters of SDSM  have very little support or organisational capacity in Australia and the Macedonian Diaspora as a whole.

4. The current crop of “human rights activists” in the Republic of Macedonia seem to have some puzzling or confusing or contradictory views - for instance they confuse Belgrade urban Serb culture or former Yugoslavist culture with internationalism, but with a slight Western veneer on top for public consumption. For instance, Human rights boss Mirjana Najcevska defends an ultra Serb nationalist priest in Macedonia, Zoran Vraniskovski, and pundit Borjan Jovanovski calls ultra nationalist Serb journalists as “respected colleague (poshtovane kolega)” and journalist Sinisa Jakov-Marusic has a deliberately provocative Serbian quote from the founder of Serbian nationalism Dositej Obradovic as his profile picture on Facebook.

Many of these people who now claim to be human rights activists were no where to be seen back in the 1980s. Some of their views such as the Yugoslavist nostalgia are authoritarian such as the one party state that existed in Tito’s Yugoslavia. Why do you think that is? 

Dr Popov: In the interests of fairness it must be stated that the human rights activism in the Republic of Macedonia in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a very new phenomenon and did not have a strong organizational or financial basis. It has become more prominent from 2000 onwards with the influx of funds from the EU and the Soros foundation in support of such activism. While those involved with Soros-funded organizations have stirred up much controversy in recent years and tended to take partisan political pro-SDS positions, this is not to say that the concerns they have raised about violations of human rights in Macedonia are not valid or have no basis. There is a serious democratic deficit in Macedonia which has to be addressed by all political actors if the country is to move forward and achieve social and economic progress. However their defence of people such as Vraniskovski who openly denies the Macedonian Orthodox Church’s right to exist as a separate autocephalous church and Macedonian ethnicity is strange indeed to say the least. Apart from certain organisations representing Macedonian refugees from Greece, such as the Association of Macedonians from the Aegean Part of Macedonia in Bitola, these human rights bodies devote precious little time to highlighting the plight of the Macedonian minorities in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, a task which is taken up almost exclusively by bodies such as the AMHRC and the MHRMI in Canada. For the human rights movement in Macedonia to be truly effective it must rid itself of the increasingly partisan political position it has taken against the government (which, however can legitimately be criticized for its corruption, venality and lip service to democratic norms and procedures) and adopt positions which reflect genuine public aspirations for political reform and defence of the public good.

 5. Do you think it strange that neither the [now outgoing] Macedonian government or opposition, including human rights activists condemned the 14 May 2015 decision by the Serbian High Court to officially rehabilitate ultra Serb nationalist leader Draza Mihailovic who was anti Macedonian. Why does Serb cultural hegemony get a free pass in Macedonia?

Dr Popov: I do not accept the premise that Serbian cultural hegemony gets a free pass in Macedonia, despite the popularity of Serbian music, folk and pop artists and culture in general with the populace in general to the detriment of indigenous Macedonian culture and artistic achievement. The reluctance to criticise the rehabilitation of Draza Mihajlovic, who was a Greater Serbian nationalist who saw Macedonians as merely “Southern Serbs”, reflects rather a desire not to meddle in Serbian internal affairs in a geopolitical situation in which Macedonia- a small, weak state, faced with internal destabilisation- does not have good relations with Greece, Bulgaria and Albania and Kosovo. While there are problems in the relationship with Serbia, Macedonian leaders probably view Serbia as the “lesser regional evil”- given that the Macedonia minority there has some form of official recognition and government funding for Macedonian language classes and culture- which it needs to cooperate with in the struggle against Albanian expansionism.

6. Likewise, many current Macedonian “patriots” were no where to be seen in the 1980s. Why do you think that is?

Dr Popov: It was difficult to be a “Macedonian patriot” in the 1980s, given the then prevailing one-party system in Macedonia which was still formally part of the Yugoslav Federation. Patriotism is a term which is very easily bandied and used for nefarious political purposes, however I do not see much evidence of it amongst the political elite in Macedonia which continues to negotiate Macedonia’s name and collaborate with extremist Albanian elements in order to hold on to political power. True patriotism in Macedonia would focus on a stout defence of Macedonia’s name, a refusal to countenance the de facto federalisation of the country which has steadily taken place and a resolute struggle against corruption, nepotism and the violation of human rights, all the while respecting the rights of ethnic, social and cultural  minorities.

7. You’re a man of the Left and not an alleged rabid nationalist of any kind but you see the need to defend Macedonian national identity and the name. Why is that? 

Dr Popov: Defence of Macedonia’s name, culture and identity is not incompatible with fighting for progressive political, economic and social policies.  It was the primary factor motivating the struggle for Macedonian statehood which began in the late 1800s. However, the struggle to defend Macedonia’s name and national identity which has been under sustained, intense attack for especially the last 25 years should not be done in a way which excludes Macedonia’s ethnic minorities or be understood as positing the primacy of the ethnic Macedonian nation over those non-ethnic Macedonian citizens. Any name change would not only spell the beginning of the end for Macedonian ethnicity and nationhood, but would also give impetus to those forces which seek to territorially dismember the Macedonian state, by creating the perception that if Macedonia is not the nation state of the Macedonians and its minorities together, then it must historically and currently belong to one or some of its neighbouring states, which in the main continually deny Macedonian ethnicity and identity. Those within the Republic of Macedonia and Europe who advocate a name change in the interests of “Euroatlantic Integration’ would not dream of proposing a similar name change of any other nation such as France, Germany , Italy etc and then portray a refusal to do so as a sign of “ nationalist intransigence”. It seems that Macedonia is viewed by these circles as an “experimental guinea pig” and a “lesser nation’ (vis-a vis the so-called “historical” or “superior” nations) whose inherent rights to identity, language and culture can be bargained away for some unspecified, illusory political and economic gain.

8. Why is that Macedonian Human rights activists remain largely silent on the rights of Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania?

Dr Popov: The reason for their silence on this issue is that many of them have become too politically partisan and focussed on the struggle for power within the Republic of Macedonia to the detriment of wider, important issues such as this. Another reason is that when Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, a deliberate attempt was made to foster a Yugoslav identity which downplayed the ethnic and national links between Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Serbia. The legacy of such policies lingers on. It is sad that many human rights organisations in the Republic of Macedonia do not realise that one of the best defences against attempts to change Macedonia’s name is the defence of Macedonia human rights in the neighbouring states. Doing so would counter the “negationist" view that Macedonians are an “artificial nation” who were “created by Tito “ for purposes of advancing Yugoslav territorial designs”.

 9. Are you alarmed at the creeping Bulgarianisation of Macedonian history; the rehabilitation of controversial figures such as Todor Alexandrov?

Dr Popov: This is indeed an alarming development as it gives credence to the perception that Macedonians are in reality “ Western Bulgarians “ who have been “ Serbianised” or “lost their way”, in the words of Bulgarian nationalist discourse and are now discovering their “true roots”. There are circles- how many is hard to say- within the Macedonian government which hold such views and they must be resolutely opposed by reasoned, factual academic research and discourse in order to prevent Macedonian identity from being undermined..

10. Are you concerned at the “tribalisation” of Macedonian politics into two warring camps: VMRO-DMPNE and SDSM? If you criticise VMRO-DPMNE you get accused of being a spy for SDSM or if you criticise SDSM you get accused of being a spy for VMRO-DPMNE. In effect, any form of party neutrality is thrown out the window.

Dr Popov: I have alluded to this in some of my answers above. It is a very worrying development and harks back to the period during which Macedonia formed part of the Yugoslav Communist Federation and when sustained criticism of the ruling party- until at least the  late 1980s- was equated with anti-state and anti-communist activity. It has led to an increasing identification of the Macedonian state with the political interests of whichever party is in power and the equation of national interests with those of the ruling or governing party. While it is natural that each government would seek to implement the policies on which it has been elected, it is imperative for the effective functioning of the state that party political goals are put aside in order that collaboration take place for the achievement of vital national, security and economic goals. The “winner takes all” approach in Macedonian politics does not enable capable bureaucrats, policy makers and experts of whatever political persuasion to contribute their skills and talents to national development and social progress.

11. What are your thoughts of the nasty name calling and divisive use of the term “egejizacija” as a pejorative? Opponents of Macedonia’s [now outgoing] Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski have used this term as an attack on him. In a democracy criticising any politician, including Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, should be encouraged but is it fair to tar a whole group with the same brush over one individual? For instance would you use the racist term “Africanisation” to target an Afro-American politician, senator, president etc.? On the subject of stereotyping, why is it that Macedonia’s cultural elite, both on the Left and Right can’t relate to Macedonians outside the capital city, Skopje?

For instance, ex Interior Minister (VMRO-DPMNE) Gordana Jankulovska’s patronising comments about ethnic Macedonians in Mala Prespa, Albania and SDSM aligned journalist Olivera Trajkovska’s disparaging comments about Opposition leader (SDSM) Zoran Zaev’s provincial city background.

Dr Popov: The use of this patronising term “Egejizacija” indicates that those who use it either do not see Macedonians whose roots are from the Aegean part of Macedonia as Macedonians or see them as a lesser form of Macedonian.  It is unnecessarily divisive, discriminatory and a hangover from Yugoslav times when the federal authorities gave precedence to the creation of a primary Yugoslav identity over Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian etc identities. There are enough political and social divisions between Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia without the need for a further layer of disunity based on place of origin within the wider Macedonian ethnographic region.

The political elite in Macedonia tends to see Skopje as the centre of their universe as evidenced by the Skopje 2014 project and other major political, cultural economic and social developments which tend to be concentrated in the capital city. Voters in regions outside of Skopje often complain that politicians, MPs and government ministers only visit them at election time in search of their vote and then forget about them until the next electoral cycle. Paying greater attention to the needs and aspirations of inhabitants of regions outside of Skopje would not only deliver much needed investment and jobs to these areas, but also help in addressing the increasingly serious brain drain which is severely hampering Macedonia, economically and demographically.

12. Your thoughts on the [now outgoing] Macedonian government and Opposition, including the Albanian nationalist bloc?

Dr Popov: Both the Macedonian government and the opposition SDSM have shown themselves to be incapable of solving the myriad problems faced by Macedonia during their periods in power, although in saying this I am aware of the difficult position Macedonia finds itself it both regionally and internationally. Ever since independence political life in Macedonia has been mired in corruption, clientelism, vote-rigging and nepotism to the detriment of the voters and the wider population. The current political crisis is the result of the increasing dissatisfaction of Macedonians in general at the corruption, authoritarian tendencies and lack of economic opportunity which has marked the Gruevski government’s time in power, but also importantly that of its main rivals, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia. The SDSM, which appears to have the backing of the EU, USA, has used the crisis sparked by the release of Zaev’s “bombs” to make an attempt to grab power by bringing about early elections as per the Przino Agreement, however despite the strong international support it is receiving, it seems unlikely to achieve its goal if elections are held in April 24, due to VMRO-DPMNE’s control of the bureaucracy and the support it receives from regions outside Skopje.

However, ultimately, unless a thorough democratisation and deep-seated reform takes places within both VMRO-DPMNE and the SDSM, neither of these parties will be able to effectively tackle the deep-seated economic, political, social and security problems faced by the country in the coming years. A new progressive political option led by persons untainted by corruption and who have Macedonia’s national interests at heart is needed, however it is unlikely that such a viable option will emerge in the short term given the political culture which permeates Macedonian society. A change in the mentality of the general population, which appears in the main to grudgingly accept a political culture marked by corruption, nepotism and vote- rigging, is needed so that sustained pressure can be applied to the political class to govern responsibly.

ALBANIAN BLOC

Dr Popov: The ethnic Albanian political parties in Macedonia have been the big winners since Macedonia declared independence. Nearly every government formed since independence has built a coalition with one or other of the existing ethnic Albanian parties, despite there being no constitutional obligation or electoral imperative to do so. This occurred initially in order to foster a feeling in the ethnic Albanian minority that they had a stake in the country, however in the last 15 years it has been done due to international pressure, the Ohrid agreement which ended the brief ethnic Albanian armed rebellion in 2001 and because of the mutual enmity which exists between VMRO-DPMNE and the SDSM which has prevented them from forming coalitions which do not include the ethnic Albanian parties. Participation in such governments has provided Albanian parties, especially the current DUI and DPA, with great political leverage to implement and advance an agenda viewed by many Macedonians as, at best, aimed at achieving a confederal, bi-national Macedonia or at worst a secession of Western Macedonia and parts of Skopje and Kumanovo as the precursor to the creation of a Greater Albania. The insistence of both of these parties on the ethnic Albanian minority being constitutionally proclaimed a “constituent nation” of the Republic of Macedonia and on the Albanian language being given official status throughout the whole of Macedonia certainly gives credence to such views.

BRITISH PEN MIGHTIER THAN UDBa SWORD

Macedonian Lustration process - 1980 - PEN President & British author Dr Michael Scammell spied upon by Yugoslavia over Macedonian dissident Dragan Bogdanovski and Albanian dissident Adem Demaci?

BRITISH PEN MIGHTIER THAN UDBa SWORD

by Sasha Uzunov

Dr Michael Scammell, a prominent British author and academic who as the President of PEN, the Internationalist writers union, was being spied upon by Yugoslav intelligence in 1980 over Macedonian and Albanian dissidents, according to declassified files released some time ago by Macedonia's controversial Lustration Process Commission, now shut down by the European Union. TEAM UZUNOV has recently managed to track down Dr Scammell.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski set up the The Lustration Commission in 2009 to uncover informers from the Yugoslavist /communist period in Macedonia (1944-91).

The Commission was criticised at the time for being used by the Gruevski government to target opponents. A western intelligence source has told TEAM UZUNOV that the many intelligence documents declassified by the Commission are genuine but many have also been tampered with or fabricated.

"It's difficult to tell what is fact and what is fiction," the source said.

Another staunch critic of Lustration is Alexander Dinevski, a former Yugoslav and later Macedonian Intelligence officer, who was released a month ago after spending two years in jail on alleged and controversial espionage charges laid by the Gruevski government. He denies his guilt and claims he was set up. There are plans to fight to overturn the conviction.

Dinevski, many years prior to his imprisonment, claimed the process was selective in choosing individuals to "lustrate" and documents open to forgery.

A TEAM UZUNOV investigation, citing declassified Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) files confirmed that a genuine ex Yugoslav intelligence operative, Martin Trenevski, was not put through the Lustration Commission but appointed Macedonia’s Ambassador to NATO (2010-14) by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. see link for story

DR SCAMMELL - specialises in Slavonic studies; is fluent in Russian, Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian. He earn his Phd from Columbia University and is the author of award wining biographies on great thinkers and writers, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Arthur Koestler.

The Yugoslav intelligence file, written in Macedonian, relates to a 1980 PEN conference in Bled, Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia. The file, which TEAM UZUNOV has not been able to verify its authenticity or if it is a forgery, notes concerns about the possibility of Macedonian dissident Dragan Bogdanovski and Albanian dissident Adem Demaci having their imprisonment in Yugoslav jails publicised at the PEN conference to Yugoslavia's embarrassment.

Two informers are named, one a Slovenian writer by the name of Boris Pogacnik, now passed away, who Dr Scammell did really know, and a second, a Macedonian who is still alive, who were involved in monitoring Dr Scammell. TEAM UZUNOV has decided not to publish this name for legal reasons. Putting that aside, it would have been normal procedure for Yugoslav Intelligence (UDBa later SDB) to have spied upon a prominent foreigner visiting or working on then Yugoslav soil. It stands to reason there would be a file on him, most probably in the Slovenian archives. TEAM UZUNOV has advised Dr Scammell to approach the Slovenian authorities to get access to his dossier.

Suffice to say, according to the Macedonian document the Yugoslavist authorities breathed a sigh of relief when Bogdanovski and Demaci were not mentioned.

Bogdanovski spent over a decade in a Yugoslav communist jail in Skopje, Macedonia; Demaci did over 20 years. It remains intriguing that Macedonia's Yugoslav Communist authorities were also doing Serbia's bidding over Demaci? He fell under Pristina / Belgrade jurisdiction of UDBa.

Some of these hard core Yugoslavists who came down hard on both Macedonian and Albanian dissidents have reinvented themselves as Macedonian human rights activists post 1991, after the collapse of Yugoslavia and Macedonia’s consequent independence. Likewise, some hard core Yugoslavists became “Macedonian patriots” overnight.

TEAM UZUNOV has published in full, Dr Scammell's response after he was sent a copy of the intelligence files:

"Thank you for that revealing snippet of information, which was unknown to me before, but doesn't surprise me in the least. The fact is that all the PEN centres from communist countries operated in more or less the same way, and the Yugoslav centres were no different from the Soviet-dominated ones, except that party control over their operations was looser and less predictable.

"Strictly speaking, none of these centres should have been in International PEN in the first place. They were there because (with the exception of the Russian Centre) the Soviet bloc centres had inherited the position of their pre-World War II predecessors, operating at the time within more or less democratic societies, and though they were quickly taken over by anti-democratic communists, the polite fiction was maintained that these centres continued to respect (and defend) freedom of expression. Thus among the delegations they sent to PEN's international congresses there would usually be one or two "name" writers, a couple of conformists and at least one "minder" and informer, who would report back to party headquarters.

"The situation of the Yugoslav centres wasn't much different, except for two factors. First, they not only inherited the bona fides of their pre-war predecessors, but also miraculously (and hypocritically) basked in the aura of PEN's 1933 International Congress in Bled, when the German centre was kicked out after being taken over by Hitler (and after Hitler's notorious book-burning orgy). Secondly, Yugoslavia was genuinely more flexible and liberal than the countries of the Soviet bloc by 1980, and that played a big role in the decision to hold a congress in Bled.

"It's worth noting too that there were considerable differences at the time between the Yugoslav centres themselves. By far the most liberal was the Slovenian Centre, which is another reason Bled was chosen, though even the Slovenes had their Bogdan Pogačnik. From there the degree of a centre's freedom generally shrank as you moved from north to south. The Croatian and Serbian centres were somewhat less free than Slovenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina was a lot less free, and Montenegro and Macedonia were still virtually Stalinist, which is why the Macedonians were so agitated.

"As for my own position vis-à-vis the Yugoslavs, it was rather complicated. I had graduated from Nottingham University in Russian literature, with a minor in Serbo-Croatian, and immediately afterward had spent the year 1958-59 working as a Lektor (Lecturer) in English language at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

"In the early-sixties I worked as a tourist guide in Dalmatia and helped write a tourist book on the region; in the mid-sixties, when I was working for the Overseas Service of the BBC, I met the Slovenian poet, Veno Taufer, there and we translated a great deal of Slovenian poetry into English; and in 1972 I founded the free-speech journal, Index on Censorship, where I regularly published information about the repression of writers in Yugoslavia (including Djilas at one point) and presented translations of some of their work. To cap it all, in 1976 I was asked to chair the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN and turned it into a highly active committee that, I'm pleased to say, was hated by both right and left-wing dictatorships all over the globe.

"As such, of course, I had to deal in even greater detail with the situation of writers in Yugoslavia and was in regular contact with dissidents from just about every republic. It was in this capacity that I learned about the plight of the Kosovar writer, Adam Demaci, who suffered not only politically, but also from the fact of writing in Albanian, which almost nobody knew. I myself didn't know Albanian either, but through my contacts at the BBC I knew a couple of Albanians living in London and was able to get information from them."

ATA - US State Department’s own army

By Sasha Uzunov

ATA - Office of the Antiterrorism Assistance Program is run by the United State’s State Department (it’s Foreign Ministry) and until recently when I stumbled upon this 1997 article from the Gainsville Sun in Florida, US, in a newspaper archive had no idea of its existence.

We all know of the CIA, the FBI, NSA, DEA and various other law-enforcement, espionage and para-military formations but this one, the ATA, was lunknown to me.

It was a secret counter terrorism unit set up by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and hidden until 1987.

An article from the Gainsville Sun newspaper, 28 January 1997 - US newspaper archives

PD Knowles, American secret counter-terrorist trainer sent to Columbia, Peru & Macedonia by the US State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program during the 1980s and 1990s.

He was obviously in Macedonia before the 1999 NATO war against Serbia for control of Kosovo and the 2001 ethnic Albanian uprising in Macedonia.

It is not known whether PD Knowles trained any potential Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) or its precursor elements during his stay in the Balkans.

You can read the 1997 full Gainsville Sun story at this link

The Official US State Department website:

The Office of Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA), administers the Antiterrorism Assistance Program. The ATA program trains civilian security and law enforcement personnel from friendly governments in police procedures that deal with terrorism. DS officers work with the host country's government and a team from that country's U.S. mission to develop the most effective means of training for bomb detection, crime scene investigation, airport and building security, maritime protections, and VIP protection.

DS assesses the training needs, develops the curriculum, and provides the resources to conduct the training. The bureau uses its own training experts as well as those from other U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, police associations, and private security firms and consultants.

Most ATA program recipients are developing nations lacking human and other resources needed to maintain an effective antiterrorism program and infrastructure. ATA training seeks to address deficiencies noted in the ability to perform the following areas:

Protecting national borders
Protecting critical infrastructure
Protecting national leadership
Responding to and resolving terrorist incidents
Managing critical terrorists incidents having national-level implications

Since its inception in 1983, the program has trained and assisted over 84,000 foreign security and law enforcement officials from 154 countries. These foreign security and law enforcement personnel have received training in bomb detection, crime scene investigations, airport and building security, maritime security, dignitary protection, and numerous other disciplines to increase their counterterrorism capabilities and capacity. These officials are now better prepared to fight terrorism and protect Americans overseas in times of crisis. DS has received numerous stories from foreign police officers who have used their ATA training successfully to counter terrorist situations in their countries.
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Marc A Celmer takes a critical look at the ATA in his book. He points out that there is an ulterior motive in setting up the ATA.  link here
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The Los Angeles Times newspaper ran a 1987 story about PC Knowles and the ATA:

U.S. Wins a Few : Upping the Stakes on Terrorism -

October 11, 1987 by DAVID LAMB

"WASHINGTON — In basement offices where a hand-lettered sign says "The Bullet Stops Here" and conference rooms where government lawyers gather, in California think tanks and training facilities from Oklahoma to Georgia, the United States is shaping the course of its undeclared war on international terrorism.

"It is a shadowy war that perhaps no one can win. Advances are measured in inches and may not last. The ammunition is often only snippets of intelligence or pleas for international cooperation, and the soldiers are as often lawyers and bureaucrats as undercover agents or counter terrorism squads awaiting secret deployment orders at U.S. military bases.

"Disarming a Terrorist

"One anti-terrorism instructor, P. C. Knowles, a deputy sheriff from Alachua County, Florida, stood the other day among a group of 30 Bolivian policemen and security officers at one of those facilities, a Transportation Department complex in Oklahoma City. One of the Bolivians held a simulated pistol at Knowles' back and the others crowded around attentively.

"First thing to know is where the weapon is," Knowles said, his head turning toward the assailant. "You have to look. Now, from this position, it's hopeless . . . but from here," and his feet spun, his arm swung back and in a flash he had the gun and his student had been flipped gently onto the canvas mat, "from here, it's easy."

"These efforts may represent only a footnote in a larger campaign, but CIA statistics indicate that they are paying dividends. They also imply that the Reagan Administration's sale of arms to Iran--which the State Department lists along with Syria, South Yemen, Libya and Cuba as a state sponsor of political violence--may not have been as harmful to U.S. interests as many had believed.” link to full story