MACEDONIA’S DIRTY BOMB? Nuclear weapons?

US Ambassador to Macedonia Jess Baily (left), Macedonia’s Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski (centre) and the newly installed head of the Public Safety Bureau Saso “The Shooter” Tasevski, who gained notoriety as the then bodyguard of Zoran Zaev, now Prime Minister, during the assault on Macedonia’s Parliament in April 2017. Tasevski pulled out his pistol and fired some rounds inside the building. Video still photo by Sasha Uzunov.

MACEDONIA’S DIRTY BOMB?  Nuclear weapons?

by Sasha Uzunov
Skopje, Macedonia
Wednesday 29 August 2018

The United States yesterday donated two mobile radioactive/nuclear detection units - equipped Mercedes Benz vans - to Macedonia - in order to stop the illegal trade in radioactive/nuclear material.

The units would be located at border checkpoints or any other place in Macedonia where there was a need for them.

There was a brief signing ceremony between the US Ambassador Jess Baily and Macedonia’s Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski at the Interior Ministry Headquarter complex in Skopje, the Macedonian capital but no media questions after the event. see link here 

The timing seemed to be coincidental - a week ago stories emerged of claims that depleted uranium shells were used at Krivolak, the Macedonian Army’s firing range. The government has dismissed these claims. see link here

RING OF NATO STEEL

It is also unusual why land locked Macedonia would be used as a smuggling route when it is probably easier to use others. Macedonia and neighbouring Serbia, both non NATO members, are ringed by NATO member states - Montenegro, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Kosovo remains a de facto US protectorate with a large US military base at Bondsteel.

But what is alarming is why does Macedonia need such mobile units? The most probable answer is the fear of terrorists, and the reality being ethnic Albanian Islamists who have fought in Iraq and Syria for ISIS, getting their hands on “dirty bombs” - conventional explosive device with radioactive material. The material could also be illegally sold to a state or non state player to make a full scale nuclear bomb. The focus no doubt would turn on “rogue states” such as Iraq or others, even though Iraq has its own well established nuclear program, just short of a weapons making.

TEAM UZUNOV Blog’s British diplomatic source has revealed that both the British externally based intelligence service (MI6) and its German counterpart (BND) have their main “stations” in Belgrade, Serbia, with one task, amongst many others, to closely monitor the legacy of ex-Yugoslavia’s nuclear program, which for all intents and purposes is dormant, if not dead (see below). Both these intelligence services run their operations in Macedonia from Belgrade. The BND also has a major station in Tirana, the Albanian capital.

In Macedonia any discussion of Albanian extremism - whether it be the secular nationalist variety of Ali Ahmeti which builds World War II Albanian Nazi statues is deliberately ignored and the percentage of Jihadist terrorists, well over 90% of ethnic Albanians, is not given much emphasis. Instead the blame to some extent is placed upon “evil Slav” Macedonians who have allegedly discriminated against muslim Albanians who have then turned to radical jihadism. It’s a nonsense claim, easily dismissed. You can see this propaganda of blaming “evil Slav” Macedonians in a Kosovo “strategic think tank” paper at this link

Have you ever heard of “human rights activists” build statues or invoking World War II Nazi collaborators or fascists as heroes to begin with? You will find that in Macedonia’s Albanian political scene - both secular nationalist and islamist - happily embrace the likes of Nazi collaborator Xhem Hasa.

Not all muslims are extreme, and this has to be emphasised. Muslims in the Balkans - Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia are the most moderate of all but there has been an alarming rise in the spread of Saudi style Wahhabism, including Salafism, something alien to Balkan Islam.

In comparison there have been no reported cases of “radicalised” native ethnic Macedonian Orthodox Christians fighting for “Mother Russia” in The Ukraine.

The bottom line is the Albanian political factor in Macedonia remains a staunch US ally. Any criticism of the Albanian factor is a criticism of US foreign policy in Macedonia.

Albanian extremism - both the secular nationalist one and the Jihadist one - pose serious security concerns for Macedonia and Macedonians. Yet it is an imported American problem in Macedonia - the 2001 war being a prime example. - see link here - and this is something that cannot be overlooked or covered up with alibis such as the US/EU brokered Ohrid Framework Agreement signed in 2001 between Albanian “insurgents” (in reality terrorists) and the Macedonian state to end the “conflict” which was kick-started by the US to begin with.

TAKE 7 - MACEDONIA: JIHADIST DUMPING GROUND FOR THE US? The Times of London story:

The Balkan state of Macedonia has taken back seven Islamic State fighters captured in Syria, the first significant public repatriation by a European state.

The decision by Macedonia, after a request by the United States, will put more pressure on Britain to rethink its refusal to accept the return of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, accused of being two of the so-called “Beatles” who held and beheaded western hostages.

Their fate is subject to a complex diplomatic struggle between the British and American governments, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led, western-backed militia holding them. link here

PRESPA AGREEMENT - NAME CHANGE FOR MACEDONIA FOR US STRATEGIC NEEDS ? The United States’s stranglehold on Macedonia since its independence, and especially after the 2001 war when it installed Albanian political clients, such as the local variant of the Kosovo Liberation Army led by Ali Ahmeti, is super tight, if not suffocating.

The whole agenda of getting Macedonia to change its name in order to appease Greek nationalist demands and give up its history in order to get Bulgaria onside is being driven by Washington. Both Greece and Bulgaria are NATO and EU members and staunch US allies. There are four US bases in Bulgaria and a large Naval facilities, used by the US, on the Greek island of Crete in the strategic Mediterranean Sea. It stands to reason that it would be easier to arm twist or bribe Macedonia to give up its identity and get it into both NATO and the EU than trying to convince Athens and Sofia to accommodate Macedonia. The path of least resistance. more at this link here 

The EU propaganda road show (see below) continues in Macedonia in the lead up to the controversial NATO and Macedonia name change referendum to be held on 30 September 2018. see here and here for more

YUGOSLAVIA

Macedonia was one of six republics within Yugoslavia from 1944 to 1991 when it, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina left the socialist federation because of Serbian nationalism, leaving a rump Serbia and Montenegro to carry the Yugoslavia name until both split up in 2006. In 2008 the predominately Albanian Kosovo province of Serbia declared its independence after a US inspired NATO intervention in 1999 kicked out the Serbs. That conflict had the knock on effect upon Macedonia in 2001 with the Kosovo Liberation Army, an Albanian nationalist militia which fought the Serbs in Kosovo in 1999, took the opportunity to grab territory in Macedonia. In order to cover this up, the fantasy of “human rights” was invoked. see link here

From 1944 until his death in 1980, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, a half Croat, half Slovene, ruled Yugoslavia. After his split from the Soviet Union’s sphere in 1949 and moving closer to the West, he initiated a weapons manufacturing industry  and exported to the third world hardware of its own or acting as  middleman for sought after Western technology in exchange for hard currency

SERBIA’S NUCLEAR LGEACY - In 2010 the US and Russia cooperated to remove Serbia’s nuclear fuel, which if it fell into the wrong hands, would have disastrous consequences not to mention environmental concerns for the Balkans region. see link here 

Interestingly, the US did not donate any mobile testing units to Macedonia at that time. 

TITO’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM - how Norway “helped"

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) intermittently pursued both a nuclear energy and weapons program throughout the Tito regime. However, none of Yugoslavia's successor states currently has an active nuclear weapons program.

Historically, the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) produced chemical weapons, and pursued both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

YUGOSLAVIA

- Intermittently pursued a nuclear weapons program from the 1940s to 1987

- Produced significant quantities of blister and nerve agents before the 1990s

- Cooperated with Iraq in the production of short-range rockets and ballistic missiles prior to Operation Desert Storm (1990-91).
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In 2002, more than two and a half bombs’ worth of highly enriched uranium (HEU) was stored in a civilian research reactor with inadequate security in Vinca, Serbia, near Belgrade, vulnerable to theft by terrorists. U.S. officials wanted the material protected and turned to NTI for help.

NTI worked closely with the U.S. Department of State, the IAEA, Russia and Serbia to facilitate the transfer of more than 100 pounds of weapons-usable nuclear material in the form of fresh reactor fuel to more secure storage in Russia for elimination through blend down. NTI’s contribution of $5 million also supported the repackaging and removal of 2.4 tons of highly radioactive spent reactor fuel for ultimate transport and disposition in Russia. The decommissioning of the reactor also was achieved through the project. link here

In 1958 a horrific accident occurred at the reactor in Vinica. 

TITO’S MACEDONIAN MIDDLEMAN - Stojan Andov and the Middle East

During the 1970s and 80s, Yugoslavia became a major supplier of arms to Saddam Hussein's Iraq and even to Iran during the infamous Iraq-Iran War (1980-88) in return for hard currency, cheap oil.
Yugoslav leader Tito was close with Saddam via the Non Aligned Movement...

Ex Macedonian Politician Stojan Andov was in 1975 running the Federal Yugoslav Committee for Economic Cooperation with Developing Countries - meaning Africa, Asia, the Middle East. From 1986 to 1990 he was Yugoslavia's Ambassador to Iraq. It stands to reason he would have played a large role in keeping weapons flowing to the Saddam regime in Baghdad. He would have also helped to arm the Ayatollah Khomeini’s islamist regime in Iraq as well as other despots in that part of the world.

The various CIA reports about Yugoslav arms exports here, here, here & here

Wikileaks cables about Andov and the Non Aligned Movement states here and here

Stojan Andov went on to become Parliamentary Speaker when Macedonia became independent from Yugoslavia in September 1991.

ARAB SPRING AND MACEDONIA ? - 2011 story: “...Assembly Deputy Andov shares this opinion; he believes that if these states [North Arica and Arabia] adopt sharia law, the radical entities in our state [Macedonia] and in our region would receive much greater support than they do presently.” link here

GERMANY’S ROLE IN CRUSHING ILINDEN UPRISING

How a British colonial war in South Africa (1899-1902) impacted the Ilinden Uprising in Macedonia in 1903

by Sasha Uzunov

- New Zealand, Australian (British Dominion press) and American press archives about the Ilinden era in Macedonia

1903 -‘THE GERMAN ARMY OFFICER WHO CRUSHED MACEDONIA’S ILINDEN UPRISING FOR THE SULTAN

The Ilinden Uprising was a Macedonian rebellion launched on 2 August 1903 - St Elijah’s Day hence the name in Macedonian Ilinden - after nearly five centuries of harsh Turkish Ottoman imperial rule. A number of earlier rebellions had been crushed by the Turks. The Ilinden Uprising threatened Ottoman rule so much so it sent the ruler, the Sultan, into a panic. Imperial Germany sensing an opening in gaining economic and political clout in the Balkans gladly offered its assistance in putting down the rebellion.

Macedonian insurgents known as Komiti at the 
Battle of Mechkin Kamen, Ilinden Uprising - see link here 

To begin with, it was an asymmetrical war - the numerically superior Ottoman Army against Macedonian insurgents known as komiti (comitadji). With the formation of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (VMRO) in Salonica in 1893 by Macedonian intellectuals, writers, military adventurists, a serious of skirmishes, battles involving the komiti and the Ottoman Army began - ranging from hit and run tactics, ambushing, classic guerrilla warfare to use of “terrorism” such as bombing the Ottoman Bank in Salonica to taking hostages such as American missionary Ellen Stone in 1901 in order to gain funds for VMRO to wage an independence war.

THE SECOND BOER WAR - SOUTH AFRICA

The Second Boer War (1899-1902) pitted Dutch Afrikaner settlers known as Boers against the might of the British Empire. The Boers used mobile guerrilla tactics against a superior but cumbersome British Army which lost the initial battles. British strategists such as Lord Kitchener (pictured below) devised some fiendish tactics to defeat the Boers:

The counterinsurgency techniques and lessons (the restriction of movement, the containment of space, the ruthless targeting of anything, everything and anyone that could give sustenance to guerrillas, the relentless harassment through sweeper groups coupled with rapid reaction forces, the sourcing and coordination of intelligence, and the nurturing of native allies) learnt during the Boer War were used by the British (and other forces) in future guerrilla campaigns including to counter Malayan communist rebels during the Malayan Emergency (1948-60). In World War II the British also adopted some of the concepts of raiding from the Boer commandos when, after the fall of France, they set up their special raiding forces, and in acknowledgment of their erstwhile enemies, chose the name British Commandos. - citation - see link here
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An Imperial German Army artillery officer by the name of Baron Hugo Von Goeben - then a Captain - resigned his commission and went to fight for the Boers against the British. The tactics he observed employed by the British he later used against Macedonian insurgents on behalf of the Ottoman Empire in 1903. After his tour of duty in South Africa, he rejoined the German army and was sent by the German Kaiser to advise the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire on crushing a Macedonian rebellion, the Ilinden Uprising in 1903 which sought to throw off five centuries of Turkish colonial rule.

British scorched earth policy in the South African Boer War (circa 1901)- burning down
Boer farm houses denying insurgents shelter and resupply to wage guerrilla warfare. 

Von Goeben was the mastermind of a brutal campaign during the Ilinden Uprising - as mentioned later in the British press in 1915:

Quote:

Captain Hugo von Goeben

"At this critical moment, the German Emperor [Kaiser] stepped in to save the situation. Serving in the Great General Staff at Berlin was a Prussian officer, Captain von Goeben, who, under De Wet, had fought against us [Britain] throughout the South African War, and who therefore had first-hand knowledge of Lord Kitchener’s system of "drives."

"Drives, said the Emperor to the Sultan, might solve the Macedonian problem. Von Goeben, accordingly was despatched at once to the Turkish army headquarters at Monastir [Bitola], where, for all practical purposes, he assumed complete command.

"Drives were duly organised, the Turkish soldiery being strengthened by Arnauts, or Albanian bashi-bazouks, and the riffraff of the Turkish towns. Von Goeben was successful. Failing to catch the comitadjis, who remained in the forests and hills, he arranged to round up their less mobile relatives and friends instead. Villages were destroyed wholesale. Old men, women, and children were mercilessly slaughtered and in the most disgusting manner.” see link here

-Turkish Army's Artillery units were trained by German experts-

The Turks are "Kitchenerising Macedonia"

"The Turks are only applying to Macedonia the policy which Lord Kitchener [British Army Commander} found so efficacious in South Africa. The Macedonians are thicker on the ground than the Boers. The Turks do their devastation less scientifically, with savage accompaniments distasteful even to Jingos [Ultra British Empire nationalists]. But the work of denuding the country by fire and sword in order to starve the natives into a submission which no operations in the field could extort is  our British patent [invention]...the Turks are only Kitchenerising Macedonia."

- W.T. Stead, British journalist, author, pundit, 1904 - link

W.T. Stead

In 1912 an unnamed Western diplomat writing for an American newspaper claimed that he had first hand knowledge of Germany's role in crushing the Ilinden Uprising: "in 1903 the Macedonian insurrection had to be suppressed by the German government," he wrote.

- REPORTS OF THE REPRISALS

Macedonians being roasted alive; villages laid to waste in deliberate scorched earth strategy.

Report (above) from The True Republican newspaper, Ilinios, US, 30 September 1903, link here 

California state newspaper archive (US) -Press Democrat newspaper, 18 August 1903 - Link

Women and Children Massacred
Berlin, Aug. 17. —According to a dispatch received by the Frankfurt Zeitung, the river near Monastir [Bitola], Macedonia, is full of the mutilated bodies of women and children who have been massacred by Bashi-Bazouks [Albanian irregular troops in Ottoman Army].

Ohrid and Prespa Lakes regions- Resen, Podmocani, Brajcino (Bratichino)  & Ljubojno (Louboino)  New York Times 12 September 1903.

1903 - US press front-page story - Albanian Bashi-bazouk terror unleashed upon Macedonians in Bitola [Monastir], Debar [Debre] and Ohrid [Okrida] during Ilinden Uprising against Ottoman Empire. The Minneapolis Journal, Minnesota US, August 18, 1903, page 1 - link

BULGARS?
It was common for British and American pundits and reporters in the early stages of the 20th century to call incorrectly Macedonians as “Bulgars,” which at a later date created much confusion. Bulgar was a generic term meant as a “Christian Slav" who had come under the religious jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Exarchate Church as opposed to the Greek Patriarchate Church. The Sultan had permitted to both these Orthodox Churches to operate in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia.

You can find accounts of Ukrainians called as “Little Russians.”

In 1908 Allen Upward led an "expedition" which became a book The East End of Europe, into deep dark Ottoman Macedonia - pardon the Joseph Conrad Congro overtones -and entered a village in which the locals called their language as Macedonian not Bulgarian.

Upward elsewhere in his book claimed that this was part of a secret Bulgarian attempt to annex Macedonia from the Ottomans by creating bogus Macedonians. Such a preposterous conspiracy theory was widely popular at the time but in late Victorian/early Edwardian England and in reality it was based on ignorance and dare I say it racism.

Another -less haughty -British source reveals that Macedonians did not regard themselves as Bulgarians.

A 1926 British Foreign Office report from diplomat RA Gallop who had visited the part of Macedonia which had come under Serbian colonial rule after it was partitioned in the 1912-13 Balkan Wars by Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria, who had combined to defeat the Ottoman Empire.

Gallop had spoken to some local Macedonians in Skopje who emphatically told him they were Macedonians not Serbs nor Bulgars.

Reference: FO371/11405 Kennard(Belgrade) to A.Chamberlain 21 April 1926 Enclosure, R.A. Gallop, "Conditions in Macedonia" 19 April 1926 - cited by Andrew Rossos.

British journalist and author Joseph Swire in his 1939 book, the Bulgarian Conspiracy, page 51, explains that Bugar [Bulgar] denoted serf or labourer and Greek, a wealthy or educated person, and not necessarily meaning an ethnic identity during Ottoman rule in the Balkans

What is clear is the major leaders of the Ilinden Uprising -including the prelude to it - such as Goce Delcev and Dame Gruev made a clear distinction between Macedonian and Bulgarian. In fact Bulgaria played a role in suppressing the Ilinden Uprising.

see link here

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DAME GRUEV - 
A1906 American press report had this to say about Dame Gruev (pictured right), one of the leaders of the 1903 Ilinden Uprising:

"They are apostles of a proletarian insurrection that shall establish on Macedonian soil the first socialist republic of the world. Hence they ceaselessly propagate the sentiment of independence from foreign air.

"They decry the help of "kings and bishops" and pin their faith on the organized workingmen of Europe. To the central body of the revolutionists, headed by its chief, Grueff [Dame Gruev], the failure of Europe to institute a thorough-going international control with a European governor-general is a vital blow, for their dream, is to make autonomous Macedonia a nucleus around which will coalesce in time the Balkan United States.

"This body which is now in control maintains an attitude of reserve towards official Bulgaria, being unwilling to receive favors at the price of obligation. it is permanently opposed to any annexation of Macedonian territory by the principality of Bulgaria. This has always been the settled policy of the organization...”

- California State (US) newspaper archives - Morning Press newspaper, 14 June 1906. link here 

Los Angeles Herald - 16 August 1903 - The Bulgarian Prime Minister of the day looked upon the brutal crushing of the Ilinden Uprising as being “optimistic” and acknowledged that it had been largely confined to the Bitola [Monastir] region in Macedonia - de facto recognising no link to any Bulgarian role in the rebellion. see link

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ILINDEN UPRISING - Macedonian independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire and not union with Bulgaria. Bulgarian assistance requested, which ultimately never came. Los Angeles Herald - 16 August 1903 - link here

OPPOSED TO PAN-GERMANISM AND PAN-SLAVISM - The Macedonian movement

The New-York Tribune newspaper, April 06, 1903, Page 2, - link here 

US report spells out that Macedonians in the "interior" are not interested in Bulgaria nor Slavism but are "autochthonous elements" (native).

"The Macedonian committees of the Interior are not composed of men who, having taken refuge in the principality, have derived ideas of a "great Bulgaria.' They comprise only autochthonous elements— schoolmasters, priests, and those of the people who have received some instruction. The interior committees do not care anything about Slavism; they are concerned exclusively with the interest of Macedonia and are opposed to outside intrusions. They believe that Macedonians only have the right to decide about Macedonia. This is one reason for Russian hostility." 

1902 -Macedonian revolutionary leader warned that Pan Germanism stood in the way of the upcoming Macedonian Uprising [1903 Ilinden] succeding against the Ottoman Empire !

Evening Times-Republican newspaper, US, November 14, 1902, page 5 - link here 

1903 An American eyewitness account - the prelude to Ilinden Uprising

Washington Times correspondent HR Chamberlain says he spoke to Macedonian revolutionary who told him he wants complete Macedonian independence, opposes Pan-Germanism and Pan-Russianism and seeks British and French support. The Washington Times, April 26, 1903, Page 3 - link

Macedonians who emigrated to Bulgaria to escape Ottoman terror were supporting Ilinden Uprising with cash and weapons, not the Bulgarian government which was staying out of it

Associated Press reports-page 1, The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Hawaii US, 12 Feb 1903 - link

THE SPLIT AND BULGARIAN INFILTRATION - premature uprising doomed to failure.

What we now know and what was known at the time, was a split in the ranks of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisaton (IMRO/ VMRO in Macedonia) into two factions: one which was for Macedonian independence and the other called the Supremacists (Vrhovisti) infiltrated by Bulgaria in order to provoke an armed conflict that would be doomed to fail because of a lack of weapons and proper organisation. Goce Delcev belonged to the former faction but was killed in May 1903 before the Ilinden Uprising occurred. Dame Gruev who supported Macedonian independence did, however, support the Uprising though opposed to the Supremacists. 

A 1939 book review in the Australian press of British journalist and author Joseph S. Swire's book, the Bulgarian Conspiracy:

"For three years Mr. Swire lived in Bulgaria as correspondent of the New York Times and Reuters. He met and talked with terrorists and conspirators, and his book is an attempt to place the famous, or infamous. IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation) in its proper perspective. Briefly, this is his history of the IMRO: It was founded near the end of the last century as an organisation of terrorists whose aim was to free the Turkish controlled portion of Macedonia.

"The ruling class in Bulgaria, however, feared that it might struggle for the independence of Macedonians in Bulgaria. So the ruling class gradually gained control of it and, retaining the name, used it us an instrument of terrorism to gain political ends. That meant that it became 'Bulgarian,' rather than 'Macedonian.'"  - Sunday 25 June 1939 - Sunday Mail (Brisbane) link here

VON GOEBEN’S GRISLY FATE:

In 1908 Von Goeben later met his own grisly fate: he murdered the husband, a fellow German officer, of his mistress before committing suicide to avoid execution. see link here 

TRAGIC LOVE TRIANGLE

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THE SCHIZOPHRENIC STATE - Macedonian Army Day & Albanian Nazi statues.

by Sasha Uzunov
Skopje, Macedonia
Friday 17 August 2018

I was at today’s formal ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence to mark Macedonian Army Day which falls on 18 August every year.

The 18 August was chosen because on that day in 1943 the Mirce Acev partizan battalion was formed and became the nucleus of the National Liberation Army of Macedonia (NOV na Makedonija) before being subsumed by the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army (JNA) by 1945.

The National Liberation Army of Macedonia fought the Nazi German occupiers and its fellow fascist allies the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the quisling Albanian nationalist militia, the Balli Kombetar.

Yet, in the same breath that Macedonian Army Day is commemorated, and is based on the anti fascist resistance during World War II, since the 2001 ethnic Albanian war in Macedonia and the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) which brought the conflict to an end, WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues have popped up in Macedonia either directly built or at least supported by Ali Ahmeti, the ex Albanian terrorist and leader of the 2001 war and now “mainstream” politician.

In 2006 a statue to Xhem Hasa, the leader of the Balli Kombetar in Macedonia during WWII, was unveiled in Simnica, a village near the town of Gostivar in western Macedonia. In 2015, another Albanian Nazi collaborator statue and Balli Kombetar leader, Aqif Krosi Recani, was erected in another village close to Gostivar called Recani. The architect behind these two statues is ethnic Albanian politician Nevzat Bejta, who was given a front row “reserved” seat to hear ex US diplomat Evelyn N. Farkas sing the “praises” of the OFA recently. see link here

There has been a deliberate silence over these statues - they remain the elephant in the room that everyone, including the US and leading Macedonian politicians from the major parties know exist but act as if they don’t.

Earlier this week, TEAM UZUNOV asked the Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev over those controversial statues and instead was witness to a bizarre, and contrived act of “historical amnesia” over the Albanian Nazi statues on the part of the Prime Minister. In comparison, Nazi statues are banned in Germany, which is both a NATO and EU member.

THE INCREDIBLE IRONY & INCONSISTENCY ! Weasel words?

Macedonia’s Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska used Macedonian Army Day as a platform to attack name change opponents as engaging in spreading false news - this despite at the start of the week (see above) her own Prime Minister Zoran Zaev playing deliberate historical “amnesia” over WWII Albanian Nazi statues in Macedonia.

The incredible irony: Macedonian Army Day is celebrated on 18 August after the formation of the Mirce Acev (Partizan) battalion on 18 August 1943 which became the nucleus of the National Liberation Army of Macedonia - it fought the very same Albanian Nazi collaborators such as Xhem Hasa, of whose statue PM Zaev tried to weasel his way out of condemning.

The question remains why does this deliberate paradox, this state schizophrenia - anti fascist and neo fascist commemoration exist in Macedonia? Why does the US refuse to counsel its political clients in Macedonia such as ex Albanian terrorist turned political kingmaker Ali Ahmeti to remove these insulting statues? If the US wants Macedonia to join NATO why is there this need to stonewall the issue about Albanian neo fascism? To put it bluntly is this is deceit by deliberate silence? People who build Nazi statues are people who fundamentally don’t believe in democracy and human rights - and this is the rub - the US’s allies in Macedonia, the Albanian political bloc has by a large measure supported these statues. It undermines the whole narrative of ethnic Albanians as being “victims” of “slav” intolerance in Macedonia, if Albanian leaders invoke World War II Nazi collaborators who took part in ethnic cleaning, massacres of Macedonians as “heroes” !

The Zaev government and President Ivanov (pictured below) are at loggerheads - to put it mildly - over Macedonia’s NATO and EU membership bid. This was evident at Macedonian Army Day - both Defence Minister Sekerinska and the President rarely exchanging small talk other than keeping it very formal and very polite.

Both the government and the President support both NATO and EU membership and Ivanov reiterated that support at the Macedonian Army Day celebration. He just doesn’t accept that Macedonia has to change its name, its identity because of the controversial Prespa Agreement with Greece, signed by the Zaev government. see link on Prespa Agreement. He has been the target of a nasty racist campaign by the likes of pro NATO Serb journalist in Macedonia Borjan Jovanovski. see link here 

Above: Macedonian Army Day celebration - US Embassy in Macedonia Deputy Chief of Mission Ms Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm (left) talks with Macedonia President George Ivanov (right). Macedonia’s Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska in the background - playing with her hair and casting a look over at the President. Video still (freeze frame) photo by Sasha Uzunov.

Below: Macedonian Army Day celebration - US Embassy in Macedonia Deputy Chief of Mission Ms Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm (left) lays on the diplomatic charm as Macedonia President George Ivanov (right) about to crack open a smile. Macedonia’s Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski in the background. Video still (freeze frame) photo by Sasha Uzunov.

ZAEV - ALBANIAN AMNESIA, BULGARIAN BLACKMAIL, GREEK GIVEAWAY

by Sasha Uzunov
Skopje, Macedonia

Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, either has no clue about Macedonian history or he is a willing participant in deliberate amnesia over certain events. Moreover, the various agreements and platforms involving Bulgaria, Greece and local ethnic Albanians have placed him and the nation-state he governs in a position to be blackmailed if it does not toe the line.

All of this has come about because for Macedonia to join the EU and NATO - read for US strategic needs - it needs to unblock Greek and Bulgarian opposition to joining those two aforementioned international organisations. A controversial referendum asking Macedonians to change their name and identity in order to gain EU and NATO membership will be held on 30 September this year. It’s no understatement to say that the EU and the US and its client the Macedonian government have all launched a strong media campaign to push through the referendum and a Yes vote. see link here

BULGARIAN BLACKMAIL:

The height of this absurdity has come about in the past fortnight, beginning with the commemoration of the Ilinden Uprising - a Macedonian rebellion launched on 2 August 1903 against five centuries of Turkish Ottoman imperial rule. Prime Minister Zaev, having signed a goodneighbourly agreement wth Bulgaria on 1 August 2017, is required to horse trade Macedonian history in order not to “offend” Bulgarian sensitivities. That is the Ilinden Uprising has to be a “joint” event demonstrating a “link” between Macedonian and Bulgarian identity - the overall purpose is to show Macedonians are a branch of Bulgarians who went out on their own, rather than being a separate ethnic group in their own right.

So you had the political theatre of PM Zaev travelling to Bulgaria to “commemorate” Ilinden with his Bulgar counterpart Boyko Borissov. Bulgaria claims that Goce Delcev, Macedonia’s greatest hero, who was killed in the lead up period to Ilinden, was a Bulgar.

When PM Zaev accidently went off script by saying - truthfully - that the Ilinden Uprising was purely a Macedonian affair, official Sofia, including Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev came out with all guns a blazing demanding an apology and threatening repercussions. link here

That’s the price Bulgaria - which has four US military bases on its territory - has asked for its support for EU and NATO membership and the heavy price Macedonia must now pay, which includes restricting free speech and possibly prosecution for anyone who dares stray- as is with the Prespa Agreement signed by Greece and Macedonia, which also demands Macedonia give large chunks of its history and suffering legal repercussions.

It is nothing more than blatant Bulgarian and Greek blackmail, hailed by the West as a “breakthrough” in establishing “friendly relations.”

Turkish Sultan thanks Prince Ferdinand of BULGARIA for arresting Macedonian [Revolutionary] Committees -Bulgaria sabotaged the lead up to Ilinden Uprising !

source: Colac Herald (Victoria, Australia), Tuesday 24 February 1903, page 3 - link here

and then this:

Prelude to Ilinden 1903 - New Zealand newspaper archives - Macedonian revolutionary Goce Delcev (Deltcheff) belonged to the faction which wanted Macedonian independence not annexation by Bulgaria. EVENING POST (New Zealand), VOLUME LXV, ISSUE 124, 27 MAY 1903. link here

A1906 American press report had this to say about Dame Gruev (pictured left), one of the leaders of the 1903 Ilinden Uprising:

"They are apostles of a proletarian insurrection that shall establish on Macedonian soil the first socialist republic of the world. Hence they ceaselessly propogate the sentiment of independence from foreign air.

"They decry the help of "kings and bishops" and pin their faith on the organized workingmen of Europe. To the central body of the revolutionists, headed by its chief, Grueff [Dame Gruev], the failure of Europe to institute a thorough-going international control with an European governor general is a vital blow, for their dream is to make autonomous Macedonia a nucleus around which will coalesce in time a Balkan United States.

"This body which is now in control maintains an attitude of reserve towards official Bulgaria, being unwilling to receive favors at the price of obligation. it is permanently opposed to any annexation of Macedonian territory by the principality of Bulgaria. This has always been the settled policy of the organization...”

California State (US) newspaper archives - Morning Press newspaper, 14 June 1906. link here 
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ALBANIAN AMNESIA

A truly bizarre case of deliberate “historical amnesia” by Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in “defending” World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues - of Xhem Hasa and Aquif Krosi Recani - built in recent times in Macedonia by ethnic Albanian politicians - some of whom are now coalition partners in the Zaev government.

In comparison, Germany, which is both an EU and NATO member, bans Nazi statues from being built. There is no historical dispute that Hasa and Recani were Nazi collaborators. Their statues have only appeared in Macedonia after the 2001 ethnic Albanian war in Macedonia. more on the statues here at this link and this link 

Team Uzunov, at an event held to “celebrate” the 17th anniversary of Ohrid Framework Agreement  held in Skopje Macedonia last week, asked PM Zaev about the Nazi statues - see below. The Prime Minister tried to weasel out of responding by claiming that relevant bureaucratic institutions had to investigate the statues and confirm their links to Nazi collaboration. It’s like saying that an Adolf Hitler statue has to be investigated in order to find out that Adolf Hitler was in fact a Nazi. It’s absurd and insulting to most Macedonians.

FRONT ROW SEAT TO THE HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY - Ohrid Framework Agreement “celebrations” show and the referendum push !

Former US diplomat Evelyn N. Farkas (pictured above - in the centre of the photo) was in town to “celebrate” the 17th anniversary of the Ohrid Framework Agreement which purportedly brought to an end the 2001 ethnic Albanian war in Macedonia, started by an offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army in a land grab but later reworked as a fight for human rights.

The OFA is simply an alibi which lets the US off the hook for letting loose these thugs and terrorists in Macedonia. The Guardian newspaper at the time revealed that the “US’s bastard army” was running rampant in Macedonia. see link here.

The consequences of the OFA hasn’t been long term stability but has brought de facto partition of the country and the rise of Albanian neo fascism - manifested by the brazen erecting of World War II Nazi collaborators.

Ms Farkas’s comments at the “celebration”: “Make no mistake a failed referendum would be a win for extreme nationalists and for Russia...”

Yet she was happily sharing the same stage with Ali Ahmeti, the man who started the 2001 war and who has supported the building of World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues - you can’t get any more extreme nationalist than that.

AND A CHERRY ON TOP ! Can you please pass the popcorn too?

- A seat reserved for Nevzat Bejta

And to top it off - the cherry on the cream of the cake of hypocrisy -there was a “reserved” front row seat invitation to ethnic Albanian poltician Nevzat Bejta, the very man who carried out the nuts and bolts operations in building those two Nazi statues of Xhem Hasa and Aqif Krosi Recani ! - see link here

GREEK GIVEAWAY - PRESPA AGREEMENT - Ms Farkas, naturally, was signing the praises of the agreement which in reality will lead to erasing Macedonian identity - more on the Prespa Agreement see link here