WIRETAPS -GERMAN EMBASSY CONTRADICTS ITSELF

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

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

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

Our story on Lazarevski here at this link

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

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

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

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

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

ZORAN VERUSEVSKI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE? - Spiritual Security?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Mr Uzunov,

thanks for your email.

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

Regards
Peter Schaller

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

Mr Ralf Brandts
Germany Embassy
Skopje, Macedonia


Dear Mr Brandts

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

I need to ask you some serious questions:

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

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

Regards

Sasha Uzunov
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DUTCH SILENCE OVER BESA LINKS?

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

by Sasha Uzunov

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PROMINENT DUTCH PROTEGES - Artan Grubi, Kastriot Rexhepi 

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

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

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

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

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

Eight people were injured in the violence in February 2011.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALARMING STATUES

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

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

KASTRIOT REXHEPI - Besa Vice President.

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

QUESTIONS POSED TO THE NETHERLAND’S AMBASSADOR TO MACEDONIA 

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

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

QUESTIONS POSED TO BILALL KASAMI LEADER OF BESA:

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

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

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

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

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

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

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


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YES OR NO?- LAWYER TOO BUSY TO ANSWER PRESPA DEAL QUESTION

by Sasha Uzunov 

A spokeswoman for a prominent Anglo-Irish international jurist said the lawyer was too busy to answer whether or not she was involved in drafting the controversial Prespa Agreement signed by Greece and Macedonia, which will erase Macedonian identity, this despite the lawyer being engaged to “advise” Macedonia on name change !

Ms Blinne Ni Ghralaigh of UK based Matrix Chambers legal firm issued a statement through the firm’s media spokeswoman, Ms Rachel Murray, to Team Uzunov Blog:

"I’m afraid Blinne is extremely busy at the moment and unfortunately I don’t think she is going to be able to assist you with your enquiries."

Questions posed to Ms Ni Ghralaigh were:

-I wanted to ask you if you were involved in drafting or putting together the Prespa Agreement?

-Were you approached by the Macedonian government in any way?

-Were [ex US State Department official] Dr Amanda Sloat and ######## involved in the preparation of the Prespa Agreement?

Ms Ni Ghralaigh lists in her legal CV (resume) as advising Macedonia on name negotiations with Greece in relation to joining international organistions.

She has previously worked for Macedonia in its legal case against Greece over the 1995 Interim Agreement. 

Macedonians recently boycotted in large numbers a referendum held on 30 September this year over accepting the Prespa Agreement which would change Macedonia’s name to North Macedonia in order to satisfy Greek nationalist demands and remove Athens’ veto over Macedonia’s application to join the EU and NATO.

Critics see the Prespa Agreement as being drafted by the United States and imposed upon Macedonia for Washington’s strategic needs but deliberately presented as though it was the joint product of Macedonia and Greece. 

The US Ambassador to Macedonia, Mr Jess Baily, when confronted with the allegations, responded:

Sasha Uzunov: [US] Ambassador Baily, sir, did Amanda Sloat write the Prespa Agreement, sir, a former US State Department official, sir? Did she write it, sir? From the Brookings Institute. Do you wish to comment Ambassador Baily, sir?

Amb Baily: Mr Uzumanov [Uzunov], um, I think that is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard in my life. The Prespa Agreement was negotiated by the governments of Macedonia and Greece with the help of the United Nations. I don’t think you need to look any further than that. Thank you very much.

Sasha Uzunov: You would testify before [US] Congress and Senate, sir?

Amb Bodyguard: gotovo, gotovo [comment finished]

Amb Baily: Absolutely.

Sasha Uzunov: No worries. Thank you for your comment, sir.

What adds spice to the story is Dr Sloat despite being asked a number of times, via email, telephone message left with her researcher, and on social media, has declined to confirm or deny the allegation of her being the author or one of the authors of the Prespa Agreement. This remains puzzling...

Macedonia’s Justice Minister, Mrs Renata Deskoska, being a senior minister in Prime Minister Zaev’s cabinet, admitted she had no idea who wrote the Prespa Agreement:

The Defence Minister, Ms Radmila Sekerinska, reacted somewhat bizarrely over being asked if Dr Amanda Sloat was the author of the Prespa Agreement.

- BACKGROUND STORY - see link here

PRESPA AGREEMENT PUT TO PARLIAMENTARY VOTE IN MACEDONIA - OCTOBER 19, 2018

GUN-VOTE DIPLOMACY? POLITICAL THEATRE TOUR DE FORCE....FARCE - how it unfolded...80 MPs votes to secure 2/3 majority. 8 Opposition MPs cross the floor to vote for name change

Macedonia Parliament vote wash up on the controversial Prespa Agreement- the massive police presence in town in the capital Skopje during the day suggested that the vote was on tonight in the Assembly. 

The crescendo of reports of MPs being threatened, bought off etc etc in the end sounded nothing more than cheap theatrics from both the governing SDSM party and the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party to collude to get the Prespa Deal through..despite VMRO-DPMNE being opposed to the Deal.

It gave the Opposition the escape hatch it needed in order not alienate its supporter base. But in the end enormous US pressure won out to change Macedonia’s name and identity for strategic needs - getting it into NATO and appeasing Greek and Bulgar nationalist demands (both NATO allies).

The vote now opens up the Macedonian constitution to be changed as per the Prespa Agreement - namely Macedonia becoming North Macedonia; giving up any claims to any ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece, changing history books, removing any reference to Greece’s brutal colonialism of Macedonia and Macedonians beginning in 1913 when the territory was partitioned between Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria and in effect giving Greece de facto right to interfere in Macedonian sovereignty. And removing any reference to a Macedonian national identity but Albanian identity plus the other ethnic minorities keep their identities intact. It’s George Orwell’s 1984 frighteningly come true. A police like apparatus will enforce that no mention of Macedonia is made without the prefix North.

 In return for all of this is Greece not blocking Macedonia’s entry into both the EU and NATO. 

Moreover, the constitutional changes envisioned would include placing the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the 2001 deal signed after the ethnic Albanian uprising, instigated by the US, which has turned Macedonia into an unofficial federation, in the constitution. This would in probability facilitate Albanian secession from Macedonia down the track. 

Moreover, Inserting the Ohrid Framework Agreement into the Macedonian constitution is a deliberate ploy by the US to give it an alibi for unleashing the 2001 ethnic Albanian war in Macedonia. see link to Guardian article from 2001.

Opponents to the Prespa Agreement claimed that dirty tricks were used to get 8 Opposition MPs, mainly from the VMRO-DPMNE party, to cross the floor. Some had been indicted for corruption or terrorism charges related to the 27 April 2017 parliamentary attack and had allegedly been offered a deal for their vote. Some even went as far as claiming that last year’s parliamentary attack had been delibrately staged managed to be later used as blackmail. Others suggested that both the ruling SDSM government and the main Opposition VMRO-DPMNE were in collusion in order to get the Prespa Agreement through.

Whatever the veracity of the various claims may be, what is puzzling is the behaviour of a prominent US official.

A few days after the vote was taken, US State Department official, Matthew Palmer, arrived in Macedonia to give his “blessing” to the vote but declined to answer whether US pressure was applied on any members of parliament to vote in favour. The question was put to him would he testify under oath in the US Congress that no undue pressure took place:

The US State Department had issued a “warning” letter to VMRO-DPMNE Opposition leader Christian Mickovski to accept the Prespa Agreement. The EU wasn’t prepared to comment at any cost.

STRATEGIC CHESS-BOARD - Harald Kotschy - ex Austrian Ambassador to Macedonia remains a staunch critic of the Prespa Agreement:

Translated from the German (Austrian) - link here: 

This redefinition of Macedonian identity, history, language and culture is the real aim of Greece, since outside of North Macedonia there will be no Macedonian resident population, no Macedonian history, language and culture. In this way, the cloth of silence could once and for all be spread once and for all through the brutal Greek annexation of Aegean-Macedonia in 1913, with its non-Greek majority population (Turks, Bulgarians, Macedonians), compulsory Greekization and human rights violations. Aegean-Macedonia did not receive its new Hellenistic character until the settlement of the Little Asiatic Greeks in 1923, on the basis of the Treaty of Lausanne.

The surprise was great on the evening of September 30th. Among the Balkan correspondents and ambassadors in Skopje. * The elite of Brussels, who had come to support the government in Skopje, which had been brought to power by means of a "regime change" by the EU and the USA last year, to the very last media. In the US and NATO, urgently need Macedonia as a staging area for the encirclement of Russia to master the "Eurasian chess board" (Zbigniew Brzezinski Quote).

In the non-binding referendum on the Macedonian-Greek prespa agreement aimed at settling the name dispute, almost two-thirds of voters from all camps in the urn stayed away last Sunday. Ethnic Macedonian voters expected to follow the boycott appeal. What was surprising, however, was the low participation of the - according to their politicians - per EU and per NATO oriented Albanian population. This shows that, on the one hand, the actual size of this population group no longer corresponds to the results of the (most recent) census of 2002, on the other hand, the Albanian scene should no longer follow its political representatives as homogenously as it once did. But it is only superficially about the rejected from Greece state name of the Republic of Macedonia. In addition to the amendment to "Republic of North Macedonia", the Prespa Agreement provides, in particular, for the term "Macedonian" to refer only to the territory of North Macedonia. However, "Macedonia" geographically covers a much larger area than today's Republic, especially today's northern Greece. The term “Macedonian” as a term for an independent population together with its language and culture, which has developed in this area....