Into the inferno?

Christian Century, August 29, 2001 by Paul Mojzes

Rage and fear in Macedonia

MACEDONIA BECAME an independent nation without firing a single shot. For a time it seemed that this small country: of about 2 million might avoid the kind of interethnic warfare that marked the destruction of the former Yugoslavia, a federation that once included such now independent republics as Croatia and Slovenia. But with the inevitability of sand pouring through an hourglass the violence has moved from the north into the southernmost part of what was once Yugoslavia. Most Macedonians perceive themselves as tolerant and good-natured, and many are shocked and puzzled at the turmoil in their country.

Collective insecurity and fear almost always lead to violence, and Macedonia has been surrounded and suffused by insecurity and fear. The country's neighbors are mostly hostile to it and even deny its very right to exist. One neighbor, Turkey, ruled over Macedonia for some 500 years. Ironically, Turkey was the first of the surrounding countries to grant Macedonia diplomatic recognition and to trade with it. It helped that the two countries do not have a common border, but the Turks' main motive was that they wanted to irritate the Greeks. Greece, which shares Macedonia's southern border, thinks of Macedonia as northern Greece. It imposed a trade embargo on Macedonia for several years and insists that, in the UN, it be called "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."

Bulgarians consider Macedonians western Bulgarians and would like to absorb them into their state. Serbians used to consider Macedonians southern Serbs, but they generally acquiesced to Tito's decision to recognize Macedonian nationhood and the country's right to a separate language. However, the Serbian Orthodox Church still has not conceded full autonomy (autocephaly) to the Orthodox Church in Macedonia. Finally, Macedonia and its neighbor to the west, Albania, have been engaged in persistent territorial disputes.

NATO's actions have made Macedonians feel even more insecure. During the Kosovo conflict, NATO troops traversed Macedonia from Greece, and NATO still uses Macedonia as a supply route. The sudden influx into Macedonia of about 600,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo--an influx that coincided with NATO's bombardment of Serbian territory--completely unbalanced the country. Not only were the refugees an enormous strain on Macedonia's meager economic resources, but most international aid seemed to go to the ethnic Albanians and very little or none to the Macedonians.

Ethnic Macedonians were particularly distressed and outraged by what they read as NATO's implicit message that it (and especially the U.S.A.) sided with the Albanians and were encouraging them to seek autonomy or independence in all areas where they were numerous.

When the war over Kosovo ended, guerrilla fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army were absorbed into the Kosovo Protection Force, primarily financed and trained by the U.S. Some of this corps are now fighting in Macedonia. This has, of course, undermined the delicate coexistence of Macedonians and Albanians and has turned Macedonia into a time bomb.

Macedonia is a poor country with few resources. Macedonians want to become democratic, but have little experience with democracy. The country's population is multiethnic. Turks, Romas and Vlachs live there, in addition to the ethnic minorities of neighboring countries, but two ethnic groups predominate: Macedonians (a Slavic people) make up between two-thirds to three-fourths of the population, and ethnic Albanians make up a quarter to a third of the population.

Due both to a much higher birthrate and migration from Albania and Kosovo, the Albanian population is growing significantly faster than the Macedonian. Macedonians perceive this as a grave threat, since they know that in Kosovo, even before the war, the Serb population nearly vanished while the Albanian grew.

THE TWO GROUPS do not mix much. Under Tito, Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia lived better than Albanians in Albania. But in the post-communist period many Albanians would like to establish a single Albanian state that would include areas of Macedonia and Kosovo. Macedonia's Albanians resent the Macedonian domination of the government, police, army and higher education. Their aim is either to establish a federal structure within the tiny country, or at least a constitutional arrangement that would give Albanians the power of veto over presidential decisions. Macedonian politicians are convinced, probably rightly, that such measures would spell the end of the country, and they resent Western-imposed negotiation while the country is threatened by Albanian terrorists.

Kiro Gligorov, a respected former communist, was elected as Macedonia's first president. Under him, from 1991 to 1999, the country was relatively stable, though he himself barely survived a '96 assassination attempt. Two years ago the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, an opposition party, wrested power from the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia by the tiniest of majorities. It formed a government in coalition with the Party for Democratic Prosperity, one of the two Albanian parties. A little-known candidate, Boris Trajkovski, won the presidency. Trajkovski is a lawyer and a licensed local preacher of the Methodist Church. Macedonia's Evangelical Methodist Church (the self-designation of European Methodists) numbers somewhere around a thousand members.