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Dispute Over Official Language
July 21 2001 at 2:22 AM
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Dispute Over Official Language Is Key to Macedonian Peace Effort
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By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 21, 2001; Page A16
SKOPJE, Macedonia, July 20 -- As another Balkan country stumbles toward full-scale civil war, peace pivots on what seems to many outsiders a mere symbol -- language reform.
Western-mediated talks between an ethnic Albanian minority and the majority Macedonian community have made major progress on constitutional reform, increased representation for ethnic Albanians in public services and more power for local authorities. But they have stalled on a single issue: recognition of Albanian as a second official language.
"What we have on the table is a document to break up Macedonia," said Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, a member of the majority, referring to Western proposals, in particular the place of language.
"Macedonia would be the only case in history where a war will start because of linguistic disputes," said Arben Xhaferi, leader of one of the two main ethnic Albanian parties.
That may be exaggeration. But for ethnic Albanians, the ability to speak their language in parliament, to read it in the country's laws, to use it to address a bureaucrat -- in short, to make it official -- is the absolute test of their standing in this society of 2 million people.
"Our language should be part of the identity of the nation," said Linbi Snani, 24, an ethnic Albanian student.
It is hard to imagine a situation in which the proposed language change alone would affect the life of an ordinary Macedonian-speaking citizen. They would not have to study it in school, for instance.
Yet for Macedonians, whose language and culture have been challenged at various times by the nationalism of their neighbors -- Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria -- the Albanian language is an enemy at the gate.
"There has to be one official language for the country, and that's Macedonian," said Mariana Stasonova, 35. "That's what keeps the country together."
This is an insecure state consumed with maintaining its identity. The country's name, for instance -- the Republic of Macedonia, according to its constitution -- is not recognized by the West, including the United States and NATO. And it infuriates Macedonians that the country is still awkwardly called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, primarily because Greece, which has a northern province called Macedonia, objects to the use of that name.
If the West wants Macedonians to extend the respect of linguistic equality to ethnic Albanians, why can't these same Western countries afford the country similar respect by calling Macedonia by its proper name? Macedonians ask.
Members of the majority say language reform is a stalking-horse for their country's disintegration. They argue it would create a new constitutional order in which the state would eventually be federalized under the guise of Western-imposed multiethnicity. They point to a history of ethnic Albanian ambivalence toward Macedonia, including demands for "territorial autonomy" and, more recently, "internal self-determination."
Bilingualism will breed separatism, not bury it, they argue.
For ethnic Albanians, that fear misses the point. The state must remake its own image to hold itself together, they say. Macedonians, they argue, must moderate their national pride and accept a new status for Albanian alongside their own language before a new civic concept of equality.
That, however, is a huge psychological hurdle. Majority fears have been heightened by the way they were forced to the table to discuss the country's future. In the shadow of the gunmen, the Macedonian government has had to account for its record in promoting an equal and multiethnic country in the 10 years since it broke away from Yugoslavia -- a record that Macedonians and other minorities argue is worthy, especially if measured against those of other Balkan countries.
Although ethnic Albanians are the largest minority -- representing between 23 and 33 percent of the population, depending on who is counting -- there are many other minorities here: Roma, Turks, Vlachs, Serbs and others, who together make up 10 percent of the population.
The Macedonian language, many of these people say, unifies this diverse state -- the only country to secede from Yugoslavia without violence.
Moreover, these other minorities are almost universally hostile to the ethnic Albanian campaign for greater rights, which they view as coercive, nondemocratic and exclusionary. The current talks began as a dialogue only between four major political parties -- two Macedonian and two ethnic Albanian.
Kadir Salih, vice president of the Democratic Party of Turks in Macedonia, is angry. His community makes up 4 percent of the population, according to the official census, and Salih wants representation in parliament for ethnic Turks, which they do not have. And he wants Turkish used in parliament if Albanian gains official recognition.
"Should I get 200 young men who are willing to fight?" he asked, only somewhat facetiously.
"Why is this dialogue only about Albanians?" asked Amdi Bajram, president of the Union of Romanies of Macedonia and a member of parliament.
The political answer is that ethnic Albanians are the most powerful minority; the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army can paralyze the state with gunfire, and because the West, already baby-sitting neighboring Kosovo, does not want another war and is trying to pressure the government to give political concessions.
In that context, the state feels cornered, and symbols, such as language, assume a weight they otherwise might not. Suggestions, so logical to foreigners, that the parties become like the trilingual Swiss or the bilingual Finns are read as blackmail, not a road map to European integration.
Groups on both sides of the ethnic divide have been slowly radicalized by five months of violence, which began when ethnic Albanian rebels seized villages in the mountains and expanded their campaign to the point where they could strike the capital. A cease-fire is holding, barely, but the nightmare of urban terrorism was brought home late Wednesday with two separate explosions in the capital, which injured one woman and damaged stores.
A settlement has been made more difficult by a sometimes hysterical local media, fanned by politicians who speak quietly in private and rail in front of cameras. For the public, the ability to understand the grievances of its ethnic neighbors has been obliterated by emotion and zero-sum politics.
Many of the grievances, however, are real. Certainly ethnic Albanians are underrepresented in the public service, especially the police. But at the same time, to members of the majority, ethnic Albanians seem too quick to risk devastation of the country to advance their standing and to have little acceptance of the sovereignty of the state.
Hope that peace can be salvaged rests on the fact that despite insurgent attacks and government counteroffensives that have occurred sporadically since February, the conflict has not boiled over. To date, deaths have numbered only in the dozens.
Historically, inter-community relations in Macedonia were never excellent, but also never intolerable. They might be repaired if an accord, buoyed by a few hundred million dollars in Western aid, takes hold.
That would require both sides to leap into the center ground, which is disappearing as they speak.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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THE TRUTH OF THE MYTH
The ancient Hellenic heritage has been stretched to such extremes, it has become a subject of ridicule around the World. A free society cannot continue under the shadows of ancient glory and myth, the chains of Hellenism have compromised the sense of freedom and reality. The concept of self-criticism is a remote idea from the national Greek psyche.
THE GERKOMAN PRAYER
THE GREEK ANTI-MACEDONIAN STRUGLEin Greek
ZHELEVO LERINSKO MACEDONIA
GERKOMANIA
A Disease of the mind inflicted by Greek Brutality on a massive scale.
Critical Evaluation of Historical Scholarchip on Ancient Macedonia
ETHNICITY OF THE ANCIENT MACEDONIANS
Images
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| Find more forums on Conspiracies | Create your own forum at Network54 |
| Copyright © 1999-2009 Network54. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement |
THE TRUTH OF THE MYTH
The ancient Hellenic heritage has been stretched to such extremes, it has become a subject of ridicule around the World. A free society cannot continue under the shadows of ancient glory and myth, the chains of Hellenism have compromised the sense of freedom and reality. The concept of self-criticism is a remote idea from the national Greek psyche.
THE GERKOMAN PRAYER
THE GREEK ANTI-MACEDONIAN STRUGLEin Greek
