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Thanks for posting it TM. This issue contains some particularly important articles by our colleagues in the Balkans, here are two of them:
MAEI’s Election Campaign
By Eftim Mitrevski
I would like to discuss the local elections in Albania, which were held on May 8, 2011, by focusing on the campaign led by the Macedonian Alliance for European Integration (MAEI).
The candidate from the Macedonian Alliance gained success in the municipality of Pustets, however this result was not repeated in other areas where Macedonians reside – Golo Brdo, Gora, Tirana, Elbasan, Drach, Korcha, Pogradets and others. I realise this analysis may be unwelcome for some, however it is with absolute sincerity that I say there is no intention to negate the great results achieved. On the contrary, my purpose is based on the idea that if the facts are not made plain and results are not analysed, then we shall find it difficult to improve our efforts in the regions where we failed.
Let us review the situation together: why was it that the leadership of the party did not have a clearly defined agreement with the coalition partner, the governing Democratic Party; as to how and where they would run for the elections? Why was it that in the municipality of Trebishte, the Vice-President of the party, Edmond Osmani, was left hanging to the last moment, not having formed a coalition with the Democratic Party, which in the end resulted in him being the candidate for the Socialist Party? What were the reasons for this to occur in the way that it did?
It was one year ago that the coalition partner stifled private courses for the study of the Macedonian language to be held in some villages in the Golo Brdo region. Now, in the same region, the Vice-President of the Macedonian Alliance was left out of the loop and was not a coalition partner in the Trebishte municipality. It is my view that much of this, though not all of it, requires very little thought and is quite clear: the structures of the Albanian state worked to intentionally exclude Edmond Osmani from the coalition. For, if Osmani had been allowed to participate in the coalition, he would now be the mayor of the municipality of Trebishte. In which case, I would not have claimed that Trebishte had its first Macedonian mayor, as the vast majority of those residing there are in fact Macedonian; but what I would have been able to write is that the municipality finally had a representative who would implement projects for the benefit of Macedonian culture, including the study of the Macedonian language and all in perfect accord with the laws laid out by the Albanian Ministry for Education. That, dear reader, would have been a huge success for Macedonians throughout the Golo Brdo region, something that had not been seen within the area, for 63 years; as according to the Albanian state archives, the Macedonian language was in fact taught in the Golo Brdo region from 1945-1948...
It is clear that the advancement of the position of Macedonians in Golo Brdo is not a minor trifle; though I cannot agree that it is beyond us - more desire and more effort are required. Legitimate means are available; with coordinated and perfectly legal work we can achieve meaningful results. For me this is a very sensitive and very delicate issue, we need to return to a more productive path with concrete projects before it becomes too late to save the Macedonian language.
Why did we not participate in the electoral council lists in Tirana, Elbasan and Drach? There were definitely opportunities for us to participate as a political subject and I believe that we would have emerged victorious. For example, the county committee in Korcha led by its dedicated president, Takyo Grozdani and his co-workers Yovan Shkembi, Elena Sorkadi, Yana Andoni and Yovan Filo succeeded in organising MAEI candidates to enter the electoral lists for councils in the towns of Korcha, Porgradets and Bilishte and indeed, in the town of Bilishte, Elena Sorkadi and Nertilda Milolari were elected to Council and in the municipality of Pirk we gained MAEI councillor, Kicho Muyo. Edmond Osmani himself, in the municipality of Trebishte, succeeded in having three councillors elected – Rustem Osmani, Bekyir Ago and Lyefter Chala.
For these excellent results, enormous thanks must be given to Mr. George Atanasoski, the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) and Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) from Canada. On the other hand, if one converses with the MAEI activists in Korcha, Pogradets, Bilishte and elsewhere, they will tell you that they received no support from MAEI headquarters. This is a serious lapse. In spite of this lapse, the county committee in Korcha received a respectable 1,270 votes; however from the Mala Prespa region, MAEI only gained 780 votes and yet this whole area possesses 3,500 voters who are all Macedonian!
With great fanfare, propagandistic material, music and singers of folk songs, there came to Mala Prespa members of parliament from both Albania and Macedonia – the first group told us to cut short the spread of Macedonianism and the second, congratulated us on what we had already achieved. However, that does not explain the poor result - either the party leadership did not do its job properly or something is amiss with the voters...
In comparison, I would here like to mention the party belonging to the Chams in Albania – even though their party was formed less than a year ago, it gained 75,000 votes from the whole of Albania in total. The vast majority of Chams left the Democratic and Socialist parties and joined their own party. The Chams, with great determination, disciplined organisational structures and in cooperation with an institution they formed in order to analyse their national question, have made enormous progress in a very short space of time.
We need to learn from them.
A realistic analysis of our current situation tells us that we did not have a clear agreement with our coalition partner and that the leadership of MAEI does not have a definite program in connection with where and how to operate; if the party had fielded candidates on all levels for local government, it is certain that it would have gained far superior successes.
I think the party leadership needs to recognise these omissions as an error; the successes are to be congratulated but immediate concrete measures need to be implemented in order to avoid the mistakes made in this last election campaign. There is no point in passing over these problems with silence; there is no time for false pride.
They took Delight in Discovering Us and then They Forgot about Us:
Our Relations with the Republic of Macedonia
Dear reader, I am quite certain that many in the Republic of Macedonia, prior to 1990, were not even aware that significant numbers of Macedonians inhabit Albania. However after their initial delight in discovering our existence, the majority quickly forgot about us.
The Macedonian republic needs to widen its present narrow focus and end its inequitable practices when it comes to the Macedonians in Albania. Moreover, the involvement of Macedonian governments in the cultural life of Macedonians (whether they be Orthodox or Muslim) in Albania should be standardised via clearly delineated procedures, so as to maintain a consistency that will apply, irrespective of which political party is in power.
At present, Macedonians in the rural areas of Golo Brdo and Gora and those in urban centres like Tirana, Drach and Elbasan, are neglected – they too would like to travel to Macedonia on sponsored tours and view the beauty of Ohrid; they too would like to receive aid in order to learn the Macedonian language; they too would like to obtain scholarships for higher education in Macedonia and indeed then they will begin to become prouder of their Macedonian background.
The villages in the counties of Gora and Trebishte would also enjoy, like others, receiving assistance for the organisation of an annual Macedonian folkloric festival – indeed an event like this in the vicinity of Trebishte would engage the participation of 32 villages! The Macedonians in these regions too, like to listen to and sing Macedonian folk songs composed and performed by stars like Vaska Ilieva, Petranka Kostadinova and Nikola Badev – just give them the opportunity and they will reveal a powerful pride in their Macedonian cultural background.
Dear Republic of Macedonia, there are many Macedonian cultural projects that we can cooperate on, but we cannot waste any more time – every hour that passes with inaction leads to the danger of an atrophy of Macedonian culture in Albania...it was only 20 years ago when the dictatorship ended here and then you discovered us with delight and we believed in you. It was at that very point dear Republic of Macedonia that you needed to implement serious measures for the development of Macedonian culture in Albania, however you did not view matters the way we did...if we had acted in unison, great things could have been achieved, but the truth is that you have neglected the issue of the rights of Macedonians in Albania.
Dear reader, do not think that I am trying to escape responsibility for our failings here in Albania, I have already highlighted these and I firmly believe that with more definitely coordinated collective action, we can save Macedonian culture in general and the Macedonian language in particular. I also want to make it clear to everyone that when one speaks of the Macedonians in Albania that does not just mean Mala Prespa – it means the Macedonians in Albania as a whole, because Macedonians live in Golo Brdo, Gora and Tirana too!
Eftim Mitrevski – member of MAEI and editor in chief of the newspaper “Prespa”.
Translated from Macedonian to English by George Vlahov of the AMHRC.
An Australian Politician Visits Lerin
A member of the Australian Federal Parliament, Luke Simpkins (from the seat of Cowan in Western Australia) recently paid a visit to the Lerin offices of the political party representing Macedonians in Greece – Vinozhito (Rainbow) – and with Representatives of that party, discussed the problems facing Macedonians in Greece. While in Lerin, Mr. Simpkins also met with representatives of the Home of Macedonian Culture, an association which has been trying to register itself for 20 years, without success, as the Greek authorities refuse to permit it – in spite of favourable rulings by the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Among other things, Mr. Simpkins mentioned that: “In Perth, where my seat is located, there are thousands of people who originated from your area and the largest number of them, declare themselves to be Macedonian by ethnicity. A similar thing can be said about other parts of Australia. This is the reason I decided to visit the places from which they originated, in order to familiarise myself with all these problems their mistreated relatives and which they themselves still face, even now in the 21st. Century. In the coming days I also plan to visit the Republic of Macedonia.”
Representatives of Vinozhito and the Home of Macedonian Culture, Pavle Filipov Voskopoulos and Petse Dimchev, informed the Australian MP about a number of problems: the refusal of the Greek state to recognise the existence of Macedonians; the refusal of the Greek state to permit Macedonian refugees to return and its refusal restore their citizenship and property rights; the racist methods utilised by the majority against Macedonians, the Macedonian language and all other groups that declare their otherness; subversion during the elections; attempts to distort the meaning of Macedonian culture; the court battles over the Home of Macedonian Culture and numerous other matters...
Dimitri Jovanov – Editor of Nova Zora
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