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With the
disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990's, the Republic of Macedonia saw
its chance to finally achieve its independence. A referendum was held on
September 8, 1991 with an overwhelming majority choosing independence.
Recognition came swiftly from Russia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia among others
but the majority of the international community stalled because of pressure from
Greece. This country, as a member of the United Nations, European Union, and
NATO blocked recognition of Macedonia because it claims that the Macedonian name
and flag, claiming that the sixteen-pointed sun dating back to Ancient
Macedonian Dynasty, belongs to Greece.
And not only that the Greeks still today
claim that there is some "Greek province of Macedonia" in their
country. Unfortunately, dear Greeks and all other people should know that
territory what the Greeks call Macedonia is Macedonian land occupied by them in
the
Balkan
Wars in 1912-1913, and it is called
Aegean
Macedonia and by this day there still live around 1,500,000 Macedonians.
Regardless, Macedonia was accepted as a full member-state in the United Nations,
albeit with the awkward reference, Republic of Macedonia. However, the majority
of countries and international organizations refer to this country under its
constitutional name, Republic of Macedonia. Greek propaganda is slowly losing
its influence, so as always the truth will come out. As a result of
international pressure, the republic’s assembly amended the constitution to
state that it had no territorial aspirations in Greece or any other country.
Negotiations with Greece on the issue of a name collapsed, however, and the
other members of the European Community (now the EU) sided with Greece by not
acknowledging the republic pending further constitutional reforms. With
negotiations at a standstill, and under pressure from the EU, the two countries
in early 1993 turned to the UN for a resolution of the problem. In the meantime,
unable to join international financial institutions or procure critical foreign
loans and investments (because of its lack of recognition), and with its trade
outlet blockaded by Greece, the republic soon found its already weak economy
deteriorating. The blockade led to all fuel stocks being exhausted by September
1992, forcing most companies to suspend production. The republic’s own
obedience to UN sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro meant the loss of two
key trade partners. The republic’s lack of recognition also allowed Serbia to
assert political and military pressure. Internal political and ethnic tensions
flared in the period before recognition.
"The independence day, September 8th
1991
celebrated in Skopje, square Macedonia"
The republic’s
Albanian minority increased the intensity of its lobbying for more recognition,
with half the community demanding more political representation, and the other
half boycotting all participation. Riots broke out in the capital,
Skopje,
during the autumn of 1992. The influx of some 50,000 refugees from the war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina created another source of problems for the republic.
Following the collapse of the republic’s government in the summer of 1992,
President
Kiro
Gligorov, the former Communist Party leader who was elected in January
1991, appointed
Branko
Crvenkovski as prime minister and gave him the mandate to create a new
government. Crvenkovski helped form a coalition government, consisting of the
Party for Democratic Prosperity, representing ethnic Albanians, the Liberal
Party, and the Social Democratic Alliance. On April 8, 1993, the republic
finally achieved full international recognition when it was admitted to the UN
as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The name was a mutually acceptable
compromise until a final settlement with Greece over its name could be attained.
The issue of the flag was also to be settled through
talks. As a result of UN membership the republic was also able to join the
International Monetary Fund and gained observer status in the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (now the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE); Republic of Macedonia became a full OSCE member
in October 1995. In the first half of 1993 the UN sent 1,000 peacekeeping troops
to the republic in order to prevent the war in Bosnia from spreading there.
During 1993 some progress was made in the negotiations with Greece. However, the
return of Andreas Papandreou as Greek prime minister in October 1993 was
followed by an abrupt termination of talks, and a reimposition of a trade
embargo and blockade in February 1994. The renewed embargo came just after the
United States formally recognized the independence of the Republic of Macedonia
(most western European states and Japan had recognized the republic by the end
of 1993). Despite resistance from member countries of the European Union, in
June the European Court of Justice ruled that Greece was at liberty to continue
its embargo. In the autumn of 1994 another coalition government was elected to
power, consisting of the ruling Social Democratic Alliance, the Socialist Party
of Macedonia, and the Alliance of Reform Forces of Macedonia-Liberal Party. The
coalition won 95 Assembly seats. The Republic of Macedonia nationalist Internal
Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, the main opposition party and formerly
the largest single party in the National Assembly, failed to win any seats after
it boycotted the second round of the elections. Along with the Democratic Party
of Macedonia, the opposition party claimed that the first round of elections had
been fraudulent. In the same election, Gligorov was re-elected as president with
52.4 per cent of the vote. In November 1994 the United States signed a military
agreement with the Republic of Macedonia, and had contingency plans to send up
to 1,500 more US troops there. Tensions between the ethnic Albanian minority and
the government continued in the republic, symbolized by a parliamentary boycott
by Albanian deputies, and the violent struggle to create an Albanian-language
university in Tetovo. The university was formally established in a ceremony in
mid-February 1995 at Mala Recica, a village some 40 km (25 mi) west of Skopje.
Clashes between ethnic Albanian supporters of the university reportedly left 1
person dead and 15 injured. During the same month, the 18 Albanian deputies in
the National Assembly walked out in protest over a draft law forbidding the use
of the Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia identity cards and
passports; they did not return until July. In September Foreign Minister Stevo
Crvenkovski and his Greek counterpart, Karolos Papoulias, signed an accord
brokered by UN mediator Cyrus Vance providing for mutual respect of sovereignty,
territorial integrity, and political independence. The following month the
National Assembly approved a new flag, replacing the controversial Vergina
symbol with one of a sun. The accord led to the raising of the trade embargo by
Greece and to a general easing of relations between the two countries during
1996. The outbreak of violence in Albania at the beginning of 1997, following
the collapse of pyramid-selling schemes, provided Republic of Macedonia and
Greece with a mutual cause for concern, and in March Foreign Minister Theodorus
Pangalos became the first Greek Cabinet minister to visit the republic since
1991, when he arrived in
Skopje
to urge cooperation on containing the Albanian crisis. Continued concern about
internal stability with regard to its own Albanian minority and tensions on the
border with the Serbian province of Kosovo led the government to request the
continued presence of the UN peacekeeping force. The UN Security Council agreed
to six-month extensions of the mandate of the UN Preventative Deployment Force
(UNPREDEP) in November 1995 and in May and November 1996. Another extension in
May 1997 also included a provision for the start of a phased withdrawal
beginning in October. In June, during an official visit to the United States,
Gligorov made a personal plea to President Bill Clinton for the continued
presence of the UN forces; US troops make up almost half of UNPREDEP’s
1,000-strong contingent. In June and July 1997 there was unrest after the
government ordered the removal of Albanian flags from public buildings in
Albanian-dominated towns. By early 1998 the Republic of Macedonia was making
contingency plans for the evacuation of ethnic Albanians in the neighboring
Kosovo region of Serbia if the fighting there escalated. And in the year of 1999
on 24th of March started the Kosovo war, which made a terrible shock for the
Macedonian people. |
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