Albanian FM: Gruevski and Ivanov with an entirely anti-Albanian rhetoric

Albanian Foreign Minister on Top Story: "'Albanian Platform', pretext from Gruevski and Ivanov"

Albanian Foreign Minister on Top Story: 'Albanian Platform', pretext from Gruevski and Ivanov
Tonight’s guest on Top Channel’s Top Story, Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, declared that the situation in Macedonia has not turned into a interethnic crisis.

“We supported a platform drafted by the Albanian political factor in Macedonia, as an effort to implement the yet incomplete Ochrid agreement, make way for Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic path, and create a better climate with its neighbors. The roots of this crisis are of political and democratic character. We are not in the conditions to talk about an ethnic crisis. Let’s hope it will not go to that level”, Bushati said.

He added that the crisis showed Gruevski and Ivanov with an entirely anti-Albanian rhetoric, which tries to treat Albanians as seasonal workers on their own land.

The Albanian Foreign Minister added that the platform of Albanian parties has been used as an alibi by VMRO and President Ivanov, but their true issues lied elsewhere.

“The Albanian parties held negotiations with both VMRO and LSDM. The Albanian platform was initially accepted by VMRO, but they disagreed about the Special Prosecutor and the extension of his mandate”, Bushati declared.

The Foreign Minister added that there has been no instruction from international partners or any preference from Albanian parties to form an alliance specifically with the LSDM. According to him, even with this coalition, a full implementation of the Albanian platform requires the understanding of the entire Macedonian factor.

“A good portion of the matters treated by this platform cannot be implemented if there is no understanding from the Macedonian factor. Some of them require Constitutional amends, which cannot be done without 2/3rd of the votes, and the current majority doesn’t have them on its own”, he added.