A monument depicting the St. Cyril (826-69 AD) and St. Methodius (815-85 AD) during the COVID-19 lockdown. The two saints are credited with evangelizing the Slavic tribes of Eastern Europe and creating the a precursor to the modern Cyrillic script used in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia.
Basil A. Coronakis By Basil A. Coronakis
Founder of New Europe
The North Macedonian government is in a tight spot with the Albanian minority, which is concentrated in the west and north part of the country and participates in the present Zoran Zaev government. All Albanians of North Macedonia have fixed in their minds the idea of “Greater Albania”, which will include Albania, Kosovo and half of North Macedonia. Whether it will ever work, is a different story.
The hope of joining the bloc is what keeps the small Balkan state alive. If the hope is lost, the country will be split among Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia and Greece, creating new geostrategic equilibria in the Balkan peninsula. However, this is the worst-case scenario as the very existence of the Republic of North Macedonia as an EU member state guarantees stability in an uncharted area with two millennia of turbulent history and unstable borders.
I remember, when the dispute between Athens and Skopje emerged in the eighties, the then-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, the late Michalis Papakonstantinou, in a rather animated discussion, told me, “can you understand Vassili that if this country did not exist, we should have invented it?”
Michalis had represented Greece in the UN interim agreement signed in New York on September 13, 1995, which provided for the provisional name of “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, was coming from Macedonia (Kozani) and had a deep historical knowledge of the Balkan history.
The provisional name lasted until June 17, 2018, and the dispute with Greece kept that country in European limbo for 23 years. This was the great mistake of the leaders of North Macedonia who opted for confrontation with EU/NATO member state Greece in times that compromise was the cardinal political value of the bloc. If they had opted for a compromise with Greece, North Macedonia would have joined the EU by January 1, 2007, together with Bulgaria and Romania, if not earlier.
Under what name? It would be irrelevant as long as the people of North Macedonia would have a better, much better, life.
Today, the leaders of North Macedonia are making the same historical mistake dragging once again the country and its people into a confrontation win another EU/NATO Member State, Bulgaria.
The philosopher’s stone of the dispute is the language. In the Prespes Agreement, where the name issue is settled with the commonly accepted name “Republic of North Macedonia”, it also recognized (by the Greeks only) the language and the nationality as “Macedonian” (not as “North Macedonia”). Premeditated or not, this grotesque error will provide any Greek government, present or future, in times of domestic political difficulties to turn the Prespes Agreement into a piece of paper, good only to wrap fish.
The North Macedonian government is in a tight spot with the Albanian minority, which is concentrated in the west and north part of the country and participates in the present Zoran Zaev government. All Albanians of North Macedonia have fixed in their minds the idea of “Greater Albania”, which will include Albania, Kosovo and half of North Macedonia. Whether it will ever work, is a different story.
This is the real problem for North Macedonia and can be resolved only if it joins the bloc together with Albania. Indeed, the French-German border was the theater of war for Western Europe for centuries until both countries joined the EU in 1957. Since then, not a single bullet has been fired across that border, except the bullets of hunters.
The issue of the language, in reality, is not an issue because there is no Macedonian language, as such. When North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, the language spoken was Serbo-Croatian. After the split, a local dialect was adopted as the official language which was named “Macedonian”. So far, so good.
Last year, I visited Skopje and Kumanovo accompanied by a Bulgarian colleague, who helped very much with translation as I do not speak Macedonian. On the way back when we stopped in Bitola for a coffee and she started talking with the shop owner about the life there and how they feel now that the door to Europe was opened. There, I understood how many hopes ordinary citizens are investing in the EU Membership.
When we crossed the border to Greece, I said to my associate, “you are with New Europe for some 15 years. Why have you never told us that you speak Macedonian fluently?” and she replied, “because I do not speak Macedonian” and when I asked, “ and what the hell you were speaking for the last three days”, she replied, “Bulgarian”.
Zaev must come down to earth and understand his historic responsibilities. His country, in order to survive as a sovereign country, must join the bloc at any cost or at least keep talking with Brussels from now to eternity if they do not get him in. That will be very difficult because the weather in Europe is becoming tough and Europeans, after the experience of generously brining into the bloc eleven former Communist countries, are not enthused with the idea of even more new former Communists, the more so that their justice systems remain medieval.
This issue cannot be resolved simply by bombarding Europeans with a hailstorm of op-eds from Balkan journalists, nor from Europe’s pro-Enlargement NGOs who are publishing furiously at the moment, and not even by high-minded commentary written for world leaders by those same NGOs.
To this effect, Zaev has only one move left. Go first to Sofia and then to Athens and beg Boyko Borisov and Kyriakos Mitsotakis for “unconditional” help. He may never get into the bloc but at least he will deliver the country to his successor one piece, as he got it.
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