Balkanalysis.com

Text and photos by Christopher Deliso

On Wednesday, Macedonians made history €šÃ„ì for the second time this year €šÃ„ì by planting some 6 million trees in a single day. An initiative of the non-governmental organization Den na Drvoto (€šÃ„òDay of the Tree€šÃ„ô), this astonishing event was the second coming of the inaugural efforts of March 12, when 2 million trees were planted all around Macedonia, representing one for each of Macedonia’s citizens.

Although Wednesday’s planting efforts had been envisioned back then, they were given extra urgency by the fact that, as in 2007, summer wildfires destroyed vast tracts of forest around the country. 2008 was a very dry year- good for the winemakers, but bad for rivers, lakes and forests, and so the Tree Day events were especially welcome.

The plantings were held at about 100 locations throughout Macedonia, with only a few of the more elevated locales being canceled due to freezing conditions. Organizing the logistics alone was a monumental task, involving hundreds of volunteers, the guidance of forestry officials, and a great effort from the Macedonian army. Soldiers alone planted around 120,000 trees.

Incredibly enough, the whole organization was spearheaded out of a single office in the center of Skopje. Of course, the Day of the Tree enjoyed the wholehearted support of the Macedonian government, something that was the decisive factor in creating the conditions for the event to be successful.

Indeed, the prime minister himself, Nikola Gruevski, was greatly impressed and persuaded by the Den na Drvoto planners into supporting the venture. Sadly (but predictably) the government’s support for this environmental movement led newspapers supporting an opposition perceived to be arrogant and disdainful of the people to make petty criticisms. Organizers shrugged them off, however, stating that any past planning mistakes would be corrected in the future.

Despite the influence and efforts of the organizers, the Day of the Tree succeeded primarily because of the good cheer and eager cooperation of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Macedonians, who steadily streamed from their homes, or were trucked in by bus to out-of-the-way locations throughout the day. Not only were they in a good mood because of the public holiday from work and school, but planting trees proved to be genuine good fun, bringing people back in touch (literally) with the earth- ground that was in many places sodden and soggy from morning rains.

These conditions made just getting to some of the sites a challenge. In Miladinovci, a village near the OKTA oil refinery on the Skopje-Kumanovo highway, many hundreds set out on a walk of almost an hour just to reach the planting site, comprising rolling hills that had been denuded of trees by fire. The way was muddy, slippery and steep, but everyone from schoolchildren to retirees got there (some special individuals, like EU representative Erwan Fouere, got to travel by Jeep, of course). One of the main foreign supporters of the initiative, Dutch ambassador Simone Filipini, laughed off the poor conditions: €šÃ„òthis is what I brought my boots for!€šÃ„ô she said.

Up on the hill, serrated by long rows of carefully dug shallow trenches, teams of volunteers led by Trajanov planted tiny saplings. Each was set firmly in holes that were being dug with gusto by a man with a huge hydraulic drill- the definite MVP of the day. Ardent supporters of Tree Day from the entertainment world, such as pop singers Karolina and Rebeka, planted dozens of trees in the muddy ground as cameramen jostled for shots- a new approach to getting the dirt on celebrities.

Organizers such as Trajanov were kept informed of the proceedings at other sites in the rest of the country all day by phone. The mastermind of the Day of the Tree was delighted to announce that by 1 pm, approximately 5 million trees had already been planted. The result left him optimistic about the future.

€šÃ„òYou know, this morning, I didn€šÃ„ôt really know what to expect,€šÃ„ô said Trajanov at that moment. €šÃ„òBut seeing this turnout, how much the people really love Tree Day, and really enjoy being out and making a difference for our environment, it makes me very certain we can actually plant 20 million trees on March 12.€šÃ„ô

This incredible goal is something the campaign is preparing for during the winter ahead, in terms of both organizational and promotional work. The tireless efforts of Boris Trajanov internationally have also resulted in agreements with several neighboring states, such as Montenegro, to simultaneously participate in the March planting. €šÃ„òIt is a great way for the people of the Balkan countries to show their common dedication to cooperation for a better future,€šÃ„ô said the singer, who also serves as a UNESCO Artist for Peace. €šÃ„òAnd eventually, who knows? Maybe we can spread this movement to the whole world!€šÃ„ô

The massive tree planting on November 19 was preceded by a week of promotional activities around the country and small, symbolic plantings in several places.

On November 16, the Den na Drvoto team visited Kokino, that wonderfully weird set of stone formations atop a windswept hill in eastern Macedonia where astronomical observations were carried out in remotest antiquity.

During the visit the archaeologist from the Museum of Kumanovo who discovered the site, Jovica Stankovski, vividly explained the topography of Kokino and its uses to an appreciative audience. Renowned Macedonian poet Svetlana Jocic read pastoral works of her own and poems of famous Macedonian poets of yesteryear.

Three trees were planted at the base of the site, which may be used in the future for operatic performances and concerts, according to the organizers.

Later in the day, they planted more trees on the grounds of the Staro Nagoricane municipality, joined by Mayor Vlasta Dimkovic, and then were given a detailed tour of the village’s 14^th-century Church of Sveti Georgi, known for its sublime original frescoes.

The following day, the Den na Drvoto team visited the €šÃ„òChildren’s Village€šÃ„ô in the eastern Skopje suburb of Singulic, an Austrian-funded ring of homes for children abandoned by their parents. These children, who come from all Macedonian ethnic groups, live in the surprisingly modern facilities under the watchful eye of several €šÃ„òmothers€šÃ„ô who look after them.

In a touching moment, the excited children performed a carefully rehearsed song for Trajanov and the other representatives of the Tree Day initiative.

They then got to help plant trees in their yard, and play host to their special guests, offering drinks and desserts with great hospitality.

The day finished with another symbolic tree planting, outside the newly built Boris Trajkovski Sports Hall in Skopje- a somewhat easier venue for foreign luminaries to reach than the muddy hilltop trenches of Wednesday.

Here, a row of trees was planted following a short speech by Trajanov in front of a crowd that included the foreign minister, Antonio Milososki, US ambassador Phil Reeker, several European ambassadors and representatives of international organizations, singers and many journalists.

This dedicated flurry of activity of the week past indicates that a handful of determined individuals, even from a small country like Macedonia, can indeed make a big difference, and set an example for their neighbors- most of which have also suffered from fires and man-made environmental depredations in recent years.

If the Tree Day initiative catches on, as indeed seems to be the case, a little Balkan country that many project to be foundering in the back of the pack will have found a way to take a leading role on the international stage- one tree at a time.

At a special press conference at 4pm today in Skopje, Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Milososki announced that the government has opened a case against Greece at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. At issue is Greece’s blocking of Macedonian NATO membership at the alliance’s April summit, which occurred due to the unresolved name dispute between the two countries.

According to the foreign minister, this act of obstructionism violated the September 13, 1995 Interim Accord, in which Greece pledged not to block its smaller and weaker northern neighbor from joining international organizations under the name it had forced the country to adopt for UN usage (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

There was no immediate Greek reaction to the announcement, which occurred just as Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and President Branko Crvenkovski, frequently critical of each other’s diplomatic acumen, were supposed to meet to hammer out a common position on the name issue.

Indeed, at least as harmful as Greek intransigence for Macedonia’s predicament has been the chronic disunity of its political leadership- a situation that Athens has been skillfully manipulating for years. Predictably enough, the president reacted to the government’s announcement by claiming he had not been consulted on the issue, and declared that “€šÃ„¶the Prime Minister (Nikola Gruevski) and his government are completely taking over the responsibility for the UN talks as well as for our European Union and NATO integration,” reported Balkan Insight.

Crvenkovski, whose approval ratings domestically are so low that he has assured the citizenry of his desire to abdicate (in the form of not running again in the March 2009 elections), recently raised eyebrows when he fired the long-time negotiator on the name issue, Nikola Dimitrov. The president and his yes-men in the media, politics and academia are frequently depicted in pro-government and independent media, including satirical spots, as being exceptionally eager to satisfy Greece.

As if on cue, old Leftist ally Ljubomir Frckovski, a professor and former interior minister, reacted by condemning the government’s action on Kanal 5, claiming it would lead to Macedonia’s €šÃ„òinternational isolation€šÃ„ô- the favored threatening vocabulary of the Karamanlis regime. On the other hand, pro-government experts surveyed were quick to call the action a €šÃ„òhistoric decision€šÃ„ô that had been delayed far too long.

In fact, one of the first questions Minister Milososki received in his press conference was that of timing, or, why Macedonia had not raised this case in April, immediately after the Bucharest rejection. He replied by stating that even organizing the case was a process that took months, and required consulting numerous foreign legal advisors.

However, the verdict of the court case, which is expected to take from 2-3 years to be known, will not necessarily have any great effect. While a Macedonian victory at the Hague would certainly shame the Greeks, “the country’s decision on whether to comply with the court’s rulings or not is a political question,” stated Balkan Insight, quoting a court spokesman. If recent history is any indicator, few in Greece will lose sleep over the outside world’s opinion of them.

Further, Macedonia could not expect automatic NATO membership either, since there are any number of criteria which could be raised €šÃ„ì rightly or wrongly €šÃ„ì to keep it barred indefinitely.

In fact, there is growing talk in diplomatic circles in Skopje these days about some form of extra requirements being envisioned, or even sanctions that will be levied on Macedonia, should the name issue remain unresolved. Vexed about the chronic failure to resolve the dispute, the thinking goes, international diplomats are likely to take out their frustrations on the weakest party available- Macedonia.

If there are indeed any such extra reform stipulations raised, they will likely refer to an alleged lack of political maturity stemming from last June’s violence-plagued elections.

Considering that presidential and local elections are coming up €šÃ„ì on the Ides of March, of all days €šÃ„ì it is likely that any repeat of election-related violence will be immediately cited as a reason to keep Macedonia out of NATO, despite its major contributions to NATO missions and completed military reforms.

By Christopher Deliso

The tense ordeal of four Macedonian journalists detained by police in a northern Greek village on Monday is gaining wider attention, and has caused an international outcry against the perceived heavy-handedness of Greek authorities- and what their apparent contempt for the free press may be covering for.

For their part, the Greeks are claiming that the Macedonian government is trying to stir up trouble; Greek Foreign Ministry Spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos accused Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of engaging in “a provocative effort to blatantly distort the truth,” reported Kathimerini. By daring to speak out against the crackdown, the Macedonian leader is, according to Koumoutsakos, making “a new, unacceptable attempt to intervene in Greek domestic affairs.”

However, the Greek version of €šÃ„òthe truth,€šÃ„ô which states that the journalists were somehow blocking military movements, and in the end left Greece of their own free will, is wildly at variance with what the journalists themselves experienced, as we will see below. It also ignores what local witnesses claim is a recent legacy of violence against civilians, and broken promises by the army in this normally quiet border region.

The journalists, from A1 Television and the Nova Makedonija newspaper, were detained by police near the Florina-area village of Lofi (Za€šÃ„ôbrdeni in Macedonian) and interrogated, after they had sought to interview ethnically Macedonian villagers involved with protests against a Greek Army military operation in the region (a newspaper report cites the villagers as being opposed to the operation because “the army’s use of live ammunition interferes with their farming.”

The journalists, who were consistently barked at in Greek by police despite not knowing the language particularly well, were threatened with having their equipment confiscated and ordered to leave the country. It is uncertain as to whether they will ever be allowed to return.

On Wednesday, the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO, an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), released a sharp critique of the Greek authorities€šÃ„ô actions. In a press release, the organization said the arrests left it “€šÃ„¶alarmed at recent restrictions on reporters’ ability to freely carry out their work in Greece,” with SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic condemning it as a “€šÃ„¶clear infringement of the free movement and freedom of expression of journalists.”

The Macedonian Foreign Ministry also cried foul, saying that the journalists€šÃ„ô detention “breaches Article 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights and OSCE documents on freedom of speech and expression,” reported the Sofia Echo. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was quoted in the same report as saying, “€šÃ„¶when [military exercises] are practically taking place in front of the yards of citizens and are not relocated after numerous demands of the population, it becomes obvious that some other motive is in question. We are talking about a demonstration of power and attempt at spreading fear among the population, which is a far from democratic move by an EU member country.”

Clearly, Greek officials were eager to prevent any on-the-ground interviews that could further prove this speculation. “Despite carrying valid press cards and visas for Greece,” the SEEMO summary added, “the [Macedonian] media representatives were detained because they did not have a special filming license and requested to hand over the material they had gathered at the demonstration. After their release, a police escort strongly advised them not to talk to eye witnesses of the protest and eventually escorted them to the border.”

The irony of it all is that one of the journalists detained, Goran Momirovski of A1 TV, has attained such a reputation for objectivity that he is frequently quoted in major Greek media. And he has often helped his Greek journalistic colleagues on their visits to Macedonia, in some cases personally intervening to get them access to facilities such as Parliament for which they had not obtained correct accreditation in advance. Most recently, Momirovski took part in a special €šÃ„òexcellence in journalism€šÃ„ô training program at the headquarters of the prestigious Christian Science Monitor newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts last month, in his role as a collaborator with the only English-language daily newspaper in Macedonia, the Macedonian Daily News.

According to Momirovski, who shared his experiences today with Balkanalysis.com, his team’s recent experiences in Greece were quite a departure from the norm. He states that he has visited Greece around 50 times in the past three years, and “never had any problems” before, even when filming in ethnically Macedonian areas.

What was so different, then, about the latest visit? The timing €šÃ„ì just after the unveiling of another unpopular name €šÃ„òcompromise€šÃ„ô solution from UN Mediator Matthew Nimitz €šÃ„ì was not incidental. The story that drew the attention of the Macedonian journalists was a popular protest held by locals in Lofi against Greek military exercises in the area. According to Momirovski, the military had entered the area two weeks ago but left after locals protested- as had been the case in areas of the Peloponnese and Thessaly. “However, it was only in this area [of Greek Macedonia] that the army actually returned,” he says. The resulting protests against the army’s comeback attempt resulted in injuries and arrests, and thus drew the attention of the Macedonian media.

Stating that his team had arrived around 11am on Monday morning, after having faithfully told the Greek border guards where they would be going, Momirovski adds that “we were not able to speak with any of the protesters, because we were told by locals that they had just gone to bed two hours before- they had been held by the police up until that time.”

Instead, the local villagers suggested the journalists go to two nearby villages where they could perhaps find more information.

After driving out of the village on a secondary road, however, the television team was followed by military vehicles and stopped by police who barked at them in Greek and detained them. While he notes that the police acted “very correctly with us” (i.e., no threats or beatings), Momirovski questions the reasonableness of their demands. “They told us that we cannot take photos or videos, because it is a border area, but could stay as €šÃ„òtourists,€šÃ„ô” he states, noting however that when he inquired repeatedly three years ago with officials in Athens about obtaining permissions, with no response, the Greek Press Office in Skopje informed him that “no one will bother you” for filming in the area.

Later, at the border between Florina and Bitola, the journalists were then told they had to surrender all of their cameras and equipment. Of course, they refused. Greek officials tried to claim that the Macedonians were illegally filming military installations. When asked about this, Momirovski gives a pained look. “Would I be stupid enough to try and film a military installation? Besides, there were not any such installations near enough for us to film!”

Indeed, reminds one nationalist commentary website, MINA, “€šÃ„¶the journalist crews did not take photographs in the restricted area, as claimed by Greek authorities. Zero photographs were found during the check up of the journalists’  equipment.”

The frustrated police told the television crew that they could only return to the village under police escort. But when they returned to Lofi, they were then suddenly informed by the police that they had somehow “disturbed the locals” with their presence and, says Momirovski, “we were ordered to leave the country at once, and the police escorted us to the border.”

Why, in his opinion, were the Greek authorities so eager to prevent contact between the Macedonian film crew and the local villagers? The journalist gives a wry smile. “They didn€šÃ„ôt want us talking to these Macedonians, as it would be very obvious [to all viewers] that there really are Macedonians in their country.”

On the other hand, Greek journalists visiting Macedonia face no such hassles, and regularly take extraordinary liberties- as was the case when Greek reporters burst into a secondary school near Strumica to see if the students were learning about Alexander the Great, etc. in their history books, so as to fabricate yet another international “scandal” in place of sound journalism.

The political chill between the two countries and frequent miscommunications have made media cooperation very difficult, even for well-meaning sorts like Momirovski. In April, when Greece infamously blocked Macedonia’s NATO membership at the alliance’s Bucharest Summit, Greek journalists flocked to Skopje, eager to €šÃ„òtake the pulse€šÃ„ô of the population.

As this author can recall, it proved very difficult to arrange interviews for them, however, because numerous local and foreign officials and public figures expressed misgivings over how any potential quotes or footage of themselves would be presented back in Greece. “We€šÃ„ôve been burned too many times by the Greeks,” was a typical answer, given by a diplomat who ruefully recalled having spoken for the Greek media in the past and then felt wrongly depicted in the end.

Through it all, Macedonian government officials are sanguine, believing that ugly incidents such as Monday’s journalist crackdown will ultimately play into their hands. A senior diplomat told Balkanalysis.com that “the Greeks continue with this kind of bad behavior, and the world is starting to see it€šÃ„¶ world opinion is now steadily moving towards our side.”

There is a silver lining in all this, at least for fans of black humor. Stung by the US government’s recent refusal to lift visa requirements for Greek citizens, the fastidiously hypocritical Greek foreign minister, Dora Bakoyiannis stated, “Greece has never accepted the logic of the exertion of pressure between allies.”

Or, as a forthright Greek intellectual told this author not long ago: “our government compensates for its inferiority complex vis-ˆš€ -vis Turkey by intimidating its small and weak northern neighbor€šÃ„¶ that’s this €šÃ„òname issue€šÃ„ô for you!”

By Christopher Deliso

Macedonia, and indeed the entire Balkans, were transfixed last night by an event much larger than its confines in Skopje’s City Stadium. The massive humanitarian concert for Tose Proeski, held on the one-year anniversary of what would sadly prove to be the 26-year-old singer’s last concert, left tears in the eyes of the more than 40,000 people in attendance, as well as the many many more watching on television (the concert was broadcast in nine European countries, and projected on a special screen in Proeski’s hometown of Krusevo).

Hosted by famous Macedonian actor Toni Mihajlovski and Macedonian Television presenter Eli Tanaskova, the concert featured a stream of performers from both Macedonia and abroad, all of whom had been friends of Tose, including pianist Simon Trpcevski, pop singers Adrijan Gadza and Kaliopi, ethno-pop group Synthesis and even Ukrainian singer Ruslana (winner of the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest). The Macedonian Symphony Orchestra, and Tose’s own touring band, contributed to many of the songs.

Most of the performers sang a selected one of Tose’s classic songs- eerily, often in tandem with the deceased singer. Indeed, throughout the almost five-hour show, the background screen conveying scenes from Tose’s performances and life, floating through the dry ice and haze of stage lights, added a spectral dimension. In any case, the cumulative energy of the stadium, sustained by the massed fans, showed that the spirit of Tose remains alive throughout the land. The phenomenal love and admiration Tose inspired in those he met was evidenced also by the many well-wishers beamed in by TV links from countries like Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. This format only reaffirmed the importance of the event and the late singer, whose popularity transcended borders and gave the occasionally fractious natives of the various ex-Yugoslav republics a subject for common adoration.

The show began on a chilly but dry night, one day after torrential rains, with a video presentation of Tose’s unforgettable rendition of the traditional song Zajdi, Zajdi, recorded last year in Belgrade; Tose’s are considered among the finest interpretations of the song ever (listen here). And then the guest artists continued to take turns enlivening Proeski’s repertoire, with occasional interludes of comments about his life and even an appearance by the Macedonian prime minister, Nikola Gruevski. However, the most touching moment came near the very end when a posthumously recorded song featuring Tose’s 11-year-old nephew and budding singer, Kristijan, was played.

The common view of both the presenters and other famous people in attendance, as well as the multitude of ordinary folk asked to voice an opinion for the media, was a lonely one: for despite all their attempts to re-eulogize the man who died on October 16, 2007, they all knew that ultimately there was nothing to say. Everyone understood what the late singer meant to them as a nation, his kindness to children and the forgotten, his incredible musical talent, his down-to-earth nature as a country boy from Krusevo who never forgot his roots or his values.

Despite that everyone knew everything already, they all braved at least a sentence or two. Decorum demanded it of them. Macedonians, who have always been known for being able to survive anything, exhibited their trademark dignity in the face of tragedy. In the end, the grace and love generated at the concert seemed for many further affirmation that this small country, most often riven by intrigue, scheming and mutual enmities will indeed survive.

Throughout the concert, viewers in Macedonia and other Balkan countries were invited to send text messages on special numbers to their domestic mobile operators, which will then be donated to childrens’ charities. Tose’s love for children was well known, and was frequently attested when in his concerts he would allow them to come up onto the stage and hug him, awestruck presenting a teddy bear or flowers to their hero. And he donated to children’s hospitals and other charities. At the concert, his foundation made available 200 free tickets for Macedonian children in orphanages and special needs children.

In 2004, when he was a rising star, Tose played in the same City Stadium for approximately 20,000 people. Balkanalysis.com captured that moment for posterity in words and pictures. Here is the link to that article.

By Christopher Deliso

Two Macedonian Army representatives were among the chosen expert speakers at a conference last week in Bulgaria devoted to peacekeeping issues involving the former conflict in Bosnia and the Balkan security situation today. The conference was organized by the Bulgarian General Staff and NATO, and held at the prestigious G.S. Rakovski Defense and Staff College in Sofia.

The Macedonian army’s positive and ongoing activities in NATO peacekeeping operations and the military reforms made by Macedonia for NATO were also presented in front of a group of experts from the defense ministries of countries including the USA, France, Germany, Britain, Spain, Serbia, Latvia and Bulgaria. The Macedonian experience was thus presented on an equal level with other notable presentations from the military representatives of these countries.

The two Macedonian representatives, Lieutenant-Colonel Mitko Saraliev and Major Robert Tasevski, are undertaking advanced training at the G.S. Rakovski Defense and Staff College, as part of a bilateral agreement Macedonia has with Bulgaria. Macedonia has similar agreements with Turkey, Estonia, England, Germany, Croatia and the USA, so that Macedonian officers can undertake new training in special programs at staff colleges in these countries.

Before the distinguished guests, Lieutenant-Colonel Saraliev spoke on the participation of Macedonian peacekeeping units in the EUFOR Althea operations in Bosnia, and lessons learned from the experience of Macedonian helicopter detachments and medical teams in Bosnia. Major Tasevski, who is a Military Police commander, spoke about the lessons learned from IFOR and SFOR missions in Bosnia and how to improve institutional cooperation and planning among the NATO countries, and the need for Macedonian soldiers to improve English-language skills for dealing with allied peacekeepers.

(Left to Right) Major Robert Tasevski, Dr. Mark Schiller, Lt-Colonel Rossitsa Russeva, Lt-Colonel Mitko Saraliev

In the conference, numerous Bulgarian experts also provided their insight, such as conference organizers Dr. Dimitre Minchev and Lieutenant-Colonel Rossitsa Russeva of the defense college, who spoke, respectively, about the historical context of the Bosnian conflict and the Bulgarian peacekeeping contribution there. The conference’s special guest was Dr. Mark Schiller of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA. Dr. Schiller spoke about information tactics in peacekeeping operations and the importance of having good public information officials and keeping good relations with journalists, from an American perspective. Numerous complementary perspectives were also provided in presentations from representatives of the aforementioned countries.

The Macedonian representatives also made the point that the ARM will continue its reform efforts. €šÃ„òOur reform process did not stop because of the negative result at Bucharest, and we will continue until we join NATO,€šÃ„ô said Major Tasevski. €šÃ„òWe will never give up from the NATO path and our American allies.€šÃ„ô According to him, the USA has provided help with everything for Macedonia, from equipment to training and know-how.

Major Tasevski says that through training from the Vermont National Guard he has made many American friends and learned a lot. €šÃ„òI learned from the American colleagues that we must respect and trust everybody in our ranks- it doesn€šÃ„ôt matter if the person is a soldier, Non-Commissioned Officer or officer. From the American training, I have learned to value the collecting of different opinions to make informed decisions.€šÃ„ô The US soldiers have also said that Macedonian soldiers are eager students, and learn very quickly. Said Major Tasevski, €šÃ„òI think this is true because we enjoy the job and the Americans are excellent teachers, who make it interesting for us, providing real experience in the training.€šÃ„ô

The Macedonian advanced military students are also very happy with their cooperation with the Bulgarian military, and the professional working of the G.S. Rakovski Defense and Staff College. Lieutenant Colonel Saraliev is finishing his two-year assignment in Bulgaria in a few weeks and will return to his regular work in the Department of Inter-army Cooperation in the ARM General Staff. He reflects on his Bulgarian experience, saying, €šÃ„òI am very happy because here I have had the opportunities to use libraries, to be present at technical conferences that discuss strategic and tactical issues, and to present briefings.€šÃ„ô He also has good opinions of his Bulgarian colleagues. €šÃ„òWhenever I asked for help of any kind, or to find information, I was helped without any problems and with hospitality by our Bulgarian colleagues,€šÃ„ô he says.

Major Tasevski agrees, saying that he has experienced only good cooperation and friendship with the Bulgarian colleagues. €šÃ„òIn the beginning, I was a little nervous because of the difficult history and sometimes disagreements between Macedonia and Bulgaria,€šÃ„ô he admits, €šÃ„òbut after two weeks it disappeared. At the Rakovski Defense and Staff College, they always want to help us with everything, and even just keep us company so we don€šÃ„ôt feel lonely here. I have made many friends and visited many places with my Bulgarian colleagues.€šÃ„ô

By Christopher Deliso*

It’s a clear warm spring day high on a barren, charred plateau in Macedonia, and Mike Goldstein is holding a Hebrew prayer book in his hands, with a row of tiny saplings decorating the freshly-turned earth at his feet. A retired general in the Vermont National Guard, Mike has been asked by the tiny Balkan country’s Jewish community to lead the ceremonial planting of some 7,200 trees with a recitation of the sheheheyanu, the Hebrew prayer that marks new beginnings and hope for the future. It is a number heavy with significance; the little saplings are meant to honor the memory of the 7,200 Macedonian Jews who died in the Holocaust. Flanked by community members young and old, schoolchildren and even a few local officials, Mike pronounces the prayer for hope, as well as a second, the elegiac kaddish invoked at times of mourning.

How this kindly old military man from Burlington ended up on this unlikely Balkan bluff, between a spectacular gorge and majestic, snow-covered peaks, is a fascinating tale that reveals not only one man’s life-changing personal experience, but also a unique connection between Macedonia and Vermont, one which will probably come as a surprise to most Vermonters.

Mike fell in love with Macedonia in 1996, after being sent with a Vermont Guard corps  to help train the fledgling ex-Yugoslav country’s  army  under the auspices of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program. About as large as Vermont, dotted with lakes and rippling with forested mountains stretching over 6,000 feet high, Macedonia had obvious natural appeal. It also had millennia of history, with signs of civilization dating back to prehistoric times and rich archeological remains of civilizations such as the ancient Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Bulgarians and Ottoman Turks. But most of all, says Mike, he developed a fondness for the people: “the kindness and friendliness of the Macedonians was remarkable,” he notes. “I realized that these were the kind of people I enjoyed being around.”

One local group made an especially deep impression. Through the suggestion of his translation assistant, this Vermont descendent of Lithuanian Jews decided to make contact with Macedonia’s tiny Jewish community, who numbered only around 200 people. On March 11, 1996, Mike was invited to attend the community’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust in the Macedonian capital of Skopje. On that date in 1943, the Nazi-allied Bulgarian army, which then occupied Macedonia, deported 7,200 Jews €šÃ„ì some 98 percent of the whole Jewish population €šÃ„ì to the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland.

This catastrophe all but destroyed Macedonia’s once thriving and culturally rich Jewish community, which traced its roots back to Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain following the Inquisition in 1492. Taken in by the Ottoman Turkish sultan, the Jews had been resettled within the empire’s extensive Balkan territories, with Macedonia becoming an especially significant center of Sephardic Jewish culture.

Following Macedonia’s peaceful separation from Yugoslavia in 1991, it began taking steps to make restitutions to descendents of Holocaust victims, and to the larger Jewish community in cases where no living heirs could be found. American Jewish groups, the State Department and the government of Israel have all credited the Macedonians for their efforts, which have surpassed those of several larger and wealthier countries in central and eastern Europe. Presently, a Holocaust Memorial Center is under construction in Skopje, on the same spot where the city’s Jewish quarter once stood along the banks of the winding River Vardar.

Although Mike Goldstein retired from the military in 1999, he found that his bond with Macedonia was a permanent one, and he has been coming back every year to show solidarity with the Macedonian Jews as they commemorate the tragedies of the past. This year, the remarkable convergence of that event with another symbolic act made Mike’s visit even more historic. The day after the Holocaust memorial ceremony, Goldstein and the Jewish community did their part in an extraordinary nationwide event: the planting of over 2 million trees by volunteers of all ages, including politicians, celebrities, grandparents and grandchildren, and even border policemen from neighboring states. Spearheaded by Macedonian opera singer Boris Trajanov, the mass planting was meant to help replenish the country’s forests, following last summer’s unfortunate spate of wildfires.

“The day was symbolic on a lot of levels,” says Mike, noting that the planting was a gesture of commitment to Macedonia’s ecological restoration, while for the Jews it “helped dignify the memory of those who died.” In the bigger picture, as the organizers had hoped, the Den na Drvoto (“Day of the Tree,” in Macedonian) proved that Macedonia’s sometimes fractious ethnic groups could indeed work together for the common good. Only seven years ago, Macedonia stood on the brink of civil war with an uprising from the ethnic Albanian minority, bolstered by Albanian volunteers from northern neighbor Kosovo. However, an internationally-brokered treaty soon restored the peace, and since then the country has been slowly but surely working towards its goals of economic development and membership in key international bodies such as the European Union and NATO.

While the former is still some years away, Macedonia is an EU candidate country and hopes to be given a date for the opening of membership talks later this year. Regarding NATO, however, Macedonia suffered an unfortunate setback when Greece threatened to veto its membership invitation at the Alliance’s April 2-4 summit in Bucharest, Romania. Greece, which also has a northern province called Macedonia, demands that the Republic of Macedonia change its name, claiming that the latter has territorial ambitions towards Greek Macedonia- something which the Macedonians deny and which everyone except Greece finds absurd. Despite the impassioned personal intercession of President Bush at the Summit, the Greeks were unmoved, and so Macedonia’s NATO invitation remains conditional on resolution of the name dispute.

Mike Goldstein was one of the many Americans saddened by Macedonia’s failure to gain NATO membership, feeling that the country was eminently worthy of joining the Alliance. He has a strong personal connection here. As a Vermont National Guard general, Mike helped guide Macedonia through the military reform and training process that eventually brought it up to NATO standards. Despite Greece’s mean-spirited action, Mike has nothing but praise for the Macedonian soldiers he has worked with and known over the years. “They were always eager students, and quick learners,” he recalls. “When we had them here [at the National Guard's School for Mountain Warfare] in Vermont, they really showed their aptitude- and they loved the ice climbing training we do here.”

Indeed, says Mike, the country is richly deserving of NATO membership. It has carried out reforms, downsizing and professionalizing according to instructions, and for years already has unquestioningly committed troops (around four percent of the entire army) to American missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they have seen action. In fact, notes Mike, “at least one Macedonian soldier has received a medal from the US military, for saving the lives of American soldiers in a combat situation.”

As the negotiations continue in the coming months between Greece and Macedonia, Mike will be one of the many Vermonters previously involved with training the Macedonian army who is pulling for the small country- one which has, despite so many obstacles and problems, managed to cling to its identity and culture, and which continues to provide Mike with moments to treasure, liking planting trees in solidarity with Macedonia’s welcoming Jews.

*This article was originally published by the Burlington Free Press on April 13, 2008

By Christopher Deliso

You wouldn’t think they’d have time for it, but amidst all the domestic and international political turbulence surrounding their country these days, Macedonians managed to plant over 2 million trees — symbolizing one for each citizen in the nation — on Wednesday, March 12, in 43 locations across Macedonia. In a surprisingly adept show of logistics and coordination the government arranged for free buses to transport people from the major towns and cities to the forests in need of repair (Macedonia suffered over 600 fires last summer, and lost important sections of forest).

The initiative was the idea of the charismatic Boris Trajanov, Macedonia‘s world-renowned opera singer and a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Trajanov, who has contributed to numerous humanitarian projects in the past, campaigned tirelessly for the Den na Drvoto (Day of the Tree”) project, using all his energy to convince the government that the ambitious planting effort was first, feasible, and second, cost-effective. First the authorities were skeptical, but were sold on it when Trajanov showed them the math behind investment (apparently, 25 eurocents per tree) compared to the future return.

However, the major immediate return that Trajanov and the project’s other high-visibility entertainers and public figures sought to gain was a conceptual one: to show the world, but first of all the country, that Macedonia’s alienated ethnic groups could indeed get along and do something for the common good. Their hunch proved correct.

Recounting how he managed to convince an ethnic Albanian mayor who “usually automatically refuses anything in which the government is involved,” Trajanov provides the example of a village in the ethnic Albanian DUI party’s stronghold near Kicevo. “This is an area where the police can’t even go into safely because of the hostility of the locals,” he notes. “But on Wednesday, you had the police and locals planting trees together!” Neighboring border police also helped their Macedonian peers drop some saplings.

Health Minister Imer Selmani and pop singer Dani, right, were among the many public figures who turned out to plant trees (photo: Christopher Deliso)

Indeed, getting the people out into nature on a beautiful sunny day, along with politicians, celebrities and foreign diplomats, proved a fun and relaxing break from the usual, for the schoolchildren especially. However, a sense of ecological awareness is still lacking- as evidenced by the fact that children given juice packets immediately threw them on the ground when finished.

While it could be just attributed to kids being kids in this case, there is no question that Macedonia has a serious trash problem, something about which most every foreign visitor complains. Almost every inhabited (and many uninhabited) place in the land is blighted by trash, ranging from a few stray bottles and papers to outright dumps. Imer Selmani, Macedonia‘s health minister, acknowledged the problem while planting trees near Matka Gorge outside of Skopje on Wednesday. “It is a problem of changing mentalities, which will take time,” he said. “Still, it is something the government is working onˆšÂ¢Â¬Ã„¦ the plan isn’t finished yet, however.”

Nevertheless, like many others, this plan may never get completed: what should have been a celebratory evening following the hard work over 200,000 citizens, the president of Selmani’s party (Democratic Party of Albanians) Menduh Thaci, announced that they would be leaving the government. This act of political maturity, coming as Macedonia is in the eleventh hour of lobbying for NATO membership in two weeks despite Greek veto threats over the name, represents just another episode in the chronic political torpor that is modern Macedonia. This kind of cynical gamesmanship, involving who knows how many other conniving individuals, goes a long way towards explaining why the average person doesn’t feel motivated enough to find a trash can. The country is already in it.

Still, in spite of all the worthlessness of Macedonian political life, the people did accomplish something worthwhile and commendable on Wednesday. Boris Trajanov hopes that the planting of 2 million trees will inspire other countries to emulate the experiment. Several of Macedonia‘s neighbors were similarly devastated, Greece most severely of all, by last summer’s fires. “Imagine if they did this in the United States,” said the opera star. “If the initiative was carried out by the same ratio of people as were involved in Macedonia, you would have 30 million people planting trees!”

Members of Macedonia‘s Jewish Community planting trees above Matka (photo: Christopher Deliso)

Alas, if mass tree planting in the Macedonian spirit does not catch on abroad, it may not be for lack of good will. Despite all their great efforts in preparing for this unprecedented event, it seems the media helpers of the organizers and government did not give media outlets abroad the necessary advance warning. And so, while the Macedonian media was out in force, relatively few foreign journalists knew to show up. If applying the principle of proportionality to the phenomenon of media coverage, it unfortunately appears the case that tree-planting day was beaten in the international press by the stressful news of DPA leaving the government, and even by the memorable tale of a Macedonian court finding a bear guilty of stealing honey. Of course, this shows something as well about the strange appetites of media consumers abroad, but it’s not only that.

But other local groups with international connections took part. The most prominent among these was Macedonia’s Jewish Community, which made its contribution by planting 7,200 trees, something that was “symbolic on a lot of levels,” for Mike Goldstein, a retired general in the Vermont National Guard who has been close to Macedonia’s 200-strong Jewish Community since he first visited Macedonia, as part of NATO Partnership for Peace training in 1996.

The trees, planted in rows above a charred plain on Matka Gorge, represented the number of Jewish victims in the Holocaust; the day before the planting, Macedonian Jews held the annual commemoration of this tragedy in Skopje. On March 11, 1943, the Bulgarian occupying army followed Hitler’s instructions by deporting 7,200 Jews to Treblinka.

For the Jews, therefore, participating in the Den na Drvoto had a specific emotional significance, one which could not only honor the dead but at the same time bring happiness to future generations of Macedonia‘s nature-lovers. And so the simple planting of trees, as adopted friend of Macedonia General Goldstein said, “can give hope to the entire country.” Now it is up to the people to remember the inspiration for doing impossible tasks for the common good, as it will do them well during all of the greater uncertainty and turmoil brought on by powerful forces, both internal and external, who seem to be doing their best to keep the country from moving forward.

Two of the biggest sponsors of the tree-planting initiative, Ljubco Karov of the popular comic trio K-15 and opera singer Boris Trajanov, detailed the successes of the Den na Drvoto at a press conference following the event (photo: Christopher Deliso)

New information from regional intelligence sources, as well as open-source channels, indicates that cross-border militant activities on at least four fronts are among the new developments to watch in the aftermath of Kosovo’s independence declaration on February 17.

While world attention has focused mainly on the political and legalistic dimensions of the Kosovo Albanian government’s declared independence on February 17, other concurrent developments indicate that the main actors are taking steps to change the facts on the ground in the short term, or produce a long-term deterrent by hastily securing a presence across a widening geographical terrain.

In south Serbia’s Presevo Valley, home of a substantial Albanian population, the Serbian government has been boosting the presence of its security forces. According to Skopje daily Vecer, the Serbian army is completing Tsepotine Base, also known as the “Serbian Bondsteel’ (a reference to the US Camp Bondsteel not far across the border in Kosovo). Its strategic high position allows commanding views of Kosovo to the east and Macedonia, 5km to the south. Although planned for five years, various issues and disagreements between the ministries of defense and internal affairs slowed it down, reports Vecer. However, with the independence of Kosovo, completing the 35-hectare base has become a priority. The construction of such a large base in this strategic triangle indicates Serbia’s concern to keep the presently quiet Presevo Valley from blowing up as it did in 2000. Also, for Russia, reportedly interested in some sort of a military presence with the help of the Serbs, the location is again ideal. Vecer reports that Serbia currently has 16 smaller bases along the 92km-long administrative border with Kosovo.

New information from Kosovo itself also suggests present Russian cooperation, with the presence of small numbers of alleged Russian military trainers, in civilian garb, in the northern Kosovo towns of Leposavic and Mitrovica. Balkanalysis.com reported in late 2006 about the arrival here of Serbian special forces in civilian clothes, as a precaution in case of Albanian attacks. In 2006, it should be remembered, KFOR repopulated a disused base in the north of Kosovo, primarily to prevent Serbian troops from coming to the aid of their ethnic kin in case of any large-scale violence.

Two days after the Albanian’s independence declaration, Serb reservists and other agitators stormed and destroyed the nearby border post, gaining brief but important access into Kosovo before it was recovered by NATO troops. On February 27, Reuters reported that the Serb National Council in North Mitrovica had called for Russia “to return its KFOR contingent [in order to] to stabilize the situation in areas where Serbs are in the majority,” in the words of Council leader Milan Ivanovic. Although Russia had a small troop detachment in Kosovo from 1999-2003, it was deliberately not given its own sector equal to those of the other Great Powers, nor positioning in northern Kosovo. Now, it appears, Moscow will have in one way or another positioning in both northern Kosovo and the Presevo Valley.

Along with the attack on the UN border post in northern Kosovo on February 19, Serbian reservists have also made their presence felt on an eastern Kosovo border checkpoint. On February 25, rioting ensued at the Mutivode checkpoint, where 250 ex-serviceman from Medveda, KurˆšÃ–¬°umlija and Lebane clashed with Albanian KPS officers at the administrative boundary with Kosovo. The two sides hurled stones at one another, until the KPS used tear gas to dispel the Serbs. Strong winds, however, soon cleared the air for more conflict. “Tires were also set on fire, and the wind spread the blaze to both sides of the line,” reported B-92. “During the entire showdown between the demonstrators and the KPS, cordons of KFOR, on one, and Serbian MUP on the other side of the line, looked on without intervening.”

Serbs have begun other forms of symbolic protest within Kosovo. Serbian police employed within the KPS are threatening to trade in their uniforms for those of Serbia as soon as possible; on February 28, in line with Belgrade’s wide-ranging policies designed to reduce the ability of the self-declared state to function, Serbian KPS officers announced a general strike. The strike will create an interim period in which the officers can make a coordinated action. Even if the struggling UN mission, essentially ineffective north of the River Ibar, dismisses their rejection or tries to take stronger action, the departure of the token Serb presence would signal the end of any hopes for multi-ethnic law enforcement in Kosovo.

On February 27, KFOR sources indicated that British and Austro-German reserve battalions were being put on a heightened state of readiness and that the military mission was increasing its presence in the north. Some Albanians apparently intended to make preparations of their own. On February 21, the leader of the Albanian minority population of North Mitrovica, Adem Mripa, was arrested by KPS police. According to B-92, three Tromblon RPGs and several pieces of ammunition for sniper guns weapons were discovered in his house, in the ethnically mixed quarter of Bosniak Mahala. At the same time, “a bomb was found near a house owned by [Serbian resident] Jovan Ilic, which KFOR subsequently destroyed.” Serbs in the isolated enclaves of central and southern Kosovo are far more vulnerable. An eight-year-old girl was stoned in Ljiplan on February 23, Tanjug reported, while playing in her yard. Such attacks were a regular occurrence, the girl’s father told reporters.

The announced independence of Kosovo has taken on wider dimensions, however. Approximately 12 days ago, Balkanalysis.com has learned, Macedonia’s intelligence services became aware of the re-opening of training camps/rear bases in the Kukes area of northern Albania. These bases, located near the clan stronghold of Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, were where American and British military instructors trained Kosovo Liberation Army soldiers in safety for the 1998-99 campaign across the border in Kosovo. Reporters from Germany’s Spiegel in Kosovo, citing an Albanian paramilitary volunteer in the shadowy Albanian National Army, claim that the organization “takes orders from its head office in Tirana, Albania.” The ANA has recently stated its priority of monitoring the north of Kosovo and, if necessary, using force to prevent it from rejoining Serbia.

An expected complement to any Albanian irregular activity within Kosovo itself was likely to have been the paramilitary group destroyed in Macedonia’s “Operation Storm’ in November 2007. In the remote village of Brodec in the Sar Planina mountains above Tetovo, special police arrested or killed escaped criminals from Kosovo’s Dubrava Prison, and captured a sophisticated arsenal, sufficient for 650 men- for the moment at least neutralizing a major security threat before the anticipated secession decree in Kosovo to the north.

However, despite that coup, the Macedonian intelligence source stated that “very recently, we have received information that some small Albanian armed bands, 10-20 individuals or so in each, have re-entered Macedonian territory from Kosovo, in the Tetovo and Lipkovo regions- we are working on locating these groups before they can [become a threat]ˆšÂ¢Â¬Ã„¦ however, the border is very easy to be crossed in those places, and they can easily escape from one side to the other when necessary.”

Balkanalysis.com would like to announce that nine months’ worth of archived articles, many previously unavailable on the website, have now been uploaded to our page at the Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL.com).

The articles in question number more than 50, and cover the months March-December 2006. They will be of interest to researchers of contemporary Balkan history. They complete the current archive of Balkanalysis.com articles, covering the period 2001-2006. These articles specifically include articles on Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Over 220 instititutions from 21 countries currently offer access to articles in the Library. If you would like to access these articles, but your institution is not yet a member of the CEEOL.com program, please have your institution’s acquisitions or reference librarian contact CEEOL.com directly.

Sincerely,

Balkanalysis.com team

When government officials in Macedonia recently proposed rebuilding a church that once stood on the city’s central square, they received an abrupt warning: for the Islamic Community (IVZ), the recreation of Sveti Konstanin & Elena, destroyed in the 1963 earthquake, should guarantee them their own right to build a mosque in the prominent downtown area.

According to a report from A1 Television, among its other ambitions the IVZ is most keen on rebuilding the Burmali Mosque, destroyed in 1925, a year after the official dissolution of the Ottoman Empire but 12 years after the Ottomans were finally expelled, following a long period of bloody crackdowns on the Christian populations of Macedonia. A Royalist Yugoslav army house was built over it. Today the area is near a pedestrianized street where modern cafˆšÃ‰Â¬Â©s cater to locals and international guests, considered to be one of the nicest modernization efforts in the city in recent years. Resurrecting a mosque in the area would certainly change the ambience.

Interestingly, it appears that the whole building frenzy is part of the larger issue of creating an “urban plan” for Skopje. The government has announced it will put forward an international tender for coming up with a “solution” to this issue, which it says will involve architects, planners and officials from the Ministry of Culture. However, the religious dimensions of the urban upgrade means that the authorities are playing with fire. While building an Orthodox Church is largely an exercise in decoration in a country where few attend church regularly, building a mosque, frequented five times a day by groups of Muslims likely to be “commuting” across the bridge from the “other” side of the river, is not. Considering current demographic and social trends, such religious one-upsmanship cannot lead to a long-term victory, to put it mildly, for Christendom in Macedonia.

This is not the first time that Muslim officials have raised their voices on this issue; it has been a hot topic for several years now. And in interviews and public statements, the ambitions of the Islamic leadership to restore the Ottoman-era landscape have been clearly seen. The A1 article quotes an IVZ official who states that the Islamic Community had put forward the request to rebuild the Burmali Mosque “one year ago.” Communist Yugoslavia did away with other some surviving mosques, converting them into spaces for public use, as had its Royalist predecessor.

The post-Communist denationalization process has seen considerable assets and property returned to their former owners. Nevertheless, in the competition to win back as much largesse as possible from the state, Muslims are particularly resentful. Later this year, the Macedonian Jewish Community will finish work on a new Holocaust Memorial Center, to be built over the location of Skopje‘s former Jewish quarter, which adjoins the city’s main Muslim stronghold and overlooks the northeastern bank of the Vardar. “The government did everything it could for the Jews, and for the Christians,” one high IVZ official complained in early 2006. “But they don’t want to give anything back to the Muslims- they fear our power.”

It is not exactly true that the Muslims have been frozen out, though they probably have gotten relatively less back than the Orthodox Church, which after all speaks for almost 70 percent of the country’s inhabitants. The election of businessman Trifun Kostovski to the post of Skopje mayor in 2005 brought someone who, while having been widely criticized for insufficiently improving urban life, has made church officials happy. Kostovski, who had already personally funded repairs to the famed Sveti Jovan Bigorski monastery near the western village of Debar, then commissioned the creation of a large new church on the “other’ bank of the Vardar- something that had some Muslims seething.

Forces at work within Macedonia‘s Muslim community have therefore sought to take power into their own hands. Unlike the Skopje officials who merely proposed rebuilding the central church, Muslims have simply gone ahead with the philosophy of build first, ask questions later. A Macedonian journalist interested in asking builders about a mosque that was being constructed in a Christian majority neighborhood of Skopje two years ago was threatened at gunpoint. Islamic officials controlling funds from letting properties and for building works have been associated with the radical Wahhabi movement in the past, and tend to be very secretive.

The suspicion that much of the new mosques are being built with Saudi money is evidenced in places such as the village of Saraj, just west of the capital, where one garish mosque adorned with Saudi-style double minarets stands besides the highway; another is currently under construction adjacent to it. When asked about the source of funding for the former mosque, a local imam stated that it had all been accomplished through local donations- the usual, and impossible to verify, response in such cases.

However, a currently serving European intelligence officer surveyed about the newer mosque under construction in Saraj, which will give the village a total of three, suspected a more long-term goal at work: “the location right along the highway, where all the drivers are passing on to go out of the city, is not picked by accident. It makes a statement,” he said. “This is also part of the plan to consolidate Saraj with Kondovo across the highway, eventually.”

Sprawling Kondovo, backed by wooded hills leading north toward the porous Kosovo border, is the site of the country’s main madrassah. The 40km highway from Skopje to Tetovo, flanked by these and several other Albanian Muslim villages, is one of the most heavily trafficked stretches of road in the country and the route that most tourists take when going to the tourist destination of Lake Ohrid. Stocking this span of highway with mosques, as has already partially been accomplished, is a priority for Islamists looking to “mark their territory’ in a way that will be visually overpowering. The IVZ’s desire to rebuild the Burmali Mosque in the center of Skopje mirrors, and even exceeds this goal, given that it will be both highly visible, audible and also frequented by observant Muslims, dramatically changing the general experience of the city center for locals and tourists alike.

That Islamic groups are not interested just in reviving Ottoman architecture has been witnessed in numerous ways. A mob of Muslim youth, officially criticized by the IVZ, protested against the Danish cartoons of Mohammed back when that controversy was playing out across Europe in February of 2006. More recently, on 10 January Muslim women petitioned successfully for the right to wear head scarves in official photographs. According to Balkan Insight, an obscure women’s association, ‘Islam and Science’ had filed a complaint in November 2007, claiming that “the ban violated the right to freely express religion.”

Further, as was witnessed in 2006, local sources in Struga, on Lake Ohrid in Macedonia’s southwest, recently stated for Balkanalysis.com that a Wahhabi “beach party’ in July, “twice as big as the year before,” brought around 100 bearded men and youth to the beach for a day of football, conversation and casual religion. While undercover police snapped photos, however, the bizarre occurrence was not reported in the media.

The issue of building a single church in Skopje cannot, therefore, be removed from the larger context of heightened religious, rather than ethnic oppositions in society at large. In the end, while some commentators surveyed by the Macedonian media see the center-right government as merely promoting its own political interests in the plan to rebuild Sveti Konstantin & Elena, it may ironically be, in the long-term, the interests of the Islamic Community that end up being served, as the quiet struggle for the future of a country with both a Byzantine and Ottoman past heats up.

……………………

Readers interested in further detailed information on this topic are recommended to read The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West, by Balkanalysis.com director Christopher Deliso.