Last Albanian Quits Macedonia's Controversial Encyclopaedia

Alajdin Abazi, the only remaining Albanian on the editorial team of the encyclopaedia, left last week, days after the Academy proposed that the first edition, which caused much offence among Macedonian Albanians, be put back on sale.

The first edition of the government-financed book, promoted in September 2009, draw flak among the Albanian minority for referring to them as to “settlers” and as “Shiptari”, a derogatory term.

The head of the editorial team, academic Mitko Madzunkov, has called for calm. "We should not create a false image that we have problems on the editorial board," Madzunkov told Balkan Insight.

Madzukov insists that they have good cooperation with Abazi, and that he had said he would help them to find two ethnic Albanian experts on historical sciences to fill the gap.

Talking about his decision to quit, Abazi called for fresh researchers into Albanian history but warned that there was no money to employ them.

"It's clear there is no money, nor any idea how to acquire them," Abazi told the newspaper Vreme daily on Friday. “It would be for the best if two Albanian expert historians replaced me but without money I see no point."

The other Albanian member of the team, Academic Ramiz Abduli, left in November.

The release of the original tome last year triggered disputes in neighbouring Albania and Kosovo as well as in Macedonia.

Amid protests from ethnic Albanian opposition parties in Skopje, the Democratic Union for Integration, a junior party in the current government, insisted on the withdrawal of the tome, threatening to leave the government led by the centre-right VMRO DPMNE party.

Albanians make up about one-quarter of Macedonia’s population of about 2 million.

In November 2009, the Academy withdrew the book and formed a new team tasked with compiling a new edition.

Two thousand copies of the disputed book have been printed and 300 copies were sold before it was withdrawn.

The lexicographical centre of the Academy last week proposed that the remaining 1,700 copies be sent back to the book stores, this time with a short commentary that warns the readers of the alleged errors and inconsistencies.

The Academy's presidency will have the final word on this, Madzunkov said. Meanwhile, the electronic version of the book which can be found illegally on the internet continues to draw wide public interest. Some observers have continued finding flaws in the book and criticizing the authors for unprofessional work.