Skopje's Albanians Plan 'Alternative' City Square

The plan was presented by officials from Cair, Skopje’s only predominantly Albanian-populated municipality, to reporters in the capital's Old Bazaar area.

Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian Vice Prime Minister Abdulhakim Ademi and other government ministers from the junior Democratic Union for Integration party, DUI, voiced their support for the scheme at the presentation on Friday.

Named after the Albanian hero, Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeg, the square will cover a large area in the city centre close to the old Skopje Bazaar.

The new square will be only several hundred metres from the existing Macedonia square, which is currently being populated with large statues as part of the Skopje 2014 project.

Ademi said the plans were not an attempt to counter the Skopje 2014 project, but were simply aimed at urbanising the central area and “help the revitalisation of the Old Bazaar”.

He said the money for the project would come from the government.

But the Minister of Culture, Elizabets Kanceska Milevska said over the weekend the government has only paid €150,000 for a study of the project, and additional funds were not planned for this year.

Milevska also warned that all alterations or building work near the Old Bazaar would “need to be approved by the ministry” as laws covering the area were very strict.

Many ethnic Albanian organisations and individuals have condemned the ongoing “Skopje 2014” renovation project as being discriminatory, promoting only the values and the culture of the predominant Macedonian population.

"Skopje 2014" has been an ongoing topic of discussion between Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his Albanian coalition partner, the DUI, with suggestions several statues of Albanians could be included in the project, but nothing has materialised to date.