The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Macedonian Encyclopaedia Draws Flak
Skopje | 22 September 2009 | Sinisa-Jakov Marusic
All ethnic Albanian parties supported the protest
The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, MANU, should immediately withdraw its newly published Macedonian Encyclopaedia and apologise to Albanians for calling them “settlers”, NGOs and political parties demand.
At a protest on Monday in front of the MANU building in Skopje, NGO Wake Up urged academy members to rewrite the section of the edition dedicated to the country's ethnic Albanian community.
The encyclopaedia “stirs ethnic hatred and counterfeits the history of the Albanian people” Wake Up's Adrian Limani told reporters.
The demonstrators objected to the fact that the encyclopaedia described Albanians as settlers who arrived in western Macedonia in the 16th century, saying this is untrue.
The protestors also objected to the way that the leader of the country's 2001 ethnic Albanian insurgency, Ali Ahmeti, is described as a “war crimes suspect”. Ahmeti now leads the junior coalition partner in the government, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.
The party's bitter political rival for the ethnic Albanian vote, the opposition New Democracy, ND, movement has come out in defence of the DUI leader.
“Mister Ahmeti and I might have different political opinions but, nonetheless, we are brothers,” the ND’s Sulejman Rushiti told reporters at the protest.
| The encyclopaedia will stay, Ristovski says |
MANU's Blaze Ristovski defended the controversial publication in comments to local station Alsat M TV on Monday. "If there are arguments we will discuss alteration in the second edition," he said.
Ristovski argued that the importance of the encyclopaedia, which is being published for the first time since independence, greatly surpasses its possible flaws.
Historian Georgi Malkovski, who wrote the disputed sections of the encyclopaedia, claimed, in an interview with A1 TV, that his writings are based on official Ottoman documents and censuses from the 15th and 16th centuries.
The DUI’s Xhevat Ademi, who attended the protest, said there was no chance his party would leave the government over the controversy. “I believe that this silliness has its limits,” he said.
The opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, supported the protest but was not present.
Ethnic Albanians make up around one quarter of the national population and claim they are indigenous to western parts of the country.
In 2001, ethnic Albanian insurgents staged a short-lived armed struggle. A peace deal was subsequently forged, with international guarantees, that ensures greater rights for the Albanian community. Ahmeti and his associates from the insurgency leadership gradually entered politics, forming the DUI.
The DUI has threatened to sue the academy over the encyclopaedia's portrayal of their leader.
2009-09-22 23:21:35