Kosovo PM Albin Kurti, who paid an unofficial visit to North Macedonia on Friday where he met with the mayors of the Skopje municipalities Cair, Visar Ganiju, and Tetovo, Bilal Kasami, said that this country should keep „close to Kosovo, Albania, and Bulgaria and away from Serbia and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic“. Kurti’s statement caught the attention of Serbian media and public today.
However, the public in North Macedonia has been disturbed by another matter altogether over the last two days. In the Macedonian capital, Kurti and his compatriots marked the renaming of the now-former „Second Macedonian Strike Brigade“ street to „Adem Demaci“ street. In Tetovo, behind these Albanian officials, a flag with a map of Greater Albania was displayed, along with the Kosovo and Albanian flags. According to media reports, while the Macedonian national anthem was not played, the Kosovo anthem could be heard.
„Macedonia should be closer to Kosovo, Albania, and Bulgaria, and keep away from Serbia, which is not far from Milosevic and Putin. In that way, Macedonia will be closer to joining the European Union, and our Balkan region will be safer. That’s why we must help, and we will support Macedonia,“ Albin Kurti said in Tetovo yesterday.
Kurti’s statement was transmitted today by Serbian news agencies, referring to the reports from their Macedonian counterparts, along with the reactions of the authorities condemning this statement.
„Open destabilization of North Macedonia“
Kurti’s recommendation that Skopje should keep close to Albania, Bulgaria, and the self-proclaimed Kosovo, and away from Serbia, is an impertinence and nonsense because he makes such statements at a time when he is openly engaging in the destabilization of North Macedonia – said, Petar Petkovic from the Kosovo Office, as a reaction to Kurti’s statements.
He added that Kurti came to North Macedonia to „incite the most extreme political structures of the Albanians“ in that country, as well as to „promote the fascist project of the so-called Greater Albania.“
„Kurti proclaimed himself as a political and ideological mentor of those who would like to destabilize and divide North Macedonia. He’s expanding his aggressive mission from Kosovo to the surrounding territories, which he considers an integral part of his crazy Greater Albanian state-building project.“
„Demaci nothing to do either Skopje or Macedonia“
The North Macedonian public and the media, however, focused on other events related to the visit of the Kosovo prime minister.
The media, as well as the opposition parties, emphasized that it was an unofficial visit, but an official meeting of Kurti with two Macedonian mayors of Albanian ethnicity, noting that the protocols at these events were unconstitutional and „scandalous“.
In Skopje, in the Cair municipality, Kurti attended a name-changing ceremony from ‘Street of the Second Macedonian Strike Brigade’ to Adem Demaci. The program included speeches, Albanian flags, and musical features.
As the Macedonian news agency Makfax reports, Kurti was welcomed by the leaders of some of the Albanian political parties in the country. Although meetings of the Kosovo PM with Macedonian officials were announced, this agency reported that no such meetings took place.
The agency reminded that the previous party in power in Cair – „Levica“ named the streets of this predominantly Albanian municipality after the names of the fallen fighters of the Second Macedonian Brigade.
„The street that celebrated those who gave their lives in the fight against the fascist Bulgarian occupier will, from tomorrow, celebrate Adem Demaci, a Yugoslav separatist and fighter for Greater Albania and the independence of Kosovo, who was repeatedly sentenced to prison in Yugoslavia,“ they alerted.
Makfax, however, also stressed that Demaci has no points of contact with either Macedonia or Skopje.
„Kurti attended the renaming of a street in Skopje, which now bears the name of Adem Demaci, a Kosovar intellectual who had nothing to do with Macedonia and Skopje. Kurti’s visit caused an avalanche of reactions in the country,“ they reported on Friday.
„The government would allow Skopje to become a pashalik of Kosovo“
The VMRO-DPMNE party described what happened yesterday in Skopje as the self-effacement of SDS and Kovacevski towards the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration – „simply to stay in power“.
„The government would allow Skopje to become a pashalik of Kosovo,“ said VMRO – DPMNE.
„It is disgraceful that SDS blames everyone else except itself for its own defeats. Who sneakily facilitated the change of street names in 2021? SDS and DUI did. Who approved (his visit) and welcomed him like super old Albin Kurti and made a Kosovar pashalik out of Skopje? SDS and DUI did,“ VMRO-DPMNE responded to the announcement of SDSM.
While accusing the ruling SDS of wanting to preserve power, they claim that the Albanian party DUI is „pushing a nationalist agenda so that Albanians do not talk about the crime and poverty they inflicted upon them.“ The party concluded that it would be preferable had they opened a factory instead of just changing a street name.
SDSM: DPMNE to ask them directly, they are their partners
The ruling party, on the other hand, alleged that it was thanks to the support of VMRO members that Bilal Kasami came to power in Tetovo.
You can obtain information about Kurti’s visit to Cair and Tetovo from Hristijan Mickoski, says SDSM, adding that if they are disgusted by the actions of their partners, they should contact them directly.
Furthermore, they accused the VMRO members of not having the credibility to speak about history or the present, let alone about the future, the future of the country, because they are the heirs of Vanca Mihailov’s fascism.
Albanian, Kosovo flags and a map of Greater Albania displayed in Tetovo
During Kurti’s stay in another Macedonian city – Tetovo, a flag representing o-called Greater Albania could be seen flying behind the Kosovo PM. The president of this municipality, Bilal Kasami, also confirmed the news on social networks.
„Makfax reported that the flag with the map of the so-called Greater Albania was displayed at yesterday’s gathering in downtown Tetovo. This is visible in a photo shared on social networks by the mayor of Tetovo, Bilal Kasami. He is seen in the front rows with Izet Mexhiti and Afrim Gashi, and next to them is Albin Kurti. Dozens of Albanian flags were also displayed around them,“ the agency stated.
However, the renaming of the street and the flag with the map of Greater Albania were not the only parts of this gathering that received harsh criticism in North Macedonia.
The mayor of Kumanovo calls on state authorities to react to the violation of the Constitution
According to the mayor of Kumanovo, Maksim Dimitrievski, the national anthem of North Macedonia was not played at the gathering, but the Kosovo anthem was. Dimitrievski went on to condemn the protocol undertaken during Kurti’s visit to Cair.
„Not singing the national anthem, not displaying the national flag, singing the anthem of another country and displaying only community flags and flags of foreign countries is contrary to the Law on the Use of Community Flags in the Republic of Macedonia and the Law on the Use of the Coat of Arms, Flag and Anthem of the Republic of Macedonia,“ he wrote in a Facebook post.
Also, displaying the flag with the map of Greater Albania is contrary to the Constitution and the laws of North Macedonia, Dimitrievski warned, calling on the MIA, the State Prosecutor’s Office and the Court to take action against those responsible and the perpetrators.
Dimitrievski asked the leadership and his former party members whether this is the kind of coexistence and mutual respect they fought for under the slogan „One society for all“?!
He argued that the memories of their deceased grandparents, partisans and anti-fascist are being “erased and replaced with the names of fighters for national causes.“
“You have been silent for the second day now, and silence, in this case, is more than disgraceful,“ Dimitrievski told his former party.
The initiative to have the streets in Skopje bear the names of the murdered soldiers of the Ljuboten massacre
On Thursday, the 22nd anniversary of the Ljuboten incident was marked in Skopje, when a military vehicle ran into landmines near Ljuboten, killing eight Macedonian military reservists. For this tragedy, the Macedonian authorities accused the so-called Albanian National Liberation Army, which denied involvement in the incident. After this incident, the conflict heated up in the interior of Macedonia, and everything ended with the Ohrid Agreement.
It was during the commemoration of this anniversary on Thursday in Skopje, the day before Kurti’s arrival, that some Macedonian officials suggested that certain streets in the capital should be named after the Macedonian soldiers killed in 2001.
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