Deceptive calm

The long-announced dialogue on the rights of Albanians in Macedonia has started these days. The leader of the Party of Democratic Prosperity, Imer Imeri, and the president of the Democratic Party of Albanians, Arben Xhaferi, began to haggle with their Macedonian colleagues, VMRO-DPMNE leader Ljupča Georgijevski and the first man of the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski, in the hope of extracting as many rights as possible for Albanians in Macedonia who according to their opinion, until now they were second class citizens. Until recently, the main demands of the Albanian political factor in Macedonia were the change of the Macedonian constitution and the introduction of bilingualism, but the appetites of the Albanian negotiators are growing every day, so in recent days they have brought up the issue of a bicameral parliament in which the Albanians would have the right of veto, and the introduction of the position of vice president of the state, who would be of Albanian nationality.

According to Imeri and Dzaferi, the controversial part of the Macedonian constitution is its preamble, which defines Macedonia as "the national state of the Macedonian people, in which full civil equality and permanent coexistence of the Macedonian people with Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma and other nationalities living in the Republic of Macedonia is ensured." ". Independent media in Skopje unanimously claim that changing the preamble of the constitution is a done deal and that everything will be resolved by not listing nationalities in the preamble, but Macedonia will be defined as a state of citizens.

Another "disputable" point of the Macedonian constitution is Article 19, which, among other things, states that "the Macedonian Orthodox Church, other religious communities and religious groups are separate from the state and equal before the law." The position of the Albanian political factor is to include the Islamic religious community in this article, or to delete the Macedonian Orthodox Church, that is, to use only the term "religious community" in this article. The top of the Macedonian Orthodox Church reacted most harshly to the requests for its deletion from Article 19 of the Constitution of Macedonia, stating that this will slow down the recognition of this church by other Orthodox churches.

Undoubtedly, the Albanians from Macedonia will succeed in achieving a greater representation of the Albanian language in the institutions of the system in the ongoing negotiations. The Macedonian political bloc opposes only the introduction of the Albanian language in the Assembly of Macedonia, because this would disenfranchise 12-15 percent of Macedonian citizens who do not belong to either Macedonian or Albanian nationality.

THE MOST PAINFUL QUESTION: Greater representation of Albanians in state institutions is one of the most painful issues because according to the Macedonian plan on the reform of the state administration, 20.000 employees should leave their jobs, that is, if this request of the Albanians is met, only Macedonians will be fired from their jobs in the following years. and only Albanians were employed.

Demands for the formation of a bicameral parliament with the right of veto, the introduction of the position of vice-president of Albanian nationality and demands for greater authority of local self-government units (read federalization) are considered by analysts to be unrealistic, and it is hard to believe that Georgijevski and Crvenkovski will agree to comply with these demands of the Albanians. The negotiations on the rights of the Albanians should produce the first results by June 25, when the Macedonian political top at the summit in Luxembourg should submit a "report" to the European Union on the progress of the negotiations.

And while negotiations on the future rights of Albanians in Macedonia continue at the green table, both sides are preparing for new clashes on the field. The extremists are regrouping and filling their arsenals with weapons and food, and the Macedonian security forces are not sitting idly by either. These days, four Sukhoi-25 aircraft and four more MI-24 helicopters ("flying tanks") arrived at Skopje's Petrovac airport from Ukraine.

"I don't understand why the Macedonian government acquired Sukhoi-25 planes." These planes, also called "tank killers", cannot help much in the fight against guerrillas. With the money spent on the purchase of four Sukhoi-25 aircraft, it was possible to purchase twenty more MI-24 helicopters, which are the counterpart of the American Apache AH-64. These helicopters are much more efficient and selective in selecting targets and can be much more useful than the Sukhoi-25 aircraft, which in this case can only be useful psychologically," military analyst Petar Škrbina told Vreme.

Four Sukhoi-24 planes and four MI-24 helicopters arrived in Skopje via Romania and FR Yugoslavia, because Bulgaria did not allow them to fly over. The military aid that Bulgaria promised Macedonia at the beginning of the crisis is arriving more and more slowly, while the aid arriving from FR Yugoslavia is getting more and more extensive, especially after the agreement on military cooperation, which was signed twenty days ago in Skopje by the defense ministers of the two countries.

MOBILIZATION: The ceasefire announced by the Macedonian side these days was also accepted by ONA. ONA leader Ali Ahmeti said that the ceasefire will last until June 27 and that its extension will depend on the outcome of the negotiations on the rights of Albanians. But, despite the official cease-fire, the shooting continues, especially in the area of ​​Šar-planina and in the area of ​​Aračinovo, the largest village in Skopje. The fighting has lost its intensity only in the Karadakh-Kumanov region, where the "food for water" plan has started to be implemented these days: ONA members unscrewed the valves of the Lipkovo lake from where Kumanovo gets its water, and in return a caravan with humanitarian aid entered Lipkovo help. Kumanovo, however, will receive drinking water only in 7-8 days, and in the meantime, the people of Kumanovo will have to wait in lines in front of the tankers coming from Skopje. Water supply is a problem that also plagues the residents of Tetovo, especially those who live on higher floors, because the city pump cannot work at full capacity until the transmission line on Šar mountain that supplies the pump with electricity is repaired. The problem is that the power line is located in territory controlled by extremists.

In Macedonia, more intensive mobilization of the army and police reserve forces has begun these days. According to the authorities, the response to the mobilization is not great, but the number of volunteers is surprisingly large. Representatives of the Macedonian police rejected the claims of some media that in recent days weapons have been distributed to ethnic Macedonians living in crisis areas. The authorities in Skopje claim that weapons are distributed only to members of the reserve police force, but not to ordinary civilians.

The negotiations between the Macedonian and Albanian political elites and the "deceptive calm" on the front show that Macedonia may have a chance to avoid the wartime fate of most of the former Yugoslav republics. Peace at this moment depends mostly on the art of bargaining, in which, according to the good old rule of the Balkan markets, both parties must be satisfied.