Language Research

Albanian political parties in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRoM) are actively pursuing even greater political and national rights for the Albanian minority of Macedonia. Such as the official use of the Albanian language in local administration, proportional representation in the government and the right to higher education in their mother tongue.

The Government has not supported three demands by some ethnic Albanian leaders that would require parliamentary approval. These demands include the use of the Albanian language in dealings with the central government and Parliament; relaxing citizenship laws that now require 15 years of legal residence, and official use of the Albanian flag.

A recent controversy in Macedonia concerned the establishment of an Albanian language university in the northwestern town of Tetova. The Macedonian Ministry of Education refused to accredit this institution and the Macedonian government has declared it to be illegal and unconstitutional. Albanian political parties and intellectuals argue that the Albanian population is entitled to university education in its own language (1995).

Ethnic Turks, who make up some 4% of the population, complain of governmental, societal, and cultural discrimination. Ethnic Serbs, who comprise some 2% of the population, also complain of discrimination, alleged censorship of the Serbian press, and their inability to worship freely in the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Top of page

Updated (June 2001)

As a result of the Albanian guerrilla attacks in northern Macedonia and the subsequent presentation of a list of demands aimed to improve the situation of the Albanian population, a debate on the need to modify the Macedonian constitution has arisen in this country. One of the main issues under discussion is the preamble, which establishes a distinction between Macedonians and citizens belonging to other nationalities. According to the Albanian minority and some liberal authors, this preamble allows the existence of first class and second-class citizens. The modification of the preamble and the recognition of full rights for all Macedonian citizens is precisely the historical demand of Albanian political parties, which, in language related matters, implies the state recognition of an official status for the Albanian language.

In June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemned the actions of Albanian extremist groups in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and urged the extremists to cease military action and lay down their arms. It also called on the parties in the coalition government to conclude an agreement to resolve the crisis without further ado.

In a Resolution unanimously adopted, the Assembly asks the Macedonian Government to adopt measures to allow representatives of the Albanian minority to use their language when dealing with state administration and in the courts, in secondary and higher education. The Resolution also asks the government to ensure that ethnic Albanians are properly represented in public institutions and enterprises, in the police and in the army.

Further, the Assembly urges the Macedonian Government to ratify the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, and to co-operate with the Venice Commission to amend their constitution in accordance with the principles defended by the Council of Europe.

The Assembly decided to set up an ad hoc Committee to monitor the developments in Macedonia, which will visit the country and report back in September. The Assembly also recommended that the Committee of Ministers intensify its co-operation programs with Macedonia in order to improve inter-ethnic dialogue, to reform education and the media and to strengthen local government.

Top of page

Updated (July 2001)

"Macedonians already made a big step forward with compromises on more than 10 very delicate and emotional points. One of them is accepting Albanian as an official language in the area where more then 20% of the population are Albanians. But a few days ago foreign mediators brought up a new request: Albanian should be an official language in the whole territory. But this is unacceptable for the Macedonian authorities", Mr Jakic, chairman of a delegation from the Council of Europe, explains.

Top of page

Updated (August 2001)

On August 13, 2001, Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties signed a peace deal to end the six-month conflict by improving the rights of the ethnic Albanian minority. The Macedonian parliament, dominated by nationalists, must ratify the accord for it to take effect. A vote is to be held within 45 days. Under the disarmament commitment, Albanian rebels would give up their arms in three stages over a 30-day period, with a verification process to satisfy the security concerns of both sides. NATO set various conditions for deploying its forces to collect the arms of ethnic Albanian rebels. These included a lasting cease-fire and an agreement by the rebels to disarm.

Top of page

Updated (November 2001)

Beginning of fighting

The fighting in Macedonia started in February 2001 in and around the ethnic Albanian village of Tanusevci on the northern stretch of the Macedonian border with Kosovo. Such incidents had happened before, often caused by the Macedonian police's attempts to clamp down on ethnic Albanian smugglers. But an attempt by the Macedonian security forces on February 26 to take control of Tanusevci escalated into a lengthy exchange of fire. The fighting spread, first to the mountainous outskirts of Tetovo, the main ethnic Albanian town in Macedonia, and in May to the region around Kumanovo in the north. Clashes and unrest were also been seen in and around the capital, Skopje.

Rebels

The rebels who fought in the northern part of Macedonia called themselves the National Liberation Army, a group which emerged only at the beginning of 2001. They were demanding a new Macedonian Constitution, better rights for Albanians, and international mediation in the dispute. The rebels said they were mostly Macedonian-born Albanians. But their number included many who fought in the Kosovo Liberation Army, and the group used Kosovo as a supply base and safe area.

There was also an older - established group operating on the Serbia-Kosovo border, the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac. It harbored more wide-ranging goals, including the annexation by Kosovo of ethnic Albanian-inhabited areas of southern Serbia and possibly of western and northern Macedonia. But the rebellion in the Presevo valley came to an end in May as part of a peace deal that provided for the reintegration of the region with the rest of Serbia and an amnesty for the ethnic Albanian fighters.

Current peace process

Politicians from both communities agreed on a peace formula in August 2001, after days of tense negotiations and the Macedonian Parliament adopted a package of constitutional reforms. The deal included increasing the proportion of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia's police force - from 5% to about 25%. The status of the Albanian language was boosted, so it can be used in official institutions in areas where ethnic Albanians account for at least 20% of the population, as well as in the national parliament. The preamble to the constitution has also been changed to upgrade the status of the Albanians and the smaller ethnic communities.

Albanian rebel fighters handed in nearly 4,000 weapons to Nato and formally disbanded.

Source: "Q&A Macedonia peace process", BBC Online, November 2001

Top of page

Updated (January 2002)

In January, the framework agreement negotiated at Lake Ohrid that ended months of armed conflict in Macedonia was still not fully implemented. The European Union and the United States said that budgetary assistance would remain blocked until the Parliament adopts promised measures to Albanian-populated areas. Macedonia had hoped that a conference of aid donors would have taken place last October and aid would be flowing into the country. Macedonian public opinion has turned solidly away from support for NATO, and the popularity of the politicians who signed the Ohrid Accord has fallen.

One analyst observed that the majority Macedonians felt frustrated believing the peace accord compromising their national identity was forced upon them. Meanwhile, the Albanian minority was seen as a winner as Albanians have won the right to use their language in the Parliament, exercise regional autonomy and have much greater representation in the police force.

Stability in Macedonia is critical to the future of the southern Balkans. With only two million inhabitants, the mountainous Republic of Macedonia is bordered by states suffering their own significant recent problems. To the northwest is Kosovo, a base for last year's insurgency, where there is a large NATO and United Nations presence. Macedonia's other neighbors are Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece. Each of these neighbors is very concerned about the possibility of renewed ethnic conflict in Macedonia.

On January 24, the Macedonian Parliament approved a new Law on Local Self-Government. The breakthrough came after the leaders of the four main political parties agreed after the President Boris Trajkovski urged to pass the new law.

Most Western diplomats and observers like the European Union's Javier Solana or German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer welcomed the adoption of the law as a major step toward a lasting peace in Macedonia.

Domestic politicians were less enthusiastic. While for many ethnic Macedonian politicians the reform went too far, some Albanian politicians wanted to grant even more rights to the local authorities. According to the spokesman for the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, Zahir Bekteshi, the new legislation represents a new willingness to decentralize the country.

The umbrella organization of the municipalities, the Association of the Units of Local Self-Government, has welcomed the legislation. However, together with the above-mentioned law, there are about 30 laws to be adopted by the Parliament in the near future. Many of them have to be modified as a consequence of the Ohrid Peace Agreement, and it is unlikely that legislators will pass all of them before the parliamentary elections, expected later this year. The most important of these laws is the Amnesty Law.

Sources: Barry Wood, January 2002;

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Balkan report, February 2002

Top of page

Updated (May 2005)

EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE ISSUES

Education and language-related issues are quite complex in this multi-ethnic country and generally reflect the ethnic Albanians’ desire for equal opportunities in education and more control over their own affairs, especially in the educational and cultural spheres. Ethnic Macedonians feel the need to preserve their identity and culture and note that, unlike in the case of ethnic Albanians, there is no other country, which would promote the Macedonian language and culture.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

Great discrepancies exist between different ethnic groups in the field of education. Primary education is compulsory and available in Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and Serbian. In 1995, extracurricular instruction in the Vlach language started while in 1996/1997 academic year, optional education in the Roma language was introduced at a few elementary schools. Secondary education is not compulsory and is offered in Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish. There must be at least 24 minority pupils in a class before they can be taught in their mother tongue (30 pupils were needed under the 1985 Law on Secondary Education).

There is a general agreement that the quality of education in Albanian-language schools at the primary and secondary level must be improved; however, there is no general consensus on how to achieve this. The number of minority students participating in mother tongue secondary education increased from 10 percent in 1994/1995, to over 13 percent in 1996/1997.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN MINORITY LANGUAGES

The question of higher education in minority languages has been one of the main sources of dispute between ethnic Albanians and the Macedonian government and also a major source of interethnic tensions amongst the general population. The government tried to give ethnic Albanian students more opportunities to enter university through a quota system. Even though the percentage of Albanian students between 1991/1992 and 1994/1995 more than doubled that was still far from enough.

Ethnic Albanians for a long time demanded state support for higher education in their language. While the Constitution has not prohibited the use of minority languages in higher education, the Law on Higher Education has stipulated that all tuition has to be in the Macedonian language exclusively (with some exceptions for the subjects most closely linked with fostering ethnic identity). Theoretically, however, nothing prevents the establishment of private educational institutions. According to Article 45 of the Constitution, citizens have the right to establish private schools at all levels of education, with the exception of primary education, under conditions determined by law.

During the Yugoslav period, most ethnic Albanian students from the Republic of Macedonia attended the University in Pristina. In 1991, however, the Albanian-language courses there were closed, resulting in a shortage of qualified Albanian-language teachers. The Macedonian government opened a Pedagogical Academy with a two-year program in Albanian at the Skopje University. In 1995/1996, the Pedagogical Academy was transformed into a Pedagogical Faculty with a four-year study program intended to train teachers for pre-schools and primary schools. Albanian students began boycotting courses offered in Macedonian only, so in early 1997 the government finally passed a law permitting the Pedagogical Faculty to teach all the courses for Albanian students in the Albanian language. For the lack of qualified Albanian teachers it was not until February 1998 that all courses were offered in Albanian.

THE QUESTION OF TETOVO UNIVERSITY

In 1994, the municipal councils of Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar established a private Albanian-language university in Tetovo. Although the 1995 Law on Local Self-Government gave no jurisdiction over higher education to local authorities, the mayors of twenty-two municipalities governed by ethnic Albanian parties joined the initial three founders in 1997. Tetovo University functioned for several years without official recognition, funded by the ethnic Albanian community in the country and abroad.

In May 2000, after lengthy discussions with the Macedonian government, the High Commissioner on National Minorities suggested a multicultural compromise solution: the university will offer courses not only in Albanian but also in Macedonian and English; it will have two fields of specialization (pedagogical training for primary and secondary levels and public administration and business management); some, but not all, of the professors from Tetovo University will be hired and Tetovo graduates will have to take exams in order to have their diplomas recognized. Funding for the first four years was planned to come from foreign countries and private donors.

A major positive development came on July 25, 2000 when the Law on Higher Education was adopted by Parliament, opening the way for higher education in minority languages¹. On July 26, Parliament voted on an OSCE-sponsored measure to legalize Tetovo University as an accredited private institution². This was a compromise between the demands of the Albanian community for a state-run Albanian language university and the refusal of the Macedonian government to grant such state accreditation. This internationally funded, multilingual, private university comprised of five faculties and two centers, one for foreign languages and one for computing.

Source: European Center for Minority Issues, Macedonia, http://www.ecmi.de/emap/mk_A03.html

1. Private institutes of higher education with instruction in a minority language were allowed to be established.

2. The official name of this new institution was University of Southeast Europe in Tetovo.

Top of page