The illusion of Greater Albania as a mechanism of Balkanization in Macedonia (II)

Part I

Fast forward to 2014

Nikola Gruevski is the PM of Macedonia since 2006, in coalition effectively with both Albanian parties DPA and DUI, the country is showing good economic performance despite the world economic crisis turmoil, investors are hoarded in, jobs are created, institutions are reformed, administration is streamlined, peace and prosperity is happening despite the country being blocked from joining EU and NATO by Greece. The Albanian political leaders are silent and cooperative with plenty of work to do in their now governed municipalities, everyone pulls towards the same direction, a better quality of life for all citizens of Macedonia.

As history has shown, a successful and working government is a disobedient government for the West. They much prefer puppet governments hand fed by Soros and IMF, with no patriotic sentiments and aspirations for large national growth. The final drop is the PM’s dissatisfaction with lack of progress with EU and NATO integration and international pressure towards changing the constitutional name from Republic of Macedonia to something else in order to satisfy the Greek irredentistic paranoia.

This motivates PM Gruevski for turning the national interests towards BRICS. Russian and Chinese capital in the form of Turkish Stream and Balkan Silk Road is arranged to enter Macedonia and secure its prosperity and long awaited economic boom.

US began openly to insist to every government involved in the Turkish stream project to drop it and give sanctions to Russia. Macedonia openly refused and continued to work on implementing BRICS projects and not sanction Russia. This motivated the US and its allies to launch a proxy war in the weakest link in the chain, Macedonia.

2015 – History repeats itself

A coup d’etat atempt is made in January 2015, but unsuccessful and the opposition leader Zoran Zaev is charged and there is a speculation US and/or UK diplomats may have be involved. To save themselves of the shame of being involved in creating coups and becoming persona non grata, diplomats arm Zaev with largely montaged wiretapped recordings from government officials phone calls, implying incriminating deals and corruption.

In February 2015 a wiretapping scandal begins as Zaev leaks the audio recordings on weekly basis, which he claims he got from a foreign secret service (largely speculated to be German BND). The recordings are over 2 years old (2013) and contain over 650,000 audio files involving 20,000 citizens. He demands PM Gruevski to resign and technical government to be formed. However the support for Gruevski and VMRO is great and everyone deems the recordings to be tampered with and an act of treason by Zaev.

From 2013 onwards Soros actively financed creation of “independent” media (annual budget for media of 5 million euros), published radical literature for revolutions and civil disobediance. Considering the very high approval ratings of Gruevski and VMRO, unlike 2001 this time Soros uses the big guns and hires Srdjan Popovic’s consulting firm Otpor, aka Canvas in order to train a large number of young men and women indoctrinated with neoliberalism to protest for freedom and against the government and create a Maidan. He trains Sorosoids protesters with the same effective techniques for creating a Colored Revolution, like implemented in Serbia against Milosevic and in numerous other countries. Large protests begin in Skopje in front of the government building but the police remains unprovoked and won’t instigate violence, at the cost of many injuries to police officers. The Canvas instructors and provocateurs are arrested and the protest crowd potential for violence neutralized.

On Albanian nationalist forums and FB groups Ahmeti is deemed as no longer fitted to represent the Albanian cause and needs to be replaced. It’s no secret that as soon as Albanian parties enter institutions offices and hallways, refresh their bank accounts with public tender money, donations and EU funds, they change the music and begin singing EU, reforms, ethnic peace and tranquility. Albanians live a very comfortable quality life in Macedonia. Nothing like Albania or Kosovo, no one from here wants to go there. It’s vice versa. Due to this Ali Ahmeti was labelled as too institutionalized and no longer devoted towards creating the Greater Albania he once fought for.

In 2014 a new Albanian political party is formed (BESA meaning “faith” and “promise” in translation from Albanian). The attempt to overthrow the government by the West is both for the Macedonian and Albanian leader. This external pressure reaffirms their cooperation to maintain peace in the country and prevent any Maidan or terrorist attacks from succeeding. Bombs are thrown at DUI’s party headquarters and in front of the Macedonian government building. The message is clear, both are expected to step down.

However, Albanian voters, with one eye at the living conditions in Kosovo and Albania, in Macedonia continue to largely support Ahmeti and don’t fall in the stories of Greater Albania and electing a greater nationalist. Everyone it seems is sick of hearing about EU, NATO and Greece name dispute. The new prospect of Russian gas pipelines and Chinese highways and railroads appeals to everyone as the future for prosperous Macedonia.

On May 9th 2015, during Victory day, the Macedonian police forces, which include officers from different ethnic backgrounds, intercept a terrorist group in Kumanovo and neutralize it. Among the dead and arrested are suspected to be American instructors from Camp Bondsteel. Macedonia mourns for losing 8 police officers and celebrates at the same time for avoiding large scale terrorist attacks on civilian population. The Western media again proclaims the terrorists as being freedom fighters and claims ethnic conflicts and civil unrest happens in Macedonia. Only 2 days after the incident in Kumanovo, Zaev visits the ruins and does a photo session with the local Albanian nationalists that supported the terrorists and booed the Police. These are of course members of BESA and Zaev’s planned, as per script, future Albanian coalition partners when Gruevski’s government falls.

Few days before the big opposition protest on May 17th, a video is leaked where Zaev is clearly seen as he accepts bribe of 200,000 euros. His street price is 1 euro per square meter of property in the municipality where he serves as an elected Mayor. Deflated by such scandal, the opposition together with Soros fail to gather the expected 100,000 protesters to perform a Maidan and revert to performing peaceful protest (20,000 participants). Half the crowd is Albanian nationalists from BESA shouting UCK, waving Albanian flags and wearing t-shirts with symbols of Greater Albania. Foreign diplomats join the protests, creating an embarrassing diplomatic precedent, but out of desperation for the constant failing, they show up to support Zaev. Among the speakers invited is Stanisev from Bulgaria, who is known Bulgarian nationalist that recognizes no Macedonian ethnic identity and is proponent for Bulgaria to annex Macedonia. In his support speech for Zaev he never mentions the word Macedonia.

On the following day VMRO organizes a rally themed as an Anti-Maidan and one ups Zaev’s rally with actual 100,000 participants, largely Macedonian patriots, Macedonian Serbs and also few Russian flags could be seen waving, clearly favoring an Orthodox Christian coalition against the Western Islamic terrorism, fascism and imperialism. After this everything is clear that Ukrainian scenario will not happen in Skopje.

Considering the old methods have failed to break the Macedonian unity, generate irredentistic movement among Albanians and perform a coup and a Maidan, the West pressures Macedonia with threats of NATO intervention from surrounding countries Bulgaria and Albania, under the disguise of humanitarian intervention. Bulgarian officials stated that in Macedonia there are 90,000 Bulgarian citizens, which is technically true. Those are Macedonians who took Bulgarian citizenships to be able to travel freely in EU, buy cheap cars with Bulgarian license plates, or for University studies in Sofia. Incidentally, most of those 90,000 are in Strumica, where Zaev is elected mayor.

Abusing this technicality Bulgaria sends troops on the Macedonian border and prepares refugee camps, but only to fold them back after the great Anti-Maidan rally on May 18th and Russian FM Lavrov’s scolding diplomatic intervention. This only tells us that dividing Macedonia between Albania and Bulgaria to form protectorates or a federal state with two governments, Albanian with BESA PM and Macedonian with Zaev as Bulgarian and Western puppet, was diverted but certainly not a bluff. US intelligence has all ethnic groups psychoprofiled and they use this to their advantage in balkanizing the region. Greatest fear of every Macedonian is dividing Macedonia as it was the case with the Bucharest Treaty in 1913. Greatest psychological reward for Albanians is uniting them. And we see the West uses those exact psychological mechanisms.

For further insight into the Bulgarian involvement in this ongoing saga in Macedonia, please do further reading of Andrew Korybko’s analysis “What’s Brewing Along the Bulgarian-Macedonian Border?“.

Resolution

Currently diplomatic efforts are being made to return the SDSM opposition back in the parliament and continue with political solutions for the crisis, although Zaev is most certainly going to face judicial process for the attempt of Coup, treason for using foreign secret service wiretapping and his corruption as a mayor. Which one(s) of the three will he get, depends on the future negotiations between the EU and US diplomats and PM Gruevski. The prospects for Zaev are not the greatest since diplomats also have to trade for discretion about their involvement in the coup, wiretapping and the terrorist acts.

Meanwhile all Macedonian citizens and institutions are weary about being manipulated into ethnic or political conflict for someone else’s benefit and at their own cost of living a better life. Everyone expects another terrorist attacks to test the level of tolerance and mutual will to integrate and resist the balkanization.

The difficult road ahead has only began for PM Gruevski. He has to negotiate with an army of EU and US bureaucrats and diplomats and come out breathing. On the way back from Strasbourg after 10 hours of failed negotiations, the Macedonian government plane had to take a forced landing in Zurich after hearing an explosion in the engine. Luckily the pilots didn’t faint and the plane landed safely. This immanently brings us back to the days of President Trajkovski’s plane crash in 2004 and President Gligorov’s failed assassination attempt with a car bomb in 1995. Macedonia’s odyssey is not over yet.

Vladimir Pandovski is the political and social analyst currently living in Macedonia.