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Europe | |||||
Macedonia: Ethnic Albanians demand a separate Albanian state | |||||
2007-08-16 | |||||
Skopje, 16 August (AKI) – An ethnic Albanian movement in Macedonia, known as Ilyrida, has called for the country to be federalised and has appealed to all ethnic Albanian deputies to quit the Macedonian parliament and to form their own.
Ilyrida recalled that 99 percent of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia voted at a referendum in 1992 for the creation of an autonomous Ilyrida in the western part of the country. The movement's statement called on ethnic Albanian MPs to proclaim the Republic of Ilyrida in the western city of Tetovo and to quit Macedonian institutions. But Ilyrida president Nevzat Halili told the media he saw nothing new in the statement “which has been sent in our name,” and distanced himself from it. Commenting on the controversy, government spokesman Ivica Bocevski said tersely that “the state institutions keenly follow the situation in Macedonia." Meanwhile, police refused to comment on Ilyrida’s claim that its “armed members” controlled a part of Macedonian territory. Ethnic Albanians rebelled in 2001, demanding more rights and regional autonomy, but the dispute was ended by the Ohrid peace accord, which met most of ethnic Albanian demands.
And what did that buy for Macedonia? Answer: More demands, backed by violent threats.
While historians differ on the origin and historic role of Ilyrians, it is generally believed they inhabited the western Balkans around 1,000 B.C. Present day Albanians claim to be their descendants, which would make them one of the oldest people in the area.
With the breakup of the former of Yugoslavia during the 1990s Balkan wars, the Ilyrian movement continued to symbolise the striving for unification of ethnic Albanians in several Balkan countries.
Warnings. Kosovo, the gift that keeps on giving. | |||||
Posted by:mrp |
#3 "Ethnic Albanians demand a separate Albanian state" Of course they do.... I'm beginning to think we're the only country where most of the people get along. (A condition the Lefties are working nonstop to destroy.) |
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-08-16 18:55 |
#2 Catatonia is nice this time of year. |
Posted by: Seafarious 2007-08-16 18:37 |
#1 I say let's give them the state of Rigor Mortis. |
Posted by: Glaviper B. Hayes1496 2007-08-16 13:30 |