Re: Syndicate: about Macedonian crisis

[Melentie Pandilovski <mpandil@soros.org.mk>]

My use of the term civilized was meant to be a corrective to some posting
to the list in which a very obviously caricatured and racist view of
Albanians could be read -- something that Eleni (b.t.w., is this a he or
she? 


Eleni is female name (it is the same as: Elena, Jelena, Helena, Hellen)
;-)


	However, I don't propose to get involved in one of these
	ex-Yugoslav debates over the correct figures for this or that
	ethnic minority. Let's say it's  22%. The point made by the
	Michael Maas, the journalist whose mail I forwarded, is that the
	representation of Albanians in positions of responsibility is
	woefully small -- not to mention in the police force of a
	city that is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian 

Ok now. You are misinformed.  The city of Tetovo is about half half .
The surrounding villages though are with a predominantly Albanian
population. Actually even the villages are with a proportion of 50% - 50%
but it is just that the Albanian villages are overpopulated due to an
Pakistan like birthrate and influx from Kosovo and Albania, and the
Macedonian villages are underpopulated.
But anyway to prove the contrary point: the Chief of Police in Tetovo is
an Albanian, and most of the functions in Tetovo are given to the
Albanians which is causing a lot of revolt with the Macedonian
population. 
The increase of Albanian schools in Tetovo is in the past decade with a fantastic
unbelievable 500%

	-- which leads to polarizing social conditions in which such
	terrorism is possible. Plus according to him there is no state
	funding for the Albanian language university, etc. 

There are basically 2 concepts of an Albanian University in Macedonia.
One is supported by the DPA (Albanian party in power). It is the so
called Van Der Stull University and at the moment it is being built over
the land of the first Agriculture Middle School in the country which is
a scandal for it self. The money for this comes from international
donors and credits (guess who will pay for the credits? The MAcedonian
citizens of course).


	(He doesn't mention the media. As far as I know, the Macedonian
	Albanians don't have their own TV station, am I right? 

Look Michael,  I feel ridiculous explaining all this, but the Albanians
from Macedonia know it very well (perhaps that is why it is their country
of choice compared to Albania and Kosovo)
The answer is of course not.
Even the Roma (Gypsy community) has 3 TV Stations !
Macedonia has hundreds of local TV stations for the last 7 years at
least. The Albanian Community has tens of these private stations.
The National television has a program in Albanian since 1967. Most of
the program on the second Channel of the National Television is in
Albanian.The  National radio has an Albanian program since 1948.
As far as I know also there are 3 daily newspapers in Albanian (maybe
more now).


Finally why don't you write
>to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to stop the aggression towards Macedonia.
>We should react upon an aggression, isn't it so?

	Hmmm. Are these the same refugees you earlier cited your
	interior minister as saying were a propaganda strategy by the
	Albanian side? Or are there real refugees now?

No, these are people who were afraid of the Sarajevo syndrome. 
It was shot upon them from the mountains. Luckily Tetovo has a better
geographical position than Sarajevo so that there was a way out for them

	Look, Melentie, clearly this is a mess and a tragedy. I'm not
	advocating the 	use of force by the Albanian (or Macedonian)
	side. I think thereis validity to the point made by Maas that
	it's convenient to blame this all on the Kosovars and not
	address the situation ofthe Macedonian Albanians and how it
	might be contributing.

It is a clear situation. The commanding structures are in Kosovo. The
logistic basis are in Kosovo. The weapons came from Kosovo. 
The point is not to blame someone. Just to locate where the attack comes
from.


	Ok. I think if you would re-read your posts you will see that it
	is possible to read them in a different way. They were signed by
	you as a self-described
	reporter, 

It was a joke of corse ;-)

	and largely un-attributed to other news organizations. The
	reader is left with the clear impression that, even if they
	_were_ taken from other reporting, you've rounded up views in
	accordance with your own, strung them together, and forwarded
	them to Syndicate.

That is why now Kalina (she works in my office) is only forwarding the
information.

>Finally, it seems that it was very "benevolent" when I was curating
>exhibitions about the Albanian refugees in Kosovo throughout the region
>(in Skopje and the latest ones just a few months ago in Sofia, and
>Warsaw), but it IS NOT GOOD when I forward information about the
>Macedonian suffering. Is this what you are trying to convey to me?

	No

So what are you trying to say?



	Uh... did you have what Andreas describes as a "red beard and
all"? Hmmm.

Yes. 

Seriously, why is it so rare? What are the origins of the name? 

It is basically a Greek name. Meletios (eventhough many Slavs regard it
as Slavic as Milentije or Melentie)

	I think even Nabokov couldn't have devised a pair as melodiously
	lepidopteran as Melentie Pandilovski VS Eleni Laperi. Based on
	names alone, the southern Balkans should be a harmonious realm,
	filled with fluttering butterflies in the spring. Oh well.

Eleni is also a Grek name.


>Do you compare the Albanians in Macedonia to African Americans?
>I would strongly disagree on this.

	No, merely making the point that there are always high-sounding
	phrases in such documents that are only rarely matched by the
	"facts on the ground." On the other hand, I remember that the
	old Soviet constitution guaranteed "freedom of thought." Which
	is hard to disprove! (As long as you kept those thoughts to
	yourself.)

In fact the situation is different. The Albanians have 30
Parliamentarians (from 120).
In all 3 parliaments, there was a an ethnic  - Albanian Vice president of
the parliament.
The last 3 Governments of the Republic of Macedonia in fact represented Macedonian/Albanian coalition
governments. The number of the Albanian  Ministers (5 at least) in the
Government is higher than their percentage participation in the census. 


>However, there is an important issue here.
>Constitutions in the entire region of the Balkans.
>At one point the right of national minorities will have to be equalized,
>and for a start the initiative of the ex-Macedonian President Gligorov
>for a comparative study of the rights of national minorities on the
>Balkans, will have to be accepted.
>Otherwise it is hard, for ethnic Macedonians in this case, to change the
>constitution when if we for example compare only one segment such as the
>educational system we will find:
>in Albania the Macedonian minority has only 4 years of education in
>their mother tongue.
>In Macedonia the Albanian students have numerous schools up to 12th
>grade, and the New Albanian speaking University is being built.

	And I hope receiving state funding, since I assume the Albanian
	minority is taxed at the same rates as the Macedonian majority.
	These kinds of things, if they don't happen, can leave a
	long-standing sense of grievance which can lead to all kinds of
	violence and extremism. If you tax the Albanian minority, they
	should get something from it -- not just Macedonian-language TV
	and a state-funded university system exclusively in the
	Macedonian language. Do you agree?

The issue of taxing is especially painful for the MAcedonians. just one
example. The City of Tetovo (with the villages)  which represents about
10% of the population is paying only 1% of the taxes in the National
budget.
So, who pays for the Albanian University, infrastructure, schooling,
hospitals? Macedonians of course.



Best,

Melentie


-------------------------------------------------------
Melentie Pandilovski
Director
Contemporary Arts Center  - Skopje
Orce Nikolov 109, 1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia
Tel/Fax: +389.2.133.541
Tel/Fax: +389.2.214.495
Mobile: +389.70.217.075
http://www.scca.org.mk
-------------------------------------------------------


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