The Referendum for the Agreement between Macedonia and Greece has to be singled out from all other topics. It’s about a historical act that surpasses all other mandates of all governments and institutions, it surpasses the ideologies (if they have any) of the political parties, it surpasses the relations between the Macedonians and the Albanians and their attitude towards the “other” ethnic communities, as they favor to say. This is a process that concerns the citizens. Period.

That is why all other disputes concerning any other topic in relation to the referendum, especially the ethnic issues, are absurd. This makes all the extremists, who are raging in the media and social networks these days, especially wrong. Macedonia had a chance to hold a process of historical proportions, neatly and untroubled, dignified and joyful. Unfortunately, we missed that chance because of politicos, criminals and haters (which does not necessarily mean they are in connection). The pressure and the meddling in Macedonia’s internal affairs by the Kremlin and the criminal motives of VMRO-DPMNE and others on our terrain have stained this process.

Constitution, bread, milk, and vanilla sugar…

In the public, voices have arisen of politicians and Albanian intellectuals, who think that now is the moment to repeat their ideas on how Macedonia should look like through their ethno-prism. Part of them are naïve victims of the Russian-VMRO manipulations, and part are irredeemable nationalists. Opinions are that the Albanians have nothing to gain from the Agreement between Zaev and Tsipras. Moreover, they are convinced that once the Constitution is going to be opened, that constitutional changes should go hand in hand regarding the Albanians, the bilingualism, statehood, legal representations and so on. Something like when they send the kids to buy bread and milk, they also tell them to buy a package of vanilla sugar. Or, in other words, the Referendum may be a benefit for all, but at the same time it is just a chance for additional gain, based on completely different political agendas. That is, mildly put, selfish. The question is: why do the Albanians have to have something

extra from the Agreement between Macedonia and Greece? A Macedonian nationalist would say: Albanians are always looking for something extra. That standpoint is ugly, and it has the potential to cause division and tensions, but the Albanians should also consider whether they are feeding that position.

All of them together, do not realize that regulating the status of the Albanians, no matter how much it is necessary or unnecessary, justified or unjustified- has nothing to do with the referendum. The timing of such initiatives is wrong, and the addresses to which they are turning to are completely wrong.

Albanians who are working for the Kremlin

These demands, in an official or semiofficial form, are directed to Prime Minister Zaev. Part of them express distrust towards DUI and towards other political parties of the Albanians, so they say that this is a problem that should be solved by Zaev and no one else. They do not understand (or do not want to) that the rights and freedoms they demand are already guaranteed with the Constitution and the laws, and that they apply to all the citizens. It is also true that human rights are violated on different grounds, on a daily basis, and that everyone is a victim of discrimination. And that Macedonians, Romas, Serbians, Turks and others are discriminated in places where the Albanians are a majority. What about that? Isn’t everyone equal according to the Constitution?

Perhaps the Albanians have a right to claim that they are a target of discrimination in the institutions more than the others, but that is a problem of the rule of law, and not of the formulations in the Constitution. And in the institutions there are Albanians, from whom precisely the Albanians are complaining the most. What about that now?! If we are already talking about discriminations, the Romas are the most discriminated community, and they are discriminated by everyone in the institutions, including the representatives of their own communities.

But, that is not important neither to the Albanians, nor the Macedonians working for the Kremlin.

Macedonia is not an absolute monarchy

Maybe it would be possible for the pre-referendum demands of the Albanians to be fulfilled in that way, but under one condition: if we were living in the time of the Ottoman Empire, and Zaev was a sultan. Even in those conditions, it is not completely certain that the sultan would have that much

unlimited political power, so he would have to consult with his viziers and other powerful figures in the empire.

In the 21 century, in a parliamentary democracy (and not a monarchy), Zaev is just part of the system, and the dispute around those issues is held in public, and is decided in parliament. And, of course, outside of the questions regarding the referendum, in a different process, when there would be proper conditions for that as well.

Not understanding the processes in society and the politics by some of the people who allow themselves to act on behalf of the Albanians, is harmful to the interethnic relations in the country. Equally harmful as the damages caused by the extremists that Gruevski’s regime fostered, and Mickoski and his companions are continuing that “tradition”. All of them are making cautious and are even radicalizing even those who cannot by far be said they are nationalists, no matter what community they are from.

And let us not forget, such tendencies are a fertile soil for the destructive criminal-political structures (foreign and domestic) to whom the rights of Macedonians, Albanians, or any other community mean nothing. On the contrary.

Translation: Natasa Cvetkovska