Volume IV, Issue II (April 2006) - Columbus School of Law

insists on the similarities of the languages. From a Macedonian perspective, however, Bulgaria’sself-declared big brother status has more often than not been regarded with suspicion. 214For Greece, there is no "Macedonian question” regarding the "so-called 'Macedonian'minority"; but it rather refers to the fact that "Skopje appropriates" Greek history and traditionsand "usurps the Greek name of Macedonia" implying territorial claims” 215 Serbia’s position wasthat Macedonia is southern Serbia and that ethnic Macedonians are Serbs by origin, positionwhich has evolved to a formal recognition of a distinct Macedonian nation. 216 Albania, in turn,does not reject the existence of a Macedonian nation but given the relatively large Albanianpopulation in the Republic of Macedonia, objected to its constitutional structure 217 which after theOhrid Framework Agreement in 2001, resulted in a constitutional changes which fall withinArend Lijphart's concept of consociationalism, 218 The denial of separate existence of theMacedonian nation, is however, not a new phenomenon which occurred recently, based uponclaims that the nation was constituted by a decree of the Communist Party in Former Yugoslavia.A book written by one of the greatest intellectuals from (Aegean) Macedonia, which talks of thedistinctive features of the Macedonian language, the nation and the propaganda of Bulgaria,Serbia and Greece, published in Sophia, in 1903, was ceased and destroyed by the authorities(only ten copies were saved). 219As a result of Greece's opposition of the application of the name ‘Macedonia’ to any otherplace than northern Greece, and denial of the existence of Macedonian national minority, towhich it refers as Slavophone Greeks, Macedonia could not have diplomatic recognition unlessit changed its name. 220 These pressures amounted to an unprecedented shifting of a bilateral andpolitical problem, to a legal and international issue. Namely, the process of internationalrecognition of the young Macedonian state, besides the conditions set forth in the UN Charter,the conditions set for the other four former Yugoslav republics, two additional requirements weremade: to give constitutional guarantees that it has no territorial aspirations towards Greece in lightof the constitutional declaration for paying due regard to the status of the Macedonian minorityin the neighboring countries., and to change the name "Macedonia" 221 The first one was satisfiedby adoption of a Constitutional amendments, 222 and the second resulted with the acceptance of thestate in the United Nations, with the provisional name, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.Chapter 3-The Macedonian minority in Albania3.1 Legal framework for the protection of minority rights214 Jenny Engström, The Power of Perception: The Impact of the Macedonian Question onInter-ethnic Relations in the Republic of Macedonia, in The Global Review of EthnopoliticsVol. 1, no. 3, March 2002, 3-17, available athttp://www.ethnopolitics.org/archive/volume_I/issue_3/engstrom.pdf215 Kathimerini (March 4,1990), cited from Evangelos Kofos, infra at 142216 See Jenny Engström, supra at 30217 Id218See Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, available athttp://www.mlrc.org.mk/ustav_i_amandmani.htm219 Krste Petkov Misirkov, ZA MAKEDONCKITE RABOTI [On the Macedonian matters], ( MaticaMakedonska, Skopje, 2002, Reprint)220 See Jenny Engström, supra at 30221 Svetomir Skaric, MAKEDONIJA NA SITE KONTINENTI [Macedonia on all continents], (UnionTrejd, Skopje, 2000)222 See Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, supra at 3444