|
| |
"EURO-BALKAN" INSTITUTE ON MACEDONIAN CRISIS 31-03-2001
HOW DOES AN ALBANIAN THAT ‘ENJOYS ALL THE RIGHTS’ LOOKS LIKE?
AN EDITORIAL BY EMIN AZEMI, THE OWNER OF DAILY “FAKTI”
“Albanians enjoy all the rights”.
This is the refrain that foreign journalists most often hear from the
mouths of ethnic Macedonians. “OK, fine. Then, why the ethnic Albanians
are fighting in the hills,” the foreign journalists would ask, just to face an
avalanche of answers “They are fighting for Great Albania.” And when
the same foreign journalist comes to visit you, a first thing he does is to take
a good look at you, from head to toes. And he looks at you again. And again. And
then he tries to look at you face, trying to find a glimpse, at least one small,
the smallest piece of “the Great Albania” tittering on your face. And he
keeps looking, staring at you. He still looks at you. And while looking at your
face, he tries to behave nicely by looking straight into your eyes, but always
on the edge of popping ‘the question ’: “Eh, and what about Great Albania…
I mean, where do you stand on that … ” And even after you say that 80% of
the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia are unemployed, and even when you say that you
can count on one hand the number of Albanian doctors and nurses in Skopje
hospitals, and when you say that you can ’t find any Albanian working in local
banks (not even as cleaning ladies), and even when you say that the
share-holders in the biggest companies are almost exclusively Macedonians (and
few naturalized Vlachs), and when you say that there are not more than 3% of
Albanians in police forces, and that 99% of Army officers are ethnic Macedonians,
and when you say that 150.000 Albanians from Macedonia are working abroad in
western countries, and when you explain that Albanian pupils are still reading
in own books the names of towns written on Macedonian, and even when you say
that 112.000 ethnic Albanians are without citizenship status, the foreign
journalist will still ask you “And what about Great Albania … ” But one
cannot blame on the foreign journalists why they persist in their attempt to
fine the glimpse of Great Albania in the background of Albanian grievances. The
red-cart known as ‘Great Albania ’ that is constantly waved in the face of
Albanians, whenever they ask for more policeman, more doctors, army officers,
bank clerks etc., actually represents the essence of the conflict in Macedonia.
So, what we witness these days in the hills is not the conflict. The real
conflict is in the heads of some Macedonians that are deeply convinced that
Albanians really enjoy all the rights. The concept of “all the rights ”,
according to ethnic Macedonians, means that Albanians must me cured only by an
ethnic Macedonian doctors, that the Albanian must be tortured exclusively by an
ethnic Macedonian policeman and that the Albanian soldier in ARM must be only
commanded by an ethnic Macedonian army officer. “Macedonian healthcare,
Macedonian torture and Macedonian command, ” this is the vulgar concept of
preventing the creation of a ‘Great Albania’. “We gave all the
rights to Albanians,” this is how Macedonians like to say whenever someone
from abroad would ask them about the Albanians. As long as they consider and
present themselves as exclusive owners of human rights and especially as owners
that have rented such right by labelling the Albanians with a continuous guilt
for destroying the state, one cannot speak about any ethnic or citizen harmony
in this country.
|
P.O. Box, CH-8031
Zürich, Switzerland