Macedonia

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, might leave the government if the prime minister fails to clearly condemn a controversial Macedonian encyclopaedia. Referring to his party’s leader, DUI Vice President Rafiz Aliti told reporters Monday: “If [Ali] Ahmeti decides, we are ready to leave our posts at once.”

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on Sunday distanced himself from the publication of the controversial Macedonian encyclopaedia, and blamed the offending pages in the book on ”dark forces” who wish to harm his country. Without pointing fingers, Gruevski said that the passages in the book saying that Albanians were ”settlers” …

Several ethnic Albanian parties from Macedonia, Thursday will stage a protest in front of the government building to express their objections to the new publication of the Macedonian encyclopaedia. Calling it a “political pamphlet” that “inflicted great evil upon the Albanian population” the parties say they cannot guarantee that all …

The name Albanians and the time when they arrived in Macedonia are issues that are interpreted in different ways in other encyclopedias published in the country earlier and in Former Yugoslavia, Macedonian Nova Makedonija newspaper writes. Some back the thesis that the Albanians arrived in Macedonia in the XVI century, …

Enough ideas are on the table for Macedonia and Greece to start thinking creatively and find a solution for their “name” spat, the UN mediator Matthew Nimetz said Thursday in New York after meeting Macedonian President Georgi Ivanov. “I intend to resume the talks as soon as the new government …

MACEDONIA In an emergency session on Wednesday the editorial committee of Macedonia’s Academy of Sciences and Arts’s, MANU, that prepared the country’s first encyclopaedia decided to revise the disputed parts of the book that refer to the history and present life of the large Albanian community living in Macedonia. After …

ALBANIA Albanian academics in Tirana have slammed a new encyclopaedia published by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences, MANU, which describes the country’s ethnic-Albanians as “settlers”. Adding his voice to a growing number of academics, politicians and NGO members who have sharply critcised the encyclopaedia, the Deputy Head of the Albanian …

MACEDONIA Macedonia has never abandoned the so-called double name formula as a solution to its unresolved name, there have been only different interpretations of that position, the country’s President Georgi Ivanov said Tuesday in New York. Ivanov said this after holding meetings in New York with NATO Secretary General Anders …

KOSOVO Kosovo’s premier Hashim Thaci has added his voice to the controversy surrounding the publication of the encyclopaedia by the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Science, MANU, saying that it is similar to the encyclopaedia published by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science. Thaci said the facts presented in …

GREECE Greece is unconvinced that Macedonia will receive a date for the start of its EU accession talks in this autumn’s European Commission, EC, progress report, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis said. Macedonia hopes a date for the start of EU integration talks will be included in the report, scheduled …