By ARJAN STAROVA
A few weeks ago, Montenegro received the NATO membership invitation, which according to my opinion, should have been extended maybe even one or two years ago. However, this was an important step forward for Montenegro, NATO, and the entire Western Balkans. This invitation was the best response to international actors such as Russia, which in violation of the international law (the annexation of Crimea), is persisting in its own geopolitical interests without considering the freedom, independent decisionmaking, and the interests of individual countries like Montenegro. This was an indeniably a very positive development for Albania, the southern and northern part of which will be very soon bordered by NATO member-countries.
At the same time, the eastern neighbor of Albania, Macedonia was stuck in front of NATO’s open membership doors since the NATO Summit of Bucharest, in Spring 2008. Macedonia is still waiting for an official invitation to join this Alliance. The international public opinion in general, as well as other interested people such as security experts, have linked the stagnation situation of Macedonia’s NATO membership with the Greek-Macedonian dispute over the name of Macedonia, a dispute which, independently of the international mediation of the UN, is strangely creeping along without finding a solution for more than twenty years now. This dispute over Macedonia’s name has engaged some arguments by both countries, but in my opinion, it seems to be an unjustified dispute, considering the fact that this issue has been around for a very long time. On one side, Greece has been asking Macedonia to change its contry-name based on the argument that Greece already has within its territory a northern region named Macedonia, and that the history shows that Macedonia is Greek. On the other side, Macedonia has been putting forward the argument that its name has been accepted without any rejection by Greece since the time of Tito’s Yugoslavia (Republic of Macedonia constituted at the time had also the right to secede as idependent), and that history shows that Macedonia is a successor of the old Macedonia, which was not Greek.
Eventually, Greece wants Macedonia to find another name that does not include the word ‘Macedonia’ at all, while Macedonia insists on its sovereignty to making a free decision for its name. A dispute based upon such historical arguments naturally never ends, because the history has numerous arguments to the benefit of both parties engaged in the dispute. Even legal arguments are both valid as well.
However, I would like to go a little further, beyond any argument there might be, and try to have a deeper look into the reality of things and the reality of NATO’s security interests and country populations.
If it continues this way, the irrational contradiction between the disagreement on history and law on one side, and the priority need of both countries to live in the present time on the other side, becomes more exacerbated. For the sake of truth, if we take a look on the real relations of these two countries during the last two decades (since the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Macedonia), then we can notice that almost everything goes well except the dispute over the name of Macedonia, followed by Macedonia’s delayed NATO membership. On its side, NATO has displayed some kind of slowness for the accession of Maqedonia in NATO, for as long as the dispute over the name (considered by NATO), a bilateral problem between the two countries would have a final solution.
NATO might also have other concerns linked with the still problematic ethnic relations between Albanians and Macedonians, but these have never been expressed by the Alliance as a big concern. Putting the latter aside, this is why, in face of these circumstances, some essential questions arise: First, how important is the membership of Macedonia to NATO and is Macedonia’s name really the problem? Second, how dangerous is it that, if only the name Republic of Macedonia is kept, then this fact might be a security threat to the territorial integrity of northern Greece, which is also called Macedonia? Third, how much does Macedonia wish to be a NATO member (having in mind that one third of its population is autochtonous Albanian)? Fourth, why Albanians display a lack of attention to the dispute over the name of Macedonia and to their reluctance to the NATO membership of Macedonia as well?
Trying to answer the first question, I think it is quite clear that NATO has much interest in the membership of Maqedonia and this interest has been increasingly growing due to the current international security environment and the geopolitical importance of the Western Balkans. Also, NATO has made it clear that due to the rule of consensual decisions inside NATO, it can’t impose Greece on the endorsement of NATO membership of Macedonia. However, NATO should have exercised more goodwill pressure on both countries in order for this irrational dispute over Macedonia’s name to be solved already. Macedonia might have received the invitation to join NATO on the condition of a fast solution of the dispute over the name, but to that condition might have also been added an item on a greater engagement of the Macedonian authorities for the complete implementation of the Ohrid Agreement, which regulates the relations between Macedonians and Albanians.
NATO’s official stand has for long excluded the additional requirement from the Atlantic integration agenda of Macedonia. Hence, Macedonia seems to be still waiting for its NATO membership invitation due to the dispute over its name alone. This indefinite situation of Macedonia in front of the “open doors of NATO” is incessantly cherishing loose mythical-conspirational theories on the dissolution of Macedonia, but the least illusion of this, as a probable future fact, would re-open the Pandora Box in the Western Balkans. However, this very dreamy situation seems to be randomly cherished among Albanians by some fundamental shortages in the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement for the equal relations by law between Albanians and Macedonians, the two main ethnic groups of Macedonia. Under these conditions, a stronger expression of the NATO’s interest in Macedonia’s membership bears great importance, even if only for dissipating some vague and irrational expectations among Albanians and Macedonians who “dream with their eyes open” a dissolution of Macedonia and fabricate sorrowful tragedies like that of Kumanova, in May, last year.
In response to the second question, I would say that it is unimaginable to have a future state of Macedonia which could be a threat for those territories of northern Greece named Macedonia. It is even truer when it is well known that Macedonia thinks of its own future as a member of NATO and the Europian Union. That said and believed, it remains without response a corollary question: What is the interest of Greece in blocking the accession of Macedonia in NATO for more than twenty years?! Why Greece is spoiling the NATO’s plans for its enlargement in the Western Balkans?! There is a serious need to find an answer, but it is beyond my borders of information and it’s impossible to me. However, there should be inquiries for such a response.
As to the interest of Macedonia’s population in joining NATO, wchich relates to the third question, things are indisputably positive, but I would like to stress on the fact that all Albanians are interested as a whole community in Macedonia’s NATO membership. In this article, I only deal with the public support of NATO in Macedonia, because this is not a reason why Macedonia’s NATO membership seems sluggish.
The fourth question, which is linked with the role of Albanians in the solution of the Greece-Macedonia dispute over the name, and with the NATO membership of Macedonia, seems to me very important and has a direct connection to their political responsibility. Everyone knows that Macedonia does not belong to Macedonians alone as a territory and population. So why have Albanians who constitute one third of Macedonia’s population stayed somehow “sleepy” regarding the solution of the dispute over the name of Macedonia? They should have exercised a strong positive pressure in order for this question to be solved, because it is also in their interest. Moreover, this question has been and is still linked with the NATO membership of Macedonia as well, something that Albanians wish even more than Macedonians themselves. I don’t understand why the Albanian political parties of Macedonia have not been doing this. When, by chance, I have talked to their representatives in a friendly way, they have always agreed with me, but it seems that clearly articulated political efforts have never been made. The logic of political efforts for the Euro- Atlantic integration of Macedonia badly needs a committed role and a related responsibility of the Albanians so that no more time is lost.
