TIRANA, May 21 – Prime Minister Edi Rama said at a security conference on Thursday that if Macedonia wants to join NATO in the future, it should fully protect the rights of its ethnic Albanian population.
“Macedonia cannot be part of NATO, without following the letter and the spirit of the Ohrid Agreement,” Rama said, referring to the agreement that ended the ethnic conflict in Macedonia in 2001, enshrining equal rights for ethnic Albanians.
It is unacceptable for the Albanian government to see delays and “lack of transparency and justice” associated with the “damages suffered by innocent residents of Kumanovo,” Rama said.
He added “everyone wants a stable and democratic Macedonia to be part of NATO, but it cannot be a part without guarantees of following the values and principles of the alliance.”
Albania has been a NATO member since 2009. Skopje’s bid has been blocked by Athens over the name dispute. Athens does not want Macedonia to use the same name as one of its provinces, saying it implies territorial claims.
There has been increased focus on Macedonia following armed clashes two weeks ago in which eight police officers and 10 gunmen were killed.
Authorities said they had launched an operation on a house used by the gunmen to prevent an attack. Some among the group wore insignia of now-disbanded ethnic Albanian rebel groups that fought against Serb and Macedonian forces in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Many analysts have expressed concern that the Macedonian government used the clashes to distract the population from the ongoing political crisis in the country
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