“Equality, freedom and democracy, as three basic elements of the Ochrid
agreement, have not been implemented properly. This leaves a bitter
taste of having two different communities here, who are state-forming.
The Slavic-Macedonians and Albanians, who don’t communicate enough with
each other”, said the Foreign Minister of Albania, Ditmir Bushati, on
January 9th.
The usage of term “Slavic-Macedonian” was not welcome by his counterpart in Skopje, Nikola Poposki.
“The way how someone uses a certain term, is maybe a reflection of the respect and education. We are Macedonians, nothing more or less. No democrat will feel the need to give us tribal contexts. Europe needs today a cultured vocabulary of 2017, not of 1913”, Poposki said for the media outlets in Macedonia.
When contacted by Top Channel in this regard, Minister Bushati underlined that the Ochrid agreement is not just an agreement between the two main state-forming communities in Macedonia, but an agreement which offers more freedom, equality and democracy in Macedonia.
He adds that any tendency to equalize the rights of Albanians in Macedonia by simply making it easier to build factories, the best case scenario it would be shortsighted, and in the worst case scenario, it would equalize Albanians with simply a community of workers who are looking for a job.
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