North Macedonia is a country located in Southern Europe. With the capital city of Skopje, North Macedonia has a population of 2,022,558 based on a recent census from
COUNTRYAAH. Northern Macedonia proclaimed its
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, under the name of
Macedonia. Soon there was a conflict between the two
dominant groups, Macedonia and Albanians, and in the
early 2000s, armed clashes erupted. After mediation from
NATO, the violence was halted by the so-called Ohrid
agreement in 2001. Gradually, the sharpest line of
conflict came between Macedonian nationalists and the
reformed Communist Party.

In 1990, the upheaval and democratization in
communist Eastern Europe also reached Yugoslavia and the
Republic of Macedonia. Nationalist movements emerged
with demands for democratic reforms. This led to the
leadership of Yugoslavia allowing multi-party systems
and in 1990, for the first time, multi-party was held in
the six sub-republics.
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ABBREVIATIONFINDER:
List of most commonly used acronyms containing Macedonia. Also includes historical, economical and political aspects of the country.
In Macedonia, a group of intellectual nationalist
party formed VMRO-DPMNE (see Political system), which
wanted "one of all three parts of Macedonia", ie also
the Macedonian parts of northern Greece and western
Bulgaria. VMRO-DPMNE became the largest party in the
1990 elections but did not get its own majority. The
second largest was the former Communist Party, which has
now changed its name to Macedonia's Social Democratic
Alliance (SDSM). The Albanian Democratic Success Party (PDP)
came third. Check best-medical-schools for more information about Macedonia.
Independence after referendum
Former Communist leader Kiro Gligorov was named
president in January 1991 and in March a government was
formed by independent academics and experts. When
Slovenia and Croatia left Yugoslavia in June of that
year, Macedonia could choose to become part of "rest
Yugoslavia", dominated by Serbia, or to become
independent. In September, a majority of the population
voted for sovereignty, but Albanians and Serbs boycotted
the referendum.
In November 1991, Macedonia declared itself
independent. When the outside world hesitated to
recognize the new state, the government resigned in July
1992, after losing a vote of confidence in Parliament.
It was succeeded in September by a coalition of
left-wing forces and liberals led by the SDSM, which
also included the Albanian PDP. In 1994, the first
presidential election was held after independence and
Kiro Gligorov gained renewed confidence.
The collapse of Yugoslavia led to tensions in
Macedonia. Nationalism within the Albanian minority
increased, as did the contradictions between Albanians
and Macedonians. At the same time, nationalist forces in
neighboring countries saw a chance to question
Macedonia's status as a nation. Many Bulgarians and
Greeks regard Macedonia as an "artificial state" created
by Tito after the Second World War, and claim that there
is no Macedonian national identity. The Macedonian
language is regarded in Bulgaria as a Bulgarian dialect
and Slavic Macedonians as a kind of Bulgarian, while
Greece claims a historical right to the name Macedonia.
Serbian nationalists call Macedonia "Southern Serbia".
Tensions between Albanians and Macedonians continued
to grow during the 1990s. The large Albanian minority
felt discriminated against and demanded to be recognized
as a state-carrying people, equal to the Macedonians.
One concern was the development of the
Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Many
Macedonians feared that any independence for Kosovo
would inspire the Albanians in Macedonia to work for a
Great Banana, which, in addition to Kosovo and Albania,
would also include Albanian-dominated parts of
Macedonia.
Assassination attempt on the president
President Gligorov's main task was to try to preserve
the fragile coexistence between Macedonians and
Albanians. He managed to reasonably meet the demands of
the Albanians, while managing to steer the country away
from confrontation with neighboring states. In 1995, he
was bombed, probably by Macedonian nationalists, but
survived.
In the summer of 1997, unrest broke out. The radical
Albanian mayor of Gostivar had hoisted the Albanian flag
at the town hall, which angered the Macedonians. Then
the so-called flag law was passed, which prohibited
Albanians in Macedonia from raising the Albanian flag
other than at private parties and cultural and sporting
events.
After the 1998 parliamentary elections, SDSM, which
ruled the country for six years, was given over to a
conservative coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE. New Prime
Minister became the 32-year-old VMRO-DPMNE leader Ljubčo
Georgievski. The new government launched a rigorous
austerity program that will lead to clear economic
growth.
Struggles and refugee streams
Eventually, contradictions arose both within the VMRO
– DPMNE (an outbreak of the party also took place in
2004) and between the parties in the government
coalition. During the presidential election in the fall
of 1999, the government candidate Boris Trajkovski,
himself a member of the VMRO, won thanks to the support
of the Albanians.
In the spring of 2001, fighting broke out at the
border with Kosovo in the north between the Albanian
guerrilla National Liberation Army (in English
abbreviated NLA; in Albanian: Ushtria Ēlirimtare
Kombėtare, UĒK) and Macedonian government troops.
According to the government in Skopje, UĒK consisted to
some extent of Albanians from Kosovo whose goal was to
create a Great Banana. The guerrilla denied that it
wanted to change Macedonia's borders. It purportedly
struggled to strengthen the position of Albanians in the
country.
During the spring, periods of fighting between the
army and the UĒK were interspersed with ceasefire and
peace negotiations. But relations between the Slavic
Macedonians and the Albanians were steadily
deteriorating and representatives of the EU, the defense
alliance NATO and the United States worked hard to
prevent outright civil war. Around 100,000 refugees,
mostly Albanians, left the war zones and crossed the
border into Kosovo.
Ohrid Agreement
Eventually, the parties reached an agreement after
mediation from NATO. On August 13, 2001, the parties
signed a peace agreement in the city of Ohrid. This
could happen despite severe contradictions and strong
suspicion between Macedonians and Albanians and despite
serious crimes against the ceasefire.
Despite protests by many Macedonians, Parliament
adopted the framework of the peace agreement in
September 2001. As part of the agreement, UĒK dissolved
while introducing general amnesty. In November,
Parliament was able to adopt a revised constitution.
Through it, Albanian was partially recognized as an
official language alongside Macedonian. The Constitution
also provided for the establishment of an ethnically
mixed police force and for better access to public
sector work by Albanians.
Albanians and Macedonians co-rule
In September 2002, parliamentary elections were held.
An Alliance dominated by SDSM won and SDSM leader Branko
Crvenkovski became new Prime Minister. A majority of
Albanians voted for the newly formed Democratic Union
for Integration (BDI) led by former guerrilla leader Ali
Ahmeti. Despite some violent incidents, the election was
largely calm, but there was still some concern that new
ethnic unrest would break out, as Crvenkovski chose to
form a government with BDI. However, it was hoped that
the election would rather help to strengthen the ongoing
peace process.
In February 2004, President Trajkovski died in an air
crash. That led to an early presidential election in
April. Winner became Prime Minister Crvenkovski, who was
succeeded as head of government by the politically
independent economist Hari Kostov. However, he resigned
already in November after not being heard for economic
reform. Former Defense Minister Vlado Bučkovski from
SDSM was appointed new Prime Minister.
Important municipal law is adopted
In July 2006, parliamentary elections were held
again. The election campaign was characterized by
repeated violence, mainly between supporters of the two
largest Albanian parties. But since representatives of
the EU and the US, for example, threatened that the
country's chances of membership in NATO and the EU were
at stake, the election could be carried out without more
serious incidents.
The parliamentary elections led to a shift in power,
with VMRO – DPMNE under former Finance Minister Nikola
Gruevski receiving the most votes. Gruevski chose to
form a coalition government with, among others, the
Albanian Democratic Party (PDSH), whose leader Arben
Xhaferi was proposed to be the one to help Gruevski
implement all remaining parts of the Ohrid agreement
(see above). The largest Albanian party, BDI, ended up
outside the government, which led to violent protests
from this.
As an important part of the Ohrid agreement, in the
summer of 2004, a law was passed that reduced the number
of municipalities from 123 to 84, mainly by merging
rural areas populated by ethnic Albanians with urban
areas where ethnic Macedonians predominated. This would
mean increased influence on local issues such as
education and health care for the Albanians, who after
the merger came to control 16 municipalities. It was
also a success for them as Albanians became the official
language alongside Macedonian in municipalities with at
least 20 percent Albanians.
However, the municipal audit was very controversial
and contributed to postponing the local elections, which
should have been held in September 2004, until March
2005.
The naming dispute stops NATO membership
At the NATO summit in spring 2008, Macedonia had
hoped, like Albania and Croatia, to be invited to join
the defense alliance. The hopes, however, came to shame
- as in the matter of EU membership - because of the
dispute with the NATO member Greece. The government of
Macedonia also worked its way into domestic politics,
when PDSH left the coalition as a result of
dissatisfaction with the situation of the Albanian
minority. In essence, however, the dismissal was seen as
a protest that the government did not immediately
recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of
Serbia in February 2008 by the Albanian-dominated
province of Kosovo.
New elections to Parliament were announced in June
2008, and it was characterized by violence and electoral
fraud. Threats to voters were reported, and in some
districts the election had to be redone. The problems
were greatest when the Albanian parties PDSH and BDI
competed for the voters. In the recent election, a
partial alliance led by VMRO-DPMNE again won. This time,
Gruevski chose a government collaboration with BDI,
which remains the largest Albanian party.
The 2009 presidential election was a new success for
VMRO-DPMNE, whose candidate Ǵorge (Gjorge) Ivanov won
over SDSM's Ljubomir Frčkovski in the second round.
In the fall of 2010, a serious conflict arose between
the government and the opposition after the tax
authorities and the police resorted to several media
suspected of tax crimes. The opposition, which
considered that the reason for the raids was, in fact,
that the media had taken a government-critical stance,
launched a boycott of Parliament's work in January 2011.
After a deadlock, the government agreed to the
opposition's demand for re-election and dissolved
Parliament in April.
The re-election was held in June 2011 after a tough
electoral movement. The ruling VMRO-DPMNE lost a lot of
voter support but remained the biggest and could
continue to co-govern with BDI.
Nationalist projects are criticized
In the same month, a disputed statue of Alexander the
Great (see Older History) was inaugurated in central
Skopje. It was part of the government's program for
renovating and decorating the capital, Skopje 2014,
which included a number of new public buildings, a
triumphal arch and several statues of prominent
Macedonians, all in neoclassical style. The opposition
criticized Skopje in 2014 for being too expensive, while
the Albanians saw the project as an expression of
Macedonian nationalism. In addition, it led to
deteriorating relations with Greece, which believes that
Alexander the Great belongs to Greek history.
At the end of 2012, a bitter conflict over the state
budget led to such turmoil in Parliament that the
opposition members were thrown out, and the budget was
adopted by a wide margin. The opposition encouraged
widespread street protests in the major cities, demanded
new elections and launched a boycott of Parliament.
Ahead of the 2014 presidential election, a split
occurred within the government when incumbent President
Ivanov ran for re-election: BDI considered Ivanov to be
too faithful to VMRO-DPMNE, despite the fact that the
president should formally stand over party politics. As
a result, new elections were again announced to
Parliament.
In the second round of the presidential election,
Ivanov won over Socialist Party candidate Stevo
Pendarovski. The contemporary parliamentary elections
were also a success for the government parties, while
SDSM lost ground. SDSM leader Zoran Zaev called the
elections a cheat election, claiming that the voting
lists contained lots of people who did not exist. In
addition, the government completely controlled the
media, which made it difficult for others to reach out
with their election messages. SDSM therefore chose to
continue boycotting Parliament's work.
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