Even a Nobel Prize won’t help Zaev and Tispras

Erol Rizaov

The Nobel Peace Prize will not help Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev, even if they manage to demonstrate and prove that the most difficult and unsolvable disputes between two countries can be solved peacefully with respect and compromise. For a long period of time, it will just be an addition to the biography for domestic use and nothing more. The world can glorify them and give them recognition as much as they like, but in their homelands, it will take some time to recognize it. The hatred and the divisions, the heavy and painful historic layers in the consciousness of the people who are constantly wound up by the great patriots, are stronger than all the prizes, even if they were Nobel.
For decades, politicians, as well as intellectuals in both countries, have sparked and maintained high-temperature hatred in the fight for power, transferring the suffering from these wars from generation to generation. The result of those flames, which were ignited once again, was seen in the referendum as the strongest evidence of the division of Macedonian society. On the one hand, the abstention and the boycott of a consultative referendum were declared a victory and sufficient argument for the annulment of the agreement with Greece, and on the other hand the determination of over 90% of the citizens who voted “for” is considered a strong and clear message of the citizens that the future of Macedonia is in the EU and NATO. The end result is in the horizon, a new political crisis and further divisions and hatred.

The attempts made to resolve the messages of the citizens who voted and did not vote with a dialogue are useless, therefore the Assembly, as the most important institution of the system, will have to make a decision by a two-thirds majority. It will be hard to believe even for the biggest optimists, except for the naïve world political elite who hardly understands the Balkan stubbornness, vanities and quarrels when hindering a historic decision supported by the world. They can do much more to help concretize their support immediately by starting negotiations with the EU, not next year but tomorrow, and NATO membership after a shortened procedure by the end of January. When the shadow-opposition leaders and their advocate, as well as the president of the state do not accept the voice of reason and the compromise agreement with Greece as a prerequisite for achieving the strategic goals of the country, it is very close to common sense that such a thing is not possible in the Assembly of Macedonia. Regardless of the fact that the agreement with Greece does not condition ratification with the outcome of a consultative referendum.

But what is possible in a divided country is the fact of seeing for the thousandth time who is blocking the parliament and who is against the future of Macedonia in the European family and why they do that. That clear image of another blockade of the Parliament will show the way Macedonia can achieve its historic achievements in the free elections, and the most important priorities to become a member of NATO and the EU. There is no other way, so nobody offers it. What has been offered by the main organizers for the boycott of the agreement with Greece as a prerequisite for Euro-Atlantic integration has so far only been greeted by Russia, as their ideologist and ally.

The support of the politician most trusted in the world according to recent surveys, Angela Merkel, does not mean anything to anti-NATO and anti-EU agitators in Macedonia. The message of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, for the second time in just a few days, to accept the deal as an example of solving unresolved issues between two countries, also means nothing. The messages of the world’s leaders with the best intentions were welcomed by the insults of the President of the Republic, Gjorge Ivanov, who called all those strong supporters of our greatest economic and political supporters and friends from the UN’s rostrum: Many come to Macedonia with bad intentions, to plant us a poisonous tree that will give poisonous fruits that will poison us. Ivanov called on the followers of VMRO-DPMNE and the marginal Russian branches in Macedonia to cut this poisonous tree. Using the unrevised voter’s lists in a country that does not know how many citizens it has, because there has not been a population census for decades, in a country where the number of voters grows each year, and the number of residents decreases dramatically, the opponents of Macedonia chose to take those who abstain permanently and do not vote in any election as their allies, to take the emigrants around the world as accomplices in a crime against their homeland.

There are many reasons why even a Nobel Peace Prize cannot help “the village boy from Strumica” so that Macedonian fake patriots, and not only them, but also some of his “supporters”, could forgive him. Success is still unforgivable in Macedonia, even if everyone profited from it. What is actually unforgivable is the previous government’s bargaining with high-ranking criminals. A mafia agreement with the exchange of a two-thirds decision in the Assembly for amnesty of crooks that robbed the people and impoverished Macedonia would be a suicidal act and a big debacle on the election, whenever it is held. The prolonging of the judiciary in reaching verdicts dangerously reeks of it.