If there is no Macedonia

Aneta Dimovska

“If there was no Macedonia, democracy would have been forced to create it for the good of the Balkans” – Petar Pop Arsov

Most often, when two people will find themselves in a certain difficult state, they naturally, and in accordance with the psychological characteristics, affinities and knowledge, will be assigned to a leader and his companion. One will lead, the other will follow… Thus, if the desired goal is fulfilled, the leadership, that is, the rule becomes a kind of justified injustice. The one who rules protects the ones he rules, because he perceives them as weaker and less prepared, or socially infantile, or treats them as primitively destructive and then applies pressure on them. This relationship is almost a constant throughout history, even today, regardless of the degree of democratization of the societies and the color of the cellophane in which it is packaged. The essence is the same within the politically organized units, but also on a global level when we see the great forces in the character of the ruler. The borders between the countries on the map of the world are a product of such relations.

The previous part is in order to understand what follows…

“Tomorrow, NATO will make a historic decision to welcome the three Balkan nations Croatia, Albania and Macedonia,” a statement issued by former US President George W. Bush shortly before the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008. The next day, Bush expressed regret that a consensus was not reached on the issue of Macedonia’s membership (due to Greece’s opposition) and added that the name dispute with Greece should be resolved quickly. A slap in the face from our neighbor for Macedonia, but also for the United States.

Then on May 7, 2008, Macedonia and the United States signed a Declaration on Strategic Partnership and Cooperation with which the United States of America will continue to co-operate with NATO allies in order to maintain a stable co-operation with Macedonia while awaiting membership invitation. This should additionally strengthen Macedonia’s readiness to assume its obligations and responsibilities towards the Alliance in the near future, which implies resolving the name dispute.

The United States has once again made it clear that this piece of land in the Balkans falls within the sphere of their geo-strategic interests, and we enjoyed their affection in order to solve the problem. According to the foregoing, in this period we are treated as socially infantile.

We resolved the dispute in order not to solve it and simultaneously built monuments of ancient heroes and we named objects after them. With the process popularly known as antiquization, and by serving a folklore that has been easily stuck to the masses (who are always eager to feel great, especially when there are no other successes that they would be proud of), they also created quasi patriots.
Thus, from socially infantile we became frivolous and primitively destructive for the United States and their partners, and from the phase of protection and affection, after a decade, we were pressured on one side, with one goal – resolving the dispute with Greece and realizing their strategic interest. In this story, from “sacrifice” we practically became an “aggressor”, after which we had the Nivitsi Agreement delivered to us. We do not like the content of the agreement, but I will not talk about details of it, nor about the right and the justice, nor about the ideals, but about what is an objective reality and our unwillingness to deal with it.

My reality is this: economy in free fall, our justice system is raped, we have inert institutions, media with carefully selected analysts who convince the deeply divided sensible people how the agreement is good and the EU is just about to welcome us and how good it will be when we finally become a member and that we should make our peace with it (I do not know if anyone knows exactly what this means), but also others who explain how important it is to preserve the name, and how laws are violated, because of which article of the law the referendum was not successful and that the agreement is disaster for our identity etc.

In my reality there are many politicians, on the one hand politicians with all-in, whips, everyday flaws equal to scandals that are selling a story for European Macedonia very badly, and on the other politicians who rejoice in their incompetence and are waiting for everything to pass, so they can rely on the story that the they remained patriots, and those others changed the name, in the next election.

Among the politicians there are those who become progressive overnight (or they were before, but we did not know it), so they appeared on TV shows on prearranged interviews to enlighten us (or to pass to the right side of history in time).

Well, this is madness, but I am sure that behind the smoky curtains citizens can see the naked essence and they loudly call out things with their real name.

“This is no longer a state!” – is a comment that is often heard and people are probably right. The institutions that need to create the rules in this particular case have been ruined, and no matter how much we want to think differently, we are not in a position to guarantee sovereignty by ourselves. It is already irrelevant who contributed to it, there are too many culprits or we are all culprits.

What we need to do at this point in history is to look at each other in the eye and ask ourselves: “Do we want a state? Can we bear the responsibility of having one?”

If the answer to the first question is yes, then we ought to know that we must bear the responsibility of having it. Thus, we need to understand that the supporters and partners of such a country that still exists must be brought in a position to trust us and to support us.

Furthermore, the responsibility to have a state means substantial reforms and rebuilding institutions, restoring confidence in the justice system and economic development. This implies a process that must take place with a broad consensus and in which those who directly crush the institutions or indirectly contribute to their demolition must not be included.
Social reconciliation can never happen by shaking hands, embracing and mending the MPs in the Assembly. Reconciliation takes a long time in which citizens will not continuously exposed to “provocations” by political elites. Until then, it is certain that like this, all of us will have to survive the events in the coming months. Then the many exhausted figures must acknowledge that they are exhausted and that they need to leave permanently from the political scene. There is nothing else on our way to NATO (we will have to wait a little longer for the EU).
It is crucial that we understand that if we want to preserve the Macedonian state it must function, and in it every citizen must feel necessary, useful, valuable and an affiliated member of the community. If we so love it so much today, when we still have our Macedonian country – then we need to preserve it! For ourselves, for our own good. For everything else, we will fight…