YUGOSLAV WARS
After years of discrimination, underrepresentation and marginalisation at the hands of the Macedonian government, the Albanian population made their stand
Macedonia in the 1980s contained two main ethnic groups: a majority of ethnic Macedonians and a minority of Albanians. After Tito’s death, and the subsequent rise in nationalism across Yugoslavia, tensions in Macedonia rose as Albanian groups sought to split off from Macedonia and join Kosovo. This was to become the foundation of conflict in the late 1990s.
Already bloodied by the internal struggles of the 1980s, to prevent its constituent republics breaking away, during the 1990s Yugoslavia was once more faced with further fragmentation. An independence referendum was held, which led to Macedonia declaring its independence in September 1991. However, many ethnic Albanians refused to vote in this referendum.
After independence, Albanians in Macedonia were included in the processes of government at a national and local level, but many Albanians still felt underrepresented and marginalised by the government as there were very few Albanians in positions of power, such as the police force and high office. In addition, institutions of power such as the police, military and judiciary discriminated against Albanians in their hiring process and policies, with the police even being accused of torturing Albanians during investigations.
The Macedonian government also worked to suppress the Albanian language and culture. This was done through the restriction of the Albanian language in education institutions, and when the Albanians attempted to resolve the issue themselves by creating the University of Tetovo in 1995, which taught in Albanian, the university was declared illegal. This increased tensions between the Macedonians and Albanians.
In the late 1990s the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began to support Albanian nationalism in Macedonia, and after the collapse of Albania in 1997 vast amounts of weapons were transported into Macedonia to support the nationalist movement. With this newfound firepower the nationalist movements in Macedonia began to use the same insurgency methods that were effective in Kosovo, bombing police stations to try and weaken the Macedonian powers of enforcement.
At the same time, large numbers of Kosovan-Albanian refugees, equating to 12 percent of the Macedonian population, began entering Macedonia to escape the war in Kosovo. Some of these refugees were KLA veterans who were eager to support their kin in their new country and in 1999 they came together to form the National Liberation Army (NLA) under leader Ali Ahmeti. They demanded autonomy, Albanian as a state language and equal legal status for Albanians. This group adopted the KLA’s insurgency and terrorist methods of bombing Macedonian
