THE BORDER CITY IN A BORDER COUNTRY: THE CASE OF SKOPJE

Abstract

Situated in one of the basins of the valley of Vardar, the city of Skopje unites two communities, Macedonians and Albanians, which have very marked differences but whose coexistence has shaped the most significant socio-political events of its history and has had a decisive impact on its development. According to the last population census and according to the territorial organization of the country in 2004, 66% of the population of Skopje was Macedonian and 20% Albanian. Creating a bilingual Skopje demanded that the city's borders be redrawn: two neighbouring villages were added to the capital in order to increase the Albanian population from 15% to more than 20% - which the Ohrid agreement posed as the condition for the recognition of a second official language in the capital. The prospective result is that the two communities are ever more called on to separate themselves: one sees here a phenomenon of dualization along the Vardar, between the left bank abandoned to Albanians and the right bank reserved by ethnic Macedonians. However, the rivalries not only separate groups and communities, but also their serve as mediations, establishing contacts and links. By presenting this case in its singularity, we aim at establishing, as much as possible, a more general model of the geopolitical analysis of identity problems in the time of globalization.