Ethnic Macedonians Research Articles

Ethnic representational priorities and political engagement in deeply divided societies

AbstractWhen do individuals in deeply divided societies participate in political activities aimed at increasing ethnic representation in cabinet ministries? I develop a cost–benefit framework to explain political engagement based on individuals' ethnic group membership and preferences for descriptive and substantive representation in cabinet ministries. Drawing on an original survey in North Macedonia, I find that ethnic Macedonians who value substantive representation are more likely to attend public meetings compared to Macedonians who value descriptive representation but that the opposite is true for ethnic Albanians. I also consider how willingness to attend public meetings changes when individuals value both descriptive and substantive representation. The results suggest that policy makers cannot assume that all members of the public have the same motivations for arguing for increased representation.

Citizen Responses to Ethnic Representation

Can country leaders improve citizens’ ethnic outgroup views by changing ethnic representation in government? Years of pressure from the international community calling for leaders to make particularly their cabinets more ethnically representative seems to suggest that ethnic representation—conceptualized as descriptive and substantive representation and ministerial cooperation—is key to improving citizens’ outgroup views. I argue that increasing ethnic representation influences majority and minority citizens differently; minority citizens’ outgroup views will become more favorable, while majority citizens’ views will worsen. Using a pre-registered vignette experiment with ethnic Albanians and Macedonians in North Macedonia, I show that ethnic representation does not provide the improvements in outgroup relations that many have hoped. Both groups’ affect toward and perceptions of the cabinet change somewhat, but increasing ethnic representation does not improve overall outgroup attitudes. These results suggest that ethnic representation alone does not lead to more productive interethnic relationships.

Higher Education in Emergencies: The Case of Consociational North Macedonia

Eighteen years after the end of 2001 conflict between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, North Macedonia remains a country deeply polarized along ethno-national lines with implications for the maintenance of peace. The peace-building policies introduced by the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) based on a consociational model of power-sharing have accommodated the demands of ethnic Albanians, including the right of access to higher education (HE) in the mother-tongue which represented one of the root-causes in the escalation of the 2001 conflict. The OFA’s exclusive focus on access and availability through state funding for higher education in the Albanian language has however favored a process of ethnicization of the tertiary sector. This paper seeks to investigate the unintended consequences of the OFA-induced ethnic self-ghettoisation within the public higher education system and, by the same token, it critiques the OFA’s lack of mechanisms to reach across the ethnic divide through the lenses of a rights-based approach to education. It ultimately argues that without a strong governmental commitment to deethnicize education by transcending the OFA’s intrinsic limits, power-sharing remains permeable to political manipulation which critically hampers social transformation and increases the probability of inter-ethnic tension, further weakening the peace process.

Not Different Enough: Avoiding Representation as “Balkan” and the Constrained Appeal of Macedonian Ethno Music

Since the early 1990s, interest in various forms of traditional music among middle-class urban ethnic Macedonians has grown. Known by some as the “Ethno Renaissance”, this trend initially grew in the context of educational ensembles in Skopje and gained momentum due to the soundtrack of the internationally acclaimed Macedonian film Before the Rain (1994) and the formation of the group DD Synthesis by musician and pedagogue Dragan Dautovski. This article traces the development of this multifaceted musical practice, which became known as “ethno music” (etno muzika) and now typically features combinations of various traditional music styles with one another and with other musical styles. Ethno music articulates dynamic changes in Macedonian politics and wider global trends in the “world music” market, which valorizes musical hybridity as “authentic” and continues to prioritize performers perceived as exotic and different. This article discusses the rhetoric, representation, and musical styles of ethno music in the 1990s and in a second wave of “ethno bands” (etno bendovi) that began around 2005. Drawing on ethnography conducted between 2011 and 2018 and on experience as a musician performing and recording in Macedonia periodically since 2003, I argue that, while these bands and their multi-layered musical projects resonate with middle-class, cosmopolitan audiences in Macedonia and its diaspora, their avoidance of the term “Balkan” and associated stereotypes constrains their popularity to Macedonian audiences and prevents them from participating widely in world music festival networks and related markets.

CONTACT, CONFLICT AND INTERETHNIC ATTITUDES AMONG CHILDREN IN NORTH MACEDONIA

Improving interethnic relations in conflict-affected societies is a difficult task, as a complex repertoire of mutual views and reactions is developed. Furthermore, the experiences of the children in such situations have rarely been taken into perspective. Therefore, this study tries to address this research gap by using data from the Republic of North Macedonia, where interethnic tensions are still present between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, although the violent outburst of the conflict ended in 2001. The paper is focused on perceptions of contact and conflict among primary aged children, and their relations with the outgroup attitudes such as liking, trusting, and wanting to play with children from the outgroup. A total of 194 children aged 6 to 11 (M = 8.4) participated in the research, filling play-like items using Qualtrics. The sample was taken from two schools with a mixed language of instruction and was balanced for ethnicity (45.9% Macedonian, 54.1% Albanian) as well as gender (57.7% female, 42.3% male). The results of the series of regression analyses show that the contact quality and a number of outgroup friends are significantly correlated with outgroup liking, willingness to play, and outgroup trust, while the perception of conflict is negatively correlated with outgroup trust. The interaction between age and the contact quantity is a significant predictor of willingness to play with the outgroup, while the interaction between majority status and contact quantity is a significant predictor of outgroup trust. The study highlights the need for a meaningful contact between children from both ethnic groups for improvement of interethnic relations.

RIGHT THEN, LEFT NOW: CONSTRUCTING “MACEDONIA” IN THE MACEDONIAN DIASPORAS IN AUSTRALIA AND EUROPE

In the XX century, especially after WWII, a great number of ethnic Macedonians have migrated to Australia and the US, while recently, after the 1991 dissolution of Yugoslavia, the direction of the migration influx has changed its course mainly towards Europe. While the first diaspora community was motivated by economic reasons drawing rural and urban citizens alike in pursuit of better life, the second wave of migration was led by political circumstances pushing mostly young educated people who failed to envisage decent life in the homeland. Hence there is a reason to believe that the two communities have different views and feelings of their homeland that underpin their construction of it. To identify the types of ‘Macedonia’ constructed by these two communities of migrants, and trace similarities and differences, this study will analyze on-line discourses on Macedonia produced by the members of the two diasporas. In so doing, we will be particularly interested in the meanings, attitudes, feelings and images the two communities ascribe to the homeland through the on-line interaction on their FB pages.

Y-chromosome diversity of the three major ethno-linguistic groups in the Republic of North Macedonia

A total of 314 individuals representing the three major ethno-linguistic groups (ethnic Macedonians, Albanians and Turks) in the Republic of North Macedonia were analyzed for Y-SNPs and Y-STRs using minisequencing and fragment analysis. The haplogroup composition differed remarkably between the three groups with dominance of haplogroup I2 in ethnic Macedonians (28.1%), E1b in Albanians (35.3%) and J2a (34.9%) in Turks, respectively. The haplotype analysis using the YFilerPlus kit disclosed a significant reduction in diversity values (DC, GD) for the Turkish subgroup compared to the Macedonian and Albanian speaking populations. The Y-STR based population analysis revealed a similarity of ethnic Macedonians with neighboring Serbians and Bulgarians. The same holds true for the Albanian speakers from Macedonia and Albania, whereas the Turkish minority in North Macedonia stands apart from the population in Turkey.

State Ownership and “State-Sharing”: The Role of Collective Identities and the Sociopolitical Cleavage between Ethnic Macedonians and Ethnic Albanians in the Republic of North Macedonia

AbstractThe article analyzes, from a historical and institutional perspective, the sociopolitical cleavages existing between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in the Republic of North Macedonia. Although primarily ethnic, the division between the two groups is deeply connected to state ownership and the official status each group occupies and wishes to occupy in it. By scrutinizing both groups’ claims, standpoints, and dissatisfactions, the article asserts that the implementation of consociationalism in 2001, through the de facto institutionalization of ethnicity, has partly soothed both groups’ frustrations, using the pragmatic exploitation of the existing ethnic divide as a proxy for “state sharing” in addition to power sharing.

The Primordialisation of Ethnic Nationalism in Macedonia

After the Greek veto on Macedonia’s NATO accession in 2008, the Macedonian government launched comprehensive policies to reconstruct the Macedonian ethno-national narrative as stretching back to ancient Macedonia. The ‘Skopje 2014’ project, which was a large-scale reconstruction of the capital city in neoclassical and baroque styles, as well as new educational and mass media campaigns claiming the continuous existence of the Macedonian nation since antiquity, were the cornerstones of the Gruevski government’s project. The so-called ‘antiquisation’ programme was both a domestic and international assertion of Macedonia’s name, identity and history amid Greek challenges and attempts to undermine Macedonia’s legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. The Skopje 2014 project increased tensions between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians in Macedonia, and also deepened divisions among Macedonians.

THE STATE OF INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONS IN MACEDONIA AFTER 16 YEARS OF THE OHRID AGREEMENT

Abstract Inter-ethnic relations between Albanians and Macedonians in Macedonia have been rather problematic since the times of former Yugoslavia. After independence, the new constitution of the Republic of Macedonia instead of improving it has further downgraded the position of Albanians and other minorities living in the country. The non-fulfilment of Albanians’ core demands led to an armed conflict in 2001. The Ohrid Agreement has in addition to ending the armed conflict, also provided for a range of legislative and policy measures to improve the position of the Albanians by ensuring equality and minority protection. However, 16 years after the Ohrid Agreement, inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia still remain burdened by prejudice and stereotypes, rather than cooperation and mutual prosperity. The main aim of the paper is to analyse the state of inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia, with special focus on relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians. The paper also offers an analysis of main factors that contribute to inter-ethnic tensions in the country and explores possible scenarios in the future. The most relevant part of the paper analyses the causality between inter-ethnic and interstate relations. The paper claims that similarly to most of the countries in the Western Balkans, inter-ethnic and interstate relations are basically the components of the same equation. The paper concludes that in Macedonia, Kosovo rather than Albania is much more relevant for the causality between inter-ethnic and interstate relations in Macedonia, and it also offers several reasons to support such thesis. Accordingly, the overall inter-ethnic relations between Macedonians and Albanians in Macedonia heavily depend on inter-state relations between Macedonia and Kosovo and vice versa.

Beekeeping as a family artisan entrepreneurship business

Purpose Throughout Macedonia, beekeeping is becoming popular regardless of ethnicity. Studying ethnicity, the purpose of this paper is to determine what beekeepers in Macedonia thought in their own words about their beekeeping entrepreneurship. The objective is to identify whether motivations of ethnic Albanian beekeepers in Macedonia were the same or different compared to those of ethnic Macedonians in the same country, and if different, how. Design/methodology/approach To accomplish this objective, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 beekeepers in Macedonia. A total of 29 interviews were conducted face-to-face and the other 11 by phone. The first set of interviews took place between December 2016 and February 2017, followed by more interviews in June 2017. In total, 27 respondents said they were ethnic Albanians, and 13 identified themselves as ethnic Macedonians. Also, ten respondents were women. While eight were full-time beekeepers, 32 were part-time beekeepers. Findings The results indicated that beekeeping businesses play a significant role in the transition economy of Macedonia. Beekeeping provides additional earnings that support rural families and keeps them financially stable. The majority of both Albanians and Macedonians understood that beekeeping on a part-time job basis provided a needed supplement to their income. Some part-time beekeepers are also working as auto-mechanics, locksmiths, medical doctors, restaurant/cafeteria owners, and tailors. A few in the sample were retired from their jobs or full-time beekeepers. An important difference between ethnic Albanian beekeepers and ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia is that the majority of ethnic Albanian participants see beekeeping as following in “my father’s footsteps”, while most Macedonians were motivated by the perceived opportunity of having a good business. Research limitations/implications Limitations of the research are twofold. First, financial data of family beekeeping are not available, which would be useful in determining the contribution made to economic development. It is common, especially in transition economies such as the western Balkans, that financial results are very sensitive to their owners. Second, unavailable databases for beekeepers make any quantitative approach difficult, if not impossible, resulting in most research using the qualitative research approach. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to treat beekeeping as a form of artisan entrepreneurship, which also contributes to the understanding of family business. As in other countries, the important and operation of the family business among family members in Macedonia is passed from generation to generation. The results of this research revealed the value of networking, which was found to be very important to income. For beekeepers to develop, grow, and be branded in the community, networking is an important ingredient.

ETHNICITY, POLITICS, AND EDUCATION IN MACEDONIA

This article examines the education system of the Republic of Macedonia by focusing on education segregation along ethnic lines between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians who comprise the second largest ethnicity in the country. The article builds upon an existing body of literature on the country as well as a number of reports from international organizations. It utilizes theories on ethnicity and nationalisms, brings forth the historical context of the conflict in the country, identifies how this affected the post-conflict education system and proposes a number of steps that are necessary to desegregate the education system in order to achieve reconciliation and foster integration. Article visualizations:

A tale in stone and bronze: old/new strategies for political mobilization in the Republic of Macedonia

The redesign of Skopje's main square and the wider central area in the last six years has been a top priority of the Macedonian government. The project, called Skopje 2014, provoked intense domestic debate and controversy as well as international reaction and concern. Although officials say that project's aim is to unify ethnic Macedonians, it has produced several lines of political, intra-ethnic/interethnic as well as intra-cultural/intercultural divisions in the fragile Macedonian society. The aim of the paper is to offer reflections about its mobilizing potential among ethnic Macedonians in a set of social, economic, and political contexts. In that sense, four areas of mobilization are suggested: (1) around new identity markers; (2) around the name dispute and against threats (real or imagined) to the ethnic and national identity; (3) against the internal Other, that is, the ethnic Albanian community, as well as critics of these identity politics; and (4) in reaction to the global financial crisis and problems within the EU.

Social trust and feeling of security in ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia

Social trust and feeling of security in ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia

Polityczne aspekty sporu o status Macedońskiej Cerkwi Prawosławnej (MCP) (1991–2014)

The dispute about the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), one of the questions within the discourse on the Macedonian national identity since 1967, gained new significance after 1991, as a consequence of the political emancipation of the Republic of Macedonia (RM). This issue is strongly associated with other concerns, such as the country’s internal integration and the struggle to strengthen its sovereignty. In order to support the MOC the authorities attempt to rally the ethnic Macedonians around the idea of national independence and diminish the influences of other Orthodox Churches on the followers of this denomination in RM. Year 2002 saw the failure of the religious consultation and an imminent schism within MOC. It prompted the authorities to act as a guarantor of the undivided jurisdiction of the MOC over the country’s entire territory. This course of action resulted in worsening of the relations with the neighboring Orthodox Christian countries, since the governments cooperate with their respective Churches to contest the independence of MOC. Moreover, since 2002 the issue of MOC’s status is frequently presented within the context of accusations against the RM’s authorities of breaching the civil and religious rights.

Securitization as Policy Choice: Macedonian Case

The global geopolitical transformations that have occurred in last years have raised questions about various nonmilitary concerns as a result of changes in the global order based solely on the premises of the military aspects of security. The evolution and debate on security began to shift from the traditional basis into contemporary segments of the security analysis incorporating approaches into other areas beyond the traditional concepts of security. In variety of debates of the broadening of concept of security, various scholars began to elaborate that security threats may appear in many other areas outside that of military and political sector. In this aspect Copenhagen schools examines aspects of security at micro and macro level and it represents analysis that intertwine with each other and which derive a more broad understanding what actually constitutes security for a country or community. Expanding areas of security analysis refers to the statement that security has to do with survival of a nation or society which also reasonably includes a range of concerns about the conditions of survival. The adoption of this concept expanded in various fields is a result of the need to better understand the logic of what are the related sectors and is a result of understanding what the interaction between the different sectors are. The aim of our paper is through the broadened mechanism of the concept of security to analyze the challenges and opportunities of the Macedonian security policies and how they are interlinked with other sectors. It does so by looking through the causes of tensions between ethnic Macedonian and Albanians in Macedonia, not only among the issues and emergency events that cause them, but also among the structural factors that shape and frame such a misperception.

Securitization as Policy Choice: Macedonian Case

The global geopolitical transformations that have occurred in last years have raised questions about various nonmilitary concerns as a result of changes in the global order based solely on the premises of the military aspects of security. The evolution and debate on security began to shift from the traditional basis into contemporary segments of the security analysis incorporating approaches into other areas beyond the traditional concepts of security. In variety of debates of the broadening of concept of security, various scholars began to elaborate that security threats may appear in many other areas outside that of military and political sector. In this aspect Copenhagen schools examines aspects of security at micro and macro level and it represents analysis that intertwine with each other and which derive a more broad understanding what actually constitutes security for a country or community. Expanding areas of security analysis refers to the statement that security has to do with survival of a nation or society which also reasonably includes a range of concerns about the conditions of survival. The adoption of this concept expanded in various fields is a result of the need to better understand the logic of what are the related sectors and is a result of understanding what the interaction between the different sectors are. The aim of our paper is through the broadened mechanism of the concept of security to analyze the challenges and opportunities of the Macedonian security policies and how they are interlinked with other sectors. It does so by looking through the causes of tensions between ethnic Macedonian and Albanians in Macedonia, not only among the issues and emergency events that cause them, but also among the structural factors that shape and frame such a misperception.

The Ohrid Framework Agreement and the Multiethnic Future of the Republic of Macedonia

Being one of the youngest countries in Europe, the Republic of Macedonia has undergone a specific and quite complicated path since the declaration of its independence in 1991. Once a self named “oasis of peace” it was faced with an internal interethnic armed conflict in 2011 which ended with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. This agreement has on the other hand become of the main symbols of the internal development of the country during the last decade. Although the OFA has not been treated equally by all interested sides, the fact remains that it is most definitively one of the main documents in the development of the country. Although one might argue that the ethnic Macedonians try to build Macedonia as a country of the Macedonians and the others while the ethnic Albanians treat Macedonia as country of the Macedonians, the Albanians and the others, one truth remains. And that undisputable truth is that Macedonia is a multiethnic, multilingual and multicultural country and its future can be build only on mutual respect. This paper strives to provide a short description of the main reasons behind the OFA and its consequences for the Republic of Macedonia and its multiethnic future. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n3p472

Resilience at the border: traditional botanical knowledge among Macedonians and Albanians living in Gollobordo, Eastern Albania

BackgroundEthnobotany in South-Eastern Europe is gaining the interest of several scholars and stakeholders, since it is increasingly considered a key point for the re-evaluation of local bio-cultural heritage. The region of Gollobordo, located in Eastern Albania and bordering the Republic of Macedonia, is of particular interest for conducting ethnobiological studies, since it remained relatively isolated for the larger part of the 20th Century and is traditionally inhabited by a majority of ethnic Macedonians and a minority of Albanians (nowadays both sharing the Muslim faith).MethodsAn ethnobotanical survey focused on local food, medicinal, and veterinary plant uses was conducted with 58 participants using open and semi-structured interviews and via participant observation.ResultsWe recorded and identified 115 taxa of vascular plants, which are locally used for food, medicinal, and veterinary purposes (representing 268 total plant reports). The Macedonian Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) was greater than the Albanian TEK, especially in the herbal and ritual domains. This phenomenon may be linked to the long socio-cultural and linguistic isolation of this group during the time when the borders between Albania and the former Yugoslavia were completely closed. Moreover, the unusual current food utilisation of cooked potatoes leaves, still in use nowadays among Macedonians, could represent the side effect of an extreme adaptation that locals underwent over the past century when the introduction of the potato crop made new strategies available for establishing stable settlements around the highest pastures. Additionally, the difference in use of Helichrysum plicatum, which is popular in the local Macedonian folk medicine but absent among Albanians, confirms the particular significance of this taxon as it relates to the yellow colour of its flowers in South Slavic folklore.ConclusionBotanical studies with an ethnographic approach are crucial for understanding patterns of use of plants within given cultures. Importantly, such studies can also allow for analysis of the dynamics of change in these TEK patterns over the time. The results of this study may be important as baseline data set to be used in rural development programs in Gollobordo, aimed at fostering community-based strategies of management of natural resources.

BULGARIAN PASSPORTS, MACEDONIAN IDENTITY THE INVENTION OF EU CITIZENSHIP IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

: In this article, I examine some of the social effects that Bulgaria's EU membership has for Macedonia and the meanings that identification documents have for ethnic Macedonians who instrumentalize Bulgarian claims on their Macedonian identity for their own ends. I argue that the case study of Macedonia helps us view identification documents as objects that neither necessarily fix nationality nor are ineluctable guarantees of belonging to the (Bulgarian) nation-state, and understand state documentation practices as practices that do not always produce determined identities and citizen-subjects.