Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

Facts fra Wikipedia og CIA World Factbook

Wikipedia
Faktaside.

Forsvar (fra Wikipedia):
Republikken Makedonias forsvarsstyrker er organisert i hæren, med 9760 mann og luftforsvaret, med 1130 mann. En mindre marin styrke, som opererer på innsjøene som også utgjør deler av landets grense, sorterer under hæren og er oppsatt med patruljebåter. Totalt har landet 10890 mann under våpen, i tillegg kommer en reservestyrke på 21000. Den paramilitære politistyrken teller 7600, av disse er rundt 5000 væpnet. Landet har tidligere hatt verneplikt med en tjenestetid på seks måneder, men ordningen ble avsluttet fra oktober 2006. Makedonia skal fra da av ha et forsvar bestående av vervet personell. Republikken Makedonia aspirerer til medlemskap i NATO og er medlem av det NATO-tilknyttede Euro-atlantiske partnerskap. Republikken Makedonias har gitt styrkebidrag til internasjonale operasjoner, inkludert ISAF i Afghanistan og de multinasjonale styrkene i Operation Enduring Freedom i Irak. I 2007 var disse bidragene på henholdsvis 120 mann i ISAF og 33 til Operation Enduring Freedom.

Ledelse (fra Wikipedia):

Head of state:


Gjorge Ivanov
since May 12, 2009

President of Macedonia

On the day Ivanov officially became president of his country, he sent a letter to the president of the United States Barack Obama in which he underlines Macedonia's aim to join NATO and EU and to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to the "name difference" with neighboring Greece. He also thanked Obama for his words of support at the 2009 Nato Summit. One day after the inauguration, Ivanov together with Prime Minister Gruevski travelled to Brussels to meet with European Union and NATO officials. Ivanov promotes the Macedonian model of a multi-ethnic society and Pax Europaea, a united Europe living in peace and respecting the diversity and identity of the nations of Europe. Ivanov was re-elected as President of the Republic of Macedonia for a second term in April 2014.



CIA World Factbook


CIA World-Leaders - Macedonia: Leaders

Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

Diverse nyhetsklipp:
Macedonia blames Kosovans for deadly Kumanovo clashes



Foto: BBC: Photos show large-scale destruction in the city as a result of the fighting

Macedonia says five Kosovans led the armed group which was involved in deadly clashes with security forces in the northern town of Kumanovo. Eight officers and 14 gunmen were killed in the fighting, Interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said. Those named were members of the now dismantled Kosovo Liberation Army.


The opposition and the government have accused each other of deliberately destabilising the country.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was following the situation with "great concern" and urged all sides to "exercise restraint and avoid any further escalation, in the interest of the country and the whole region".
Earlier, the European Commission issued a similar call. Macedonia, which is a candidate for European Union membership, is observing two days of mourning.


Macedonia blames Kosovans for deadly Kumanovo clashes - BBC News

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Ekspert om Makedonia-volden: Kan være provokasjon fra myndighetene

** Derfor er det uroligheter i Makedonia nå
** NATO-sjef Jens Stoltenberg er bekymret

Urolighetene skal ha startet da makedonsk politi gikk til aksjon mot det de hevder var væpnede terrorister, som har tatt seg inn i landet. Denne gruppen skal ifølge myndighetene ha tilhengere i Kumanovo, en by med en stor albansk minoritet ved grensen til Kosovo. Målet til den væpnede gruppen skal ifølge regjeringen ha vært å destabilisere landet.

Ekspert om Makedonia-volden: Kan vÊre provokasjon fra myndighetene - Makedonia - VG


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Over 20 mennesker drept i kamper i Makedonia

Åtte politifolk og 14 menn, som er beskrevet som «terrorister», er drept i helgens væpnede kamper i byen Kumanovo nord i Makedonia, opplyser innenriksdepartementet.


Albansk gerilja

Anslagsvis 30 prosent av Makedonias befolkning på 2 millioner er etniske albanere. Makedonia var på randen av borgerkrig i 2001 da albansk gerilja gikk til opprør og forsøkte å ta kontroll med albanskbefolkede områder.
Etter seks måneder med væpnede sammenstøt og over 200 drepte underskrev man en fredsavtale forhandlet fram av EU og NATO. Den albanske minoriteten skulle få større rettigheter og representasjon.


Over 20 mennesker drept i kamper i Makedonia - Nyheter, tv og radio fra hele verden - NRK.no


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Montenegro Press Review - May 11, 2015

Macedonia proves that regimes can produce violence if they are in danger. The unidentified gunmen fired shots on the military security. Respect for difference leading value of Montenegro’s multiethnic society, DPM Markovic says.

VIJESTI
Violance in Macedonia proves that the Balkans are still highly flammable, and entrenched regimes at any time when they feel that they are threatened can produce violence, the Civic Movements URA warned.

DAN
The Army of Montenegro's unit has been attacked when two unidentified men fired several shots at a military firing range in Zlatica, in the capital Podgoria, which is located next to several facilities where the weapons are stored. The buildings are abandoned for several years but the military still provides secutiry services.

Montenegro Press Review - May 11, 2015 :: Balkan Insight

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Macedonia’s Political Crisis Turns Violent

Macedonia’s wire-tap scandal morphs into street violence A taped recording that Macedonia’s opposition says proves the government covered up the circumstances of the beating death of a man in 2011 sparked violent demonstrations in Skopje this week, the BBC reports.


Some rights groups accused the police of using excessive force, beating up activists, and using tear gas, water cannons, and stun grenades, Balkan Insight writes in a separate report. But Jankuloska said police had reacted after protesters beat them with metal bars and threw stones, bottles, and eggs, the Associated Press reports.

The recording that spurred this week’s events purportedly reveals that the government sought to blame one rogue, off-duty Interior Ministry police officer for the beating death of 22-year-old Martin Neskovski in 2011.

http://www.tol.org/client/article/24...-terminal.html

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Unemployment in FYR Macedonia reduced from 40% to 27.6%


One of the challenges that countries in Southeast Europe (SEE) are facing is unemployment. The governments in the past two decades have created policies on opening more jobs, however the countries need to join forces in order to improve the situation. This was stated at a two-day regional conference on employment and social inclusion in SEE and Turkey, which was opened Thursday in Skopje. The average unemployment level in Western Balkan countries is more than 20% and employment rates generally are 43%, which is the lowest share anywhere in the world, according to Cihan Sultanoğlu – UN Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Regional Director for Europe.

Minister of Labour and Social Policy Dime Spasov said Macedonia was on the right path with respect to this matter stressing that the unemployment rate had been reduced from close to 40% to 27.6% in the past several years.

http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php...enumber=202892

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Macedonia Slammed For Failing To Liberalize Energy

Macedonia has breached its EU commitments to liberalize its energy market, the Energy Community has said, giving it only two months to rectify this failure.

“Macedonia’s decision to postpone the full opening of the electricity market, thereby prohibiting consumers from choosing their supplier, is another manifestation of the government’s deliberate policy of systematically refusing to accept the country’s obligations under the Energy Community Treaty and, consequently, EU law,” the Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Janez Kopac, was cited as saying. The criticism comes in the form of a “Reasoned Opinion” that the Energy Community has sent to Macedonia as part of its effort to settle the dispute over this issue, allowing the country two months to rectify its behaviour.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/2704201...ralize-energy/

Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider



South-East Europe On Edge Of Civilization: Depending Who You Ask – Media (il)literacy (Part III) – The Gradual Strategy

People usually say, “Trust them, without doubt,” when referring to the content of the news on any News channel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo*, and Macedonia.

Macedonia: Recent riots against the Government (1,000-3,000 people between 5.5. – 7.5. 2015) on the streets of Capitol of Macedonia, city of Skopje is a reflection of the gradual strategy of both sides that having a stable country is bad for them. Both can exist only within organized anarchy where they can blame each other for all wrong things done in the past. Basically, on the ground is the fight for the authority and money (as shown even within recent coup d’etat in Islamic community of Macedonia).

What about Media (il)literacy? Nothing special Good old story of being controlled by the power of money and authority.

Solution: Simple, as it might be. Education based on scientific knowledge of educators who respect others and different ones and within months it will be changed. The [roblem is…where to find them (educators) with mentioned quality. And how to give them that power of teaching? The questions arises, but that is good, because practical answers will come, eventually. Without that, even the worst thing that can happen would be as it was back in 1990, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Guess?


South-East Europe On Edge Of Civilization: Depending Who You Ask - Media (il)literacy (Part III) ? The Gradual Strategy - Essay - Eurasia Review

Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

Velskreven analyse fra Stratfor. Omhandler regionen som helhet (se link). Her er kommentarer rettet mot Makedonia spesielt:

The Problems Foreign Powers Find in the Balkans



https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/pr...eid=9be7bdf743

Rivalisering på Balkan. https://t.co/b4j92iCwoE

— GIHV Tor Rune Raabye (@RuneRaabye) 23. mai 2015

Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

Officers retaliated with stun grenades and plastic bullets after unrest broke out among 800 migrants waiting at the border to continue their journey to northern Europe

Migrants attack Macedonian police as construction of Greek border fence begins | World news | The Guardian




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Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

We Need to Putin-Proof the Balkans Now

Southeastern Europe is entering renewed crisis—and Moscow is fomenting more chaos at a dangerous time

Take Macedonia, the only country to escape Yugoslavia in the 1990s without violence. A small and impoverished land of two million that stands on the front lines of the EU’s refugee crisis, Macedonia is bitterly divided between its Slavic majority and Albanian minority. How many Albanians there are is a hotly contested question—due to political game-playing there’s been no census in 15 years – but the minority constitutes somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of Macedonia’s population.
Many of them are unhappy with the post-Yugoslav status quo, and an armed Albanian insurgency in the summer of 2001 in northwestern Macedonia nearly exploded into all-out ethnic war. Only strong pressure from NATO and the United States averted disaster. Even then, fighting raged for days in the suburbs of Skopje, the country’s capital. In the aftermath of the 2001 semi-war, Albanians were granted major political concessions, including guaranteed participation in any future Macedonian government.
This all has done little to ameliorate relations between Albanians and Slav Macedonians, not to mention that the country has all the other problems found in the region, too: poverty, corruption, crime, plus the mostly toxic political legacy of the former Communist regime and its nasty secret police.


The Russians lost this round, however, and Montenegro will soon become NATO’s 29^th member, perhaps at the Alliance’s 2017 summit in Brussels in late May. While Montenegro brings little to NATO, strictly speaking—its military is smaller than Baltimore’s police department, and not much better armed—its geostrategic position is important. NATO will now control the entire Adriatic coastline, which has real implications for the security of the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The country’s key port of Kotor, a protected maritime repair facility long coveted by Moscow, is a definite positive for the Alliance.

http://observer.com/2017/04/monteneg...putin-baltics/

Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

Så kan det se ut som FYROM er en saga blott:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44401643

Sv: Fokus: Makedonia - urolige tider

På tide, mener nå jeg.

North Macedonia joins NATO as 30th Ally.

Today, North Macedonia became NATO’s newest member, upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the US State Department in Washington DC.

“North Macedonia is now part of the NATO family, a family of thirty nations and almost one billion people. A family based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together.“ - Jens Stoltenberg

North Macedonia is a long-standing contributor to our Euro-Atlantic security, including by participating in NATO-led missions in Afghanistan and in Kosovo.

A flag-raising ceremony for North Macedonia will take place at NATO Headquarters on 30 March 2020. The flag of North Macedonia will be simultaneously raised at the Allied Command Operations in Mons (Belgium) and at the Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk (US).

#WeAreNATO #NorthMacedonia #NATO