12 truths about Macedonia
Now that Zoran Zaev, his government, and Western elites in the US, EU, and NATO have achieved their goal of ramming through a change to Macedonia’s name, identity, Constitution, language, heritage, culture, history and much more despite the fact that Macedonians said, loudly and clearly that they want to remain as Macedonia and as Macedonians — now that these elites have accomplished their goal, here are 12 truths about Macedonia going forward.
First, and over time, those who love Macedonia will work to reverse the so-called Prespa Agreement. It can be done and will take creative minds, lawfare, and hard work. But it can and will eventually be reversed. This will increase as Macedonians — especially those who were in favor of Prespa — come to truly understand what it means. When they see physical evidence of the name change, then the liquor will begin to wear off and they will turn against Zaev and SDSM. Even Greek analysts believe this could happen as evidenced in this column in Greek newspaper Kathimerini where Stavros Tzimas asks “The question is: What will happen in Skopje and/or Athens should the next governments decide to freeze or indefinitely suspend the deal?”
Second, while this current government of Macedonia will now begin using this name in official capacities, both written and spoken; while they will begin drawing up plans to change signs, letterheads, placards, banknotes, coins, stamps, passports, ID cards, etc.; while they continue (they started some time ago) to agree to change Macedonia’s schoolbooks, history books, textbooks, maps, atlases, and teaching guides; while they prepare to tell Macedonian businesses that they can no long use the name “Macedonia” in their name; and while they begin implementing every single detail required of them by the Greeks through the so-called Prespa Agreement, Macedonians will continue to call each other Macedonians and their country Macedonia no matter what. Macedonians will continue to live in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and wherever else Macedonians live and they will continue to teach their children, grandchildren and generations yet unborn about Macedonia’s history, culture, heritage, Church, and every other aspect of what makes Macedonia unique — and they will do it in the Macedonian language
Third, the struggle will continue between Greece and Macedonia, between these and succeeding governments (because SDSM and SYRIZA will not be in power forever), between the people, media, etc. This will ebb and flow as it has over time and Greece will continue attempting to change Macedonia’s history. As long as Greeks deny the Macedonian people exist, this will continue.
Fourth, relations with Bulgaria will worsen as the Bulgarians, emboldened by the Prespa Agreement and their own treaty on so-called “good neighborly relations” will start demanding more and more concessions from Macedonia — if Macedonia wants Bulgaria to agree to NATO and eventually EU membership (Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zahariev reiterated this position just last week and she demanded that Macedonia acknowledge its “shared history” with Bulgaria). This will include Macedonia changing its schoolbooks, history books, textbooks, maps, atlases, and teaching guides to suit Bulgarian desires. It will also include official versions of history.
Fifth, the idea of democracy and the institutions of democracy in Macedonia are now greatly damaged and will continue to degrade. The reputation of the institutions that Macedonia wants to join — primarily the EU and NATO — are for a long time, if not forever, sullied. British MEP Daniel Hannan, one of the primary leaders behind Brexit, makes the point that the EU is fundamentally anti-democratic. He wrote in the UK’s Telegraph the other week that “The EU is not only undemocratic in itself; it also degrades the internal democracy of its constituent nations. Everyone knows that the EU is run by unelected officials. What is far less widely appreciated is the way that, in order to sustain a fundamentally oligarchic project, the member states are obliged repeatedly to distort their domestic constitutional arrangements.”
These Western officials are, at their core, imperialists, authoritarians, and cold, calculating members of a class of people who breezily call themselves ‘citizens of the world’ telling each other that ‘history is on our side’ and belittling anyone who disagrees with them. They are part of a high priestcraft who worship the cult of global governance — with them as the governors and priests. The irony in this is that they never believed in the institutions of democracy or democracy itself to begin with as they are imperialistic in nature and pursue an imperialistic project. The other irony is that they tell the world their project will bring “peace” when everyone is united under their banner, but it will take nothing but brute force to achieve their “peace.”
Sixth, relations between Macedonians and the ethnic minority Albanians in Macedonia are further damaged. Macedonia’s other minorities are further shunted aside as Albanians demand more and more “rights” without corresponding responsibilities — or loyalty to the state. One particularly egregious move on the part of Albanians in Macedonia, as well as Albanians living in Kosovo and Albania after the vote to change Macedonia’s name was their victory dance — crowing about how the Albanians proved to be a “decisive factor” in the change — this is extremely dangerous for inter-ethnic relations.
Seventh, most of the elected and especially unelected Western internationals really won’t care much anymore about what happens to Macedonia and will move on to other issues.
Eighth, at the same time, there will be a push among some to demand that Macedonians start calling the country “North Macedonia,” etc. This is authoritarian and imperialistic but at least it reveals the true nature of these people. One good example is Soros employee Srdjan Cvijic who insists on calling Macedonia by this artificial name throughout a recent column on the issue but who also gives us further insight into the elites’ thinking about the issue of identity. He writes that the so-called Prespa Agreement should be an example to everyone in the region “that compromise pays off, and that sacrificing entrenched notions of national identity to secure a common European future is worthwhile.”
Ninth, the internationals will drop Zoran Zaev, Nikola Dimitrov, and all of those who helped engineer this debacle. While these Macedonians have been praised and feted among the European elites (and to an extent the US and NATO elites) all of this will now come to a halt. They served their purpose and can now be discarded. Greek newspaper Kathimerini noted this truth the other week stating “Political support and personal ties in international relations come with an expiry date. They go off when the product has outlived its usefulness.” In addition, and as we have seen with the former foreign ministers of Greece and Albania, current ministers in Macedonia may either be pushed out because of internal jealousies or anger or leave on their own volition for greener pastures.
Tenth, Macedonia will, in all likelihood, never join the EU. The EU is breaking up and will continue on that path.
Eleventh, regional relations will get worse. The elites have said this is a model for solving regional conflicts or even other conflicts more afar. Again, as a number of writers and analysts have concluded “As it turns out, a deal that was signed to heal the wound that is the name dispute between Athens and Skopje will inevitably open fresh wounds.”
Twelfth, investment in Macedonia is not going to increase and the economy will not improve in the dramatic ways that Zaev & Company are promising. There is still a great deal of uncertainty in Macedonia and there is now more tension not only between the ethnic groups, but also within and between Macedonians and the minority ethnic Albanian parties (Besa and the Alliance hate DUI and will become ever more angry as DUI gets away with its crimes and avoids any attempt by the Special Prosecutor to avoid any indictments). So all of this will increase tension and foreign investors do not like tension.
