Turkish forces liquidated 15 women PKK fighters

[Vangelovski]

I believe Turkey's friendship with Macedonia is bullshit politics.

I agree with this. I have not seen any 'special' assistance from Turkey, beyond token gesture's and normal economic relations.

[Risto the Great]

Let me put it politely when Macedonians take up arms we are fighting for our own rights it is legitimate and true terrorist to others who cares I dont.

You don't, but Kurds care.

I think human beings fail when they start thinking that only they or their nation should receive some special advantage over everyone else. If the cause has merit, it should be acknowledged by all peoples. The Macedonian Cause has merit. The Kurdish Cause has merit too.

[Risto the Great]

Thats wrong. There are kurdish learning courses in Turkey for more than 15 years and state sponsored 24/7 kurdish language tv channel for about 3 years. There are also kurdish magazines and newspapers for about 15 years and most importantly, there are kurdish language institutes in 3 different universities for 2 years.

Do they receive any education in the Kurdish language at public schooling? I have no problem with ethnic Albanians receiving SOME education in their language in Macedonia.

The only issue is, they demand education in full kurdish language for few years but this is something impossible for Turkey because Turkey is not a country where only Turks and Kurds lives. You can think about like Australia where education is in English only. Already, the very first proper kurdish dictionary is not even older than 60-70 years, so who can educate people with it? who will be the teachers? who will provide necessary funds for kurdish teachers? This is a nation state and our taxmoney cannot possibly be spend for an education in other than Turkish.

12-15 million people and you're telling me Turkey is not a place where only Turks and Kurds live. I reckon the Kurds are a minority worth noting somehow.

Spare me with the dictionary discussion, The Greeks settled on their language in 1976. I have heard Greek being spoken once or twice before this time.

If no tax money should be spent on anything other than Turkish, then perhaps tax money should be collected by Kurds so they can spend it for themselves. It sounds like Turkey treats its Kurds far worse than Macedonians have ever treated Albanians. It is a recipe for the creation of splinter groups like PKK. So perhaps Turkey should re-think what it does with its tax money.

In Australia, tax money is spent on far more obscure things.

This is a fact in Turkey. About half of the kurds in Turkey passively supports PKK while they have around 2000-3000 active militants. The other kurds who doesn't support PKK will continue to do this as long as they leech massive social funds.

Honestly, you gave me the impression that there were about 15 million PKK fighters in Turkey.

I'm sure the passive support for the Albanian terrorists grew as the West offered more and more support to them in Kosovo (and Macedonia). I would say the support is at an all time high right now.

Onur, I am surprised at the inflexibility you offer to this issue.

[George S.]

Why is the figure of pkk so small .If the population is 12-15 million you'd expect a sizable army of a couple hundred thousand pkk?Also if the population is 12 million-15 million you'd expect your own budget for things like education.How about representation in parliament??
You'd think it's a democracy.?it's kind of odd to see that.

[Onur]

Do they receive any education in the Kurdish language at public schooling? I have no problem with ethnic Albanians receiving SOME education in their language in Macedonia.

I believe that getting a full education in an other language than the nation`s formal one inevitably leads to the destruction of that particular nation`s unity. This is something unacceptable for me as most of the people in Turkey.

You should have concerns about that too if you don't wanna see two separate group in your nation who gets separated from each other in such an early age of 6-7. Ofc thats my opinion, you might think like separating children is a good thing in a nation.

If no tax money should be spent on anything other than Turkish, then perhaps tax money should be collected by Kurds so they can spend it for themselves. So perhaps Turkey should re-think what it does with its tax money.

What you say happens in a federal or semi-federal state, not in a nation state and Turkey is certainly not a federal state of Kurds and Turks, never been as such.

Onur, I am surprised at the inflexibility you offer to this issue.

If the events of 2001 between Macedonians and Albanians would continue for 30 years, then i am sure you would better understand me.

Why is the figure of pkk so small .If the population is 12-15 million you'd expect a sizable army of a couple hundred thousand pkk?

The number of PKK militants i mentioned as 2000 is only the ones in Turkey but afaik, there are 5000 more in Iraq, Syria and Iran. Also, it`s not a good thing to have more than 2000 militants in Turkey for them because we are talking about a terrorist organization here with guerrillas. They prefer to have less than 2000 active militants who are fully trained and capable of doing many terrorist attacks. As we kill them, they keep sending reinforcements and new equipment from northern Iraq to replace the fallen terrorists. But i said that there are 2-3 millions of passive supporters. They hide militants in their homes, provides food+money+shelter. Some provides health care and a storage for weapons, bombs etc.

Btw kurds have an army called peshmerga in northern Iraq. They also give full support to PKK like supplying arms, vehicles, transportation etc and some peshmerga becomes a PKK militant for few months and some PKK militants becomes peshmerga for some time if they get injured or if their cover up operations blows in Turkey. They escape to Iraq, gets health treatment and walks around in northern Iraq like a peshmerga and after sometime, returns to Turkey from Iraqi mountains.

Also if the population is 12 million-15 million you'd expect your own budget for things like education.How about representation in parliament??

Like i said to Risto, such things happens in a federate state. In a nation, there are national education system, common for all. There are many kurds in the parliament since the foundation of the republic. We had kurdish parliament speakers, ministers and even a half kurdish PM. Currently, PKK has a political party of their own in our parliament and they have 23 deputies out of 550 total. Probably other parties have around 70-80 kurds too.

[Onur]

Interestingly, i keep seeing many paralels between kurds and albanians nowadays. Check these announcement from this week;

Kurds signs several agreements with US jewish company Exxon and sells their oil to them. Baghdad complains and kurds response as "we gonna secede from Iraq anyway";

Kurdish moves to secession from Iraq
As relations between the country's Kurds and Shias have worsened, some Kurdish leaders have started calling for an independent Kurdish state, the crisis coming as a surge of sectarian violence has left Iraq as a whole in its worst political crisis since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Along with several other oil giants, Exxon is participating in projects intended to make Iraq the world's biggest source of new oil finds over the next few years, but the US company's decision to sign a deal with the Kurds last November has infuriated Al-Maliki's government.

Baghdad says the Kurds have broken Iraqi law by dealing directly with foreign companies, and it considers most of region's contracts with foreign companies to be illegal, arguing that any deals must receive the green light from Baghdad first.

In response, Barzani said that the contracts were "our policy, and we will not change that".

Some Kurdish politicians are now threatening to secede from Iraq altogether. Barzani's deputy, Kosrat Rasoul, said that the domestic, regional and international circumstances were now in place for the declaration of a Kurdish state.

"If the declaration of a state was in my hands, I would declare it today rather than tomorrow," he was quoted as saying by the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Monday. "It is not logical that the Kurds have no state."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1090/re7.htm

Yesterday, Iraqi kurdistan leader M. Barzani said that sooner or later, all the kurds will unite and the dream of greater kurdistan will be achieved.

Typical pan-Kurdism, just like pan-illirism above;

Kurds will unite one day, says Barzani
The Kurdish people have been oppressed for years, but one day they will unite, Barzani said, speaking to Iraqi television channel Al-Sharqiya. “This truth cannot be hidden. We are a nation like the Arabs, Turks, or Persians. They do not allow Kurds to form a nation,” Barzani said, according to Doğan news agency.

“Everyone is waiting for the good news, and this can be announced anytime. I don’t know if I will witness it, but this a truth that cannot be stopped.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/kur...&NewsCatID=359

[Vangelovski]

Why is the figure of pkk so small .If the population is 12-15 million you'd expect a sizable army of a couple hundred thousand pkk?Also if the population is 12 million-15 million you'd expect your own budget for things like education.How about representation in parliament??
You'd think it's a democracy.?it's kind of odd to see that.

George, who've been a supporter of Turkey regardless of its policies. Why is that? Why do you think Turkey is so important for Macedonia?

[Vangelovski]

Onur, what you continuously fail to understand (probably because you believe in your own myths) is that Turky is an occupying force in Kurdistan and a settler population in Anatolia. Macedonia does not occupy any Albanian territory, rather, Albania occupies Macedonian territory. Further, Macedonians are indigenous to Macedonia, much like Albanians are indigenous to Albania and Kurds are indigenous to Kurdistan. This is a fundamental difference between the two situations. Your attempt to gain support for the Kurdish issue by drawing non-existant parrallels between them and the Albanians in Macedonia is nonsense.

[George S.]

Turkey is a friend of Macedonia as well as an allie.Ther is adifference Turkey may come in aid of macedonia.In terms of economic & military aids.Macedonia only need to ask & i'm sure turkey will come to it's aid.The other thing macedonia could be asked to helpit's allie in any situation as needed.I only care for the plight of macedonia not the kurds.Whil's we can be sentimental about human rights we have to be realistic what rights do they want secession of land to them.I don't think so.Turkey is not going to give them what they want & i fully support that.That's not human rights that's a country's sovereignity.As Onur has demonstrated they enjoy a lot of rights allready.But they dream on of a state of their own but they can't beterrorising turkey for it.Why should turkey realise that.The rights of kurds is whether they can have a state of their own,They chose terrorism & i don't think anyone is going to welcome that.The same goes in macedonia it's not human rights
it's cessation wanting land that belongs to someone else.
Tom we as macedonians have to worry more about our problems than the enormity of the kurdish problems. they try to solve their problems with terror.How about in contrast to macedonians we have to use peacefull means & what others dictate to us.What possible harm is there of
having friends like turkey & an allie.I don't give too hoots about terrorists.

[George S.]

I see a lot of people here talking about rights .What rights does anyone have it's called a figment of imagination why because it materialises one way or another to land grabs for someone be it albanians or kurds who want their own state.The kurds want other people's lands & the albanians want the macedonian lands.Let's not mince words here they pretend its rights to education etc bs it's rights to how can i kill you & take your land.Same goes in turkey the kurds want turkish teritory not education.I'm going to the heart of the matter Its fucking land its not education or anything else.THey want to take over for allah to dominate the world.So you goodie goodies are going to give them your land for what so they can go & multiply & take over the whole earth.

[George S.]

Turkish firm to invest $200 mln in Macedonia March 15, 2012


Skopje, the capital city of Macedonia, is expecting more than $200 million of investment from Limak, a local holding.



Turkey’s Limak Holding, active in tourism, energy, cement, technology, construction and harbor operations, is preparing to invest over $200 million in central Skopje to construct a massive residential, shopping and office building project, the firm’s top executive said yesterday.

“We have bought a large plot of land in the center of Skopje through the privatization of Macedonian state holdings,” Serdar Bacaksız said, speaking to Hürriyet Daily News in a phone interview. He said that Limak has acquired a 40,000 square meter plot of land in Skopje to begin construction of residences, a shopping mall and office buildings. “We plan to invest over $200 million in the project,” he said, noting that the plot of land in the city center was acquired from the Macedonian government for $8. “We are planning the buildings currently and will start construction soon,” Bacaksız said.

Bacaksız went on to say that Limak is confident about its growth strategy in the Balkans. Turkish-French consortium Limak Airport de Lyon MAS officially assumed full responsibility for operation of Kosovo-Pristina International Airport last April. Limak has the right to manage the airport, the only one in Kosovo, for the next 20 years, and has taken on responsibility for modernizing its infrastructure, a project that will cost nearly 100 million euros to complete.

Greece warns bailout rebels of disaster February 12, 2012
Posted by Yilan in Human rights abuses.
Tags: Greece, Bailout
add a comment

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told lawmakers to back a deeply unpopular EU/IMF rescue in a vote on Sunday or condemn the country to a “vortex” of recession.

He spoke in a televised address to the nation, ahead of Sunday’s vote on 3.3 billion euros ($4.35 billions) in wage, pension and job cuts as the price of a 130-billion-euro bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

The effort to ease Greece’s huge debt burden has brought thousands into the streets in protest, and there were signs on Saturday of a small rebellion among lawmakers uneasy with the extent of the cuts.

Papademos said parliament had a historic responsibility to back the bill, or face catastrophic consequences if Greece misses a March 20 deadline to service its debt.

“A disorderly default would set the country on a disastrous adventure,” he said. “It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion.”

“The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of the euro.”

Parliament’s finance committee approved the bill on Saturday, and a full vote in the chamber is expected late on Sunday.

The Papademos coalition has a huge majority, which should ensure parliament approves the package needed to secure Greece’s second bailout since 2010.

But the number of dissenters is growing.

About 20 MPs belonging to the two major parties backing Papademos shrugged off threats from party leaders and warned they might reject the bailout. It would take more than 80 rebels to scupper the law.

Six members of the Papademos cabinet have already resigned.

INCALCULABLE CONSEQUENCES

In an interview with the newspaper Imerisia, Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis described the catastrophe he believes Greece would suffer if it failed to meet debt repayments of 14.5 billion euros due next month.

“Let’s just ask ourselves what it would mean for the country to lose its banking system, to be cut off from imports of raw materials, pharmaceuticals, fuel, basic foodstuffs and technology,” he said.

On the second day of a 48-hour protest strike, about 50 Communist party activists draped two large banners on the ramparts of the Acropolis on Saturday, reading: “Down with the dictatorship of the monopolies (and the) European Union.”

About 7,000 protesters gathered in Athens, police said, but there was no repeat of the teargas and petrol bombs of Friday.

Members of the conservative New Democracy party, which has a big lead in opinion polls before elections possible in April, are likely to back the deal solidly. Around 10 have threatened not to.

“This is obviously an issue of party discipline,” party leader Antonis Samaras told his lawmakers in parliament, warning anyone who voted ‘No’ “will not be a candidate in the next election.”

Former Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou, who negotiated the first bailout before his government collapsed in November, acknowledged the pressure.

“I’ve lost friends, my family suffered, I gave up my office, I was insulted, vilified, like no other politician ever was in this country,” he told PASOK’s parliamentary group.

“Still, all that is nothing compared with what our people will suffer if we fail to do the right thing.”

Party discipline is much weaker at PASOK, whose support has dived to 8 percent in the latest opinion from the nearly 44 percent it commanded when Papandreou led it into power in 2009.

The deal includes a bond swap to ease Greece’s debt burden by cutting the real value of private investors’ bond holdings by some 70 percent.

FIFTEEN BILLION MORE?

The chief negotiator for private creditors in the debt swap deal, Charles Dallara, urged a ‘Yes’ vote, saying the deadlines allowed “no room for slippage.”

In comments published on Saturday, Dallara, who is managing director of the International Institute of Finance (IIF), said private creditors were committed to a voluntary agreement and that he expected a “very high participation rate.”

“It is important for lawmakers to understand what is at stake,” Dallara told Kathimerini newspaper.

Lawmakers need to approve the deal by Sunday, otherwise the country will not make a February 17 deadline to submit the debt swap offer to its private-sector bondholders, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Saturday.

Euro zone finance ministers have told Greece that by then it must also explain how 325 million euros ($430 million) out of this year’s total budget cuts will be achieved before it agrees to the bailout.

Bailout documents released on Friday left blank the amount of the rescue. Venizelos said 15 billion euros more might be needed to rescue the country’s banks, confirming estimates from EU officials.

The EU and IMF have been exasperated by a series of broken promises and weeks of wrangling over the bailout. They will not release the aid without clear commitments by the main party leaders that reforms will be implemented, whoever is in power.

The uncertainty has upset world financial markets, with stocks snapping a five-day winning streak on Friday and the euro tumbling.

The bill, approved by the cabinet on Friday along with hundreds of pages of accompanying documents, sets out reforms including a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage, pension cuts worth 300 million euros this year, as well as health and defense spending cuts.

The government promised to speed up implementation of reforms in the labor, product and services markets, cut spending, and push through a privatization plan. ($1 = 0.7582 euros)

[George S.]

10 FEB 11 / 08:57:47
Macedonia-Turkey: The Ties That Bind
While Ankara maintains close diplomatic relations with Skopje, cemented by their shared political enmity toward Greece, Turkey must step carefully when it comes to inter-ethnic disputes within ‘the heart of the Balkans’.
By Darko Duridanski Skopje and Bitola


Standing outside the Ottoman army barracks building, now the National Museum, in Macedonia’s second city Bitola, it is not immediately obvious the site is a shrine for Turks.

Yet almost every weekend, a bus laden with Turkish tourists pulls up outside the museum.

Visiting the nineteenth century barracks where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – the founding father of modern Turkey – lived and studied is something of a pilgrimage for the several thousand Turkish tourists who, according to the museum, journey here each year.

"When they see the building and read the sign in front of it -The founder and first president of modern Turkey Ataturk finished military high school in this building - they are stunned.

"But when they enter the room, they are astonished. They see the wax figure of Ataturk and they are so excited that some of them begin to cry,” says Senol Memis, a Macedonian of Turkish ethnicity and president of the Association for Macedonian-Turkish Friendship based in Bitola.

The story of Ataturk is the story of the Macedonian-Turkish friendship that endures to this day. Ankara has remained Skopje’s biggest ally since Macedonia declared independence from the former Yugoslav republic in 1991.

The two nations have been further united by their shared political enmity with Greece over disputed territory, history and the use of the name Macedonia.

Macedonia came under direct Ottoman rule for more than 500 years, until the Ottomans retreated from Europe following the 1912 Balkan war.

Ataturk, who was born in Thessaloniki (now in Greece) in 1881, attended military school in Bitola from 1896 to 1899. His father was born in the village of Kodzadzik, in western Macedonia. He went on to become an army officer during World War One and president of the newly-founded Republic of Turkey in 1924.

Macedonia’s Turkish Minority
• 77,000 ethnic Turks live in Macedonia*
• Ethnic Turks have the right to primary education in the Turkish language
• There are two political parties representing the Turkish minority
• The Turkish agency TIKA is supporting the reconstruction of Ottoman monuments, including mosques, hamams (Turkish baths) and old bazaars
• Turkish soap operas are hugely popular among Macedonian TV viewers prompting, some say, a rise in the number of Macedonians learning the Turkish language
• Theatre productions are regularly staged in the Turkish language

* Source: Macedonian 2001 census

Timeline: Turkey and Macedonia
"The emotions Turks feel for Macedonia are specific. Because of the common history, we [Macedonians] have always been treated by the Turks as one of the smallest, and most beloved, children,” says Stevo Pendarovski, foreign affairs professor at the University American College in Skopje.

"Even if you talk to people that have been to Turkey only on holidays, they will tell you that Turks treat Macedonians with unreserved friendship", he adds.

Ataturk, who died in 1938 in Istanbul, is not the only key Turkish figure to have close ties to Macedonia. Dozens of leading Turkish politicians and army generals, past and present, have Macedonian roots.

While official figures are hard to come by as questions regarding Macedonian roots have not been included in the latest Turkish census, it is estimated that as many as six million people living in Turkey today have Macedonian ancestry.

Many migrated immediately after the 1912 and 1913 Balkan wars and during the 1950s, when many Muslims opted to leave communist Macedonia behind and moved to Turkey for religious and economic reasons.

The biggest concentration of Macedonian Turks can be found in the cities of Manisa and Izmir in western Turkey. Many still speak Macedonian and strive to keep their ancestral traditions alive by organising myriad cultural and sporting events in Turkey and Macedonia.

There are numerous Turkish-Macedonian associations, and dozens of groups on Facebook dedicated to furthering and supporting Macedonian-Turk friendship and relations.

In recent times, Turkey earned the unswerving loyalty of many Macedonians after Ankara became the second country – Bulgaria was first - to publicly support Skopje’s declaration of independence and use of the name Macedonia in 1991.

It has also cemented ties between the two nations – particularly with regard to their complicated relations with Greece.

Dispute with Greece

Skopje’s use of the name Macedonia has angered her southern neighbour, as many Greeks believe the name is purely Hellenic. Greece’s refusal to recognise Macedonia also reflects Greek fears that Skopje wishes to reclaim land in Greek territory.

In 1993, Macedonia was forced to accept the provisional name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM, in order to become a member of the UN.

The already highly-charged name issue erupted once again in 2007, when Skopje changed the name of its international airport to the Alexander the Great airport – prompting Athens to oppose Macedonian membership of NATO.

Turkey, who is the second biggest supporter of Macedonia’s NATO membership bid after the US, is the only NATO member to insist that every alliance document carries a footnote on the use of the name FYROM. The footnote reads: Turkey recognises Macedonia under its constitutional name.

In March 2010, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, met his Macedonian counterpart, Antonio Milososki, in Skopje and fully expressed his nations support in one sentence: "The citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, wherever they are in the world can, if they need help, call the embassies of Turkey. They will get help, as they are Turkish citizens."

Gjuner Ismail, a Macedonian ethnic Turk and former culture minister in the 1990s Macedonian government, says Turkey has always helped and supported Macedonia because it is in Ankara’s own interests to do so.

"Turkey has supported Macedonia, and I stress this, continuously and unconditionally. Turkey has never set any conditions on its support for Macedonia", says Ismail, who is now president of the Macedonian think-tank FORUM - Center for Strategic Research and Documentation.

He says that support was vital back in 1995, when Greece imposed an economic blockade in response to Skopje’s use of the name Macedonia.

While Greece closed its border with Macedonia, Skopje could not import from neighbouring Serbia as Belgrade was under UN-imposed sanctions. Queues several kilometres long were not an uncommon sight at gas stations during this time.

The long lines were slightly shortened after Turkey began sending shipments of oil to Macedonia via Bulgaria.

Turkey’s Path to Europe
1959: Turkey applies for associate membership of the EEC
1963: Ankara signs association agreement with the EEC
1987: Turkey applies to join the EC
1999: Ankara recognised as EU candidate on equal footing with other potential members
2005: The European Commission recommends negotiations for Turkish accession begin, but talks stall over domestic and international issues, including poor relations with Greece/Cyprus dispute.
Austria and France oppose Turkey’s full membership of the EU
Macedonia’s Path to Europe

2001: Macedonia signs an association and stabilisation agreement with the EU
2004: Macedonia applies for EU membership
2005: Macedonia is officially granted EU candidate status by the European Council
2009: The EU council of ministers recommends Skopje begin accession talks but does not set a date because of the unresolved dispute with Greece over the use of the name Macedonia

Ismail recounts other examples of Turkish support for Macedonia in difficult times: "When we [Macedonia] were supposed to be accepted as a member of UNESCO, the Macedonian delegation of five people was scheduled to speak on the sixteenth day of the conference.

“That was impossible for us, because it was too expensive at that time to stay for three weeks in Paris".

“But then the chief of the Turkish delegation, who was supposed to talk on the fourth day, stepped back and freed the place for Macedonia,” he recalls, adding that many Macedonian diplomatic victories have been pushed for by Turkey.

Davutoglu again demonstrated this support during his visit to Skopje in March 2010: “Turkey gives great attention to the political stability and prosperity of Macedonia because it is the heart of the Balkans.

“That is why Ankara was one of the first countries that recognised Macedonia under its constitutional name. I believe that the path of Macedonia towards the EU should be opened and the Turkish support for NATO membership for Macedonia will continue".

“We will always be on the same side as Macedonia because its success is also our success."

However, some analysts believe Macedonian politicians rely too heavily upon, and too readily presume, Turkish support.

"Macedonian politicians are not reacting honestly and correctly to Turkish support. The political elites know that Macedonia is part of a bigger picture, a bigger interest, and that is why they behave this way", Ismail says.

"Macedonian politicians draw this simple conclusion - Turkey is helping us because we are an enemy of their enemy [Greece] and that is why their support will stay", he adds.

Warm relations, poor economic ties

Yet despite extraordinarily warm political relations, trade between the two countries remains poorly developed.

Professor Pendarovski believes Macedonian politicians themselves have stymied potentially lucrative economic ties between Ankara and Skopje.

He says Macedonia’s political leadership has shown no interest in granting favourable conditions to Turkish investors, relying instead on Turkish goodwill and historical ties.

"Emotions are great, but in business you have to earn something”, warns Pendarovski.

"That is why there is not a single Turkish politician who will not use the diplomatic phrase ‘we have great relations, but we also have unused potential in the economy’. After that, he will explain that they are not seeking ‘special conditions’ but simply want the same conditions given to Greek investors.”

The Greeks, who are widely regarded as Macedonia’s political enemy because of the name dispute, are, ironically, Skopje’s biggest investor and business partner, according to the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia.

At the end of the nineties and into the early 2000s, Greek investors and Greek state companies were allowed to buy strategically important companies, with attractive concessions.

For example, in 1999, the Greek state firm Hellenic Petroleum bought a Macedonian oil refinery near Skopje. As part of the deal, the Macedonian government undertook an obligation to repurchase 500,000 tonnes of petroleum jelly over the next 20 years.

Greek investment in Macedonia for 2009 totalled €380m, far more than the €49m invested by Turkey the same year, according to the bank.

Trade figures tell the same story, with the Skopje-based Macedonian Institute for Statistics valuing trade volume between Turkey and Macedonia at €210m during 2010. Trade between Athens and Skopje far outstripped that, valued at €484m for the same year.

Along with favourable concessions, Sam Vaknin, an economist and former economics adviser to the Macedonian government, believes Greece is the bigger investor in Macedonia because Greek companies "invested in Macedonia as part of a larger, long-term, and government-supported plan to invest in the Balkans, and thus increase Greek influence".

"The Turks at that time [the end of the 1990s into the early 2000s] considered Macedonia as not very interesting and a very inhospitable business environment. The Turks are the ones who decided to invest very little here. The investors are afraid, first and foremost, of inefficiency, corruption and favouritism,” he says.

Vaknin thinks that the Macedonian market was not on Turkey's radar until 2005, when Vlado Buckovski became prime minister and started working hard to attract more Turkish investors, an initiative that has been continued by Nikola Gruevski, the current prime minister.

Government attempts to court Turkish investors have begun to yield fruit in the past couple of years. In 2008, the Turkish company TAV won the tender to operate Macedonia’s two airports - Skopje and Ohrid - for 20 years and build another in the town of Stip in 10 years.

The deal, which stipulates TAV must refurbish the airports, build new, longer runways and cargo buildings is worth around €200 million over two years.

While Ankara’s long-standing political support for and burgeoning economic relationship with Skopje is beyond question, some believe Turkey should use its influence to help defuse ethnic and religious tensions within Macedonia.

Ankara would be, the reasoning goes, a useful buffer should inter-ethnic tensions again boil over into violent unrest.

Relations between Macedonia’s different ethnic communities have been tense for years, particularly since the ethnic Albanian minority have demanded more rights. This boiled over into a six-month military conflict in 2001, resolved by the Ohrid Peace Agreement of the same year. Since then, the threat of new conflicts has never truly disappeared.

However, it appears there are limits to Turkish influence in Macedonia after all. One former government adviser, who asked not to be identified, warns not all Macedonian citizens would regard Turkey as a welcome influence.

In particular, Macedonia’s 500,000 ethnic Albanians fear Turkish dominance in the country could come at the price of their identity – despite shared religious and cultural heritage.

"Turkey… if it wants to help in future, has to be very careful… the problem is that at the moment they are more accepted by the Macedonians than the ethnic Albanians. And to be a buffer, you have to have equal legitimacy among ethnic groups,” cautions the former government adviser.

This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence's Alumni Initiative, established and funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation.

[George S.]

PM Gruevski: Turkey one of Macedonia's major allies, trade partners
Monday, 30 January 2012

Macedonian Government's team, led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, presented Monday In Kaysery the possibilities for investing in the country to representatives of 150 companies.
The macroeconomic stability, low budget deficit, prudent debt management, flat tax, one stop-shop system, regulatory guillotine and other reforms have favorable effect on the business climate in Macedonia, Gruevski said at the presentation.

"Under these activities we have succeeded to attract well-known foreign companies to the Technological-Industrial Developments Zone (TIDZ) in Skopje. Other three are under construction - in Stip, Tetovo and again in Skopje, Gruevski said, elaborating the favorable conditions these zones are offering to foreign investors.
Referring to the country's macroeconomic indicators, as a safeguard of realizing business endeavors, Gruevski mentioned the macroeconomic stability, average inflation rate of 2,5% for the last 10 years, sound public finances policy, which results in "low budget deficit and prudent debt management."


The PM hailed the excellent Macedonian-Turkish political and economic relations, saying that the bilateral free trade agreement was a significant impetus for bolstering the cooperation.
"If we take into consideration the possibilities that stem from other free trade agreements, it means that those who will invest in Macedonia are to get access to over 650 consumers," Gruevski said.
A large number of Turkish companies are already in Macedonia and their experiences are the best argument that the country has been growing into a rather attractive European business destination for a short period of time, the PM said.

"Your country is not only one of our major allies, but also an important trade partner," Gruevski said, expressing hope for the today's business forum to further boost the economic cooperation between Macedonia and Turkey.
Within the forum, Gruevski held talks with Haci Boydak, Chairman of the Executive Board of Boydak Holding, one of most prominent Turkish companies involved in the spheres of furniture, textile, chemistry, marketing, iron-steel, logistics, energy and informatics. The Macedonian delegation also held meetings with other potential investors.
This evening the possibilities for investing in Macedonia will be presented in Konya.
Turkish investments in Macedonia, which now stand at US$180 million, are expected to reach US$500 million in the upcoming period. Production of automotive components, ICT, agriculture and food processing, business services and outsourcing, pharmaceutical industry and medical devices, energy and renewable energy sources, tourism, building and infrastructure are spheres for possible Turkish investments in Macedonia.

[Vangelovski]

Turkey is a friend of Macedonia as well as an allie.Ther is adifference Turkey may come in aid of macedonia.In terms of economic & military aids.Macedonia only need to ask & i'm sure turkey will come to it's aid.

George, Turkey has not done anything out of the ordinary. Everything Turkey has done is no different to what any other state does in the normal course of interstate relations. On the point of Turkish investments in Macedonia, they are making a profit on their investment, they are not investing as some sort of favour to Macedonia. I'm still waiting to see why you think Turkey is some sort of great strategic partner.

I don't have any real interest in the Kurdish cause, I'm merely pointing out the obvious, which Onur cannot seem to handle. But I am concerned about your obsession with Turkey.

Further, do you really believe inalienable rights are a 'figment of the imagination'? If so, why are you exercising your right to express your views?

[George S.]

well they are from the albanian side they beleive they didn't get certain rights so they have to start a war but the real reason is to destabilise a country ripe for a takeover.We are still ripe for a takeover ,why were not in nato,not in the eu,the only friend we got is turkey.Not only that our own politicians have sold our soveregnity away.We have kosovo becoming another conflict potentionally for a spill as well as macedonia.Who is going to defend poor old Macedonia???I'm not saying turkey has done everything for macedonia but it was the first to recognize it under it's constitutional name & give it due recgnition.
Ok what are the benefits of not being friendly with turkey?If there was conflict we have an alliance that they will not attack us.
I agree i don't care for the kurdish cause but what's wrong with being a strategic partner with turkey.I'm not obsessed with turkey only to say that look we don't have that many friens but look at the fine example of turkey.It may not look much but hey it's a start.
Do we have any other "friends" we could rely on???not really.I'm telling you it's not an obseesion but more of a hey we have support & understanding from our neighbour in turkey.Mutual respect it's a rare commodity nowdays.
As for Onur you have to ask him yourself i think he allready answered a couple of your questions.