Statelessness – A return to the Fourth World?
I have been contemplating bringing this topic up for a while and thought what the hell. The notion of Macedonians becoming a stateless nation again is not entirely a new premise and has in fact been mentioned previously on the forum from time to time. With what appears to now be an overwhelming rise in support towards a European identity and future over an ethnic Macedonian one dominating the ideology of the Republic’s citizens; and the now apparent dedicated multilateral pursuit of transforming the nature of the state from that of a nation state representing the Macedonian ethnicity to essentially a multicultural Balkan one; perhaps it may be beneficial to start exploring and discussing the real possibility of returning to statelessness and what that could actually mean for the Macedonian nation.
Some initial thoughts that come to mind are:
- Would a return to this status be regarded as a backwards or forwards progression for our nation?
- Would such an eventuation finally bring about the end, or rather the abandonment of our ethnic identity?
- How would we as a people retain our identity and culture without the security of a state to support us?
- What options could we pursue to secure our culture and identity when our entire nation resides in occupying and foreign states (i.e. Diaspora)?
- Would there be any benefits of such an eventuation?
- Could the relegation to minority status for our entire nation finally bring about greater cross border unity and cooperation amongst our people, particularly within a “Unified European” framework? (the eventual incorporation of all occupying states within the European Union)
- Would a pursuit to regain/recreate a state for our nation once we have been relegated to the Fourth World even be necessary within a “Unified European” Framework?
- Could a distinction be formalised between the two Macedonian factions that make up the Macedonian citizenry within the republic?, i.e the European Slav whose Macedonian identity is based on a geographic standpoint (equivalent to the “Greek” Macedonian); and the Indigenous Macedonian whose identity is derived from an ethnic Macedonian standpoint
- Would there be any desire within the New Republic for such a distinction?, and with it, possibly the pursuit of guaranteed minority status or even autonomous governance for the indigenous Macedonian population?
Of course I’m well aware this topic in general (let alone some of the points I’ve specifically brought up) would naturally be viewed as highly controversial, but taking into account the course each government has pursued, and the eventual support or general apathy amongst the citizenry in respect of that course, I personally think there is some validity for having such a discussion (but I guess we’ll see), and as always, some pro-activeness/forward thinking on our behalf, or rather lets call it “contingency planning”, for such a possible eventuation wouldn’t do any harm.
Interested to know if anyone has any general thoughts on this subject, feel free to share your opinions if you have one, or two, or three, negative or positive. Feel free to tell me I've got the whole premise wrong etc, I really don’t think there can be any wrong answers at this point.
I have been contemplating bringing this topic up for a while and thought what the hell. The notion of Macedonians becoming a stateless nation again is not entirely a new premise and has in fact been mentioned previously on the forum from time to time. With what appears to now be an overwhelming rise in support towards a European identity and future over an ethnic Macedonian one dominating the ideology of the Republic’s citizens; and the now apparent dedicated multilateral pursuit of transforming the nature of the state from that of a nation state representing the Macedonian ethnicity to essentially a multicultural Balkan one; perhaps it may be beneficial to start exploring and discussing the real possibility of returning to statelessness and what that could actually mean for the Macedonian nation.
Some initial thoughts that come to mind are:
- Would a return to this status be regarded as a backwards or forwards progression for our nation?
- Would such an eventuation finally bring about the end, or rather the abandonment of our ethnic identity?
- How would we as a people retain our identity and culture without the security of a state to support us?
- What options could we pursue to secure our culture and identity when our entire nation resides in occupying and foreign states (i.e. Diaspora)?
- Would there be any benefits of such an eventuation?
- Could the relegation to minority status for our entire nation finally bring about greater cross border unity and cooperation amongst our people, particularly within a “Unified European” framework? (the eventual incorporation of all occupying states within the European Union)
- Would a pursuit to regain/recreate a state for our nation once we have been relegated to the Fourth World even be necessary within a “Unified European” Framework?
- Could a distinction be formalised between the two Macedonian factions that make up the Macedonian citizenry within the republic?, i.e the European Slav whose Macedonian identity is based on a geographic standpoint (equivalent to the “Greek” Macedonian); and the Indigenous Macedonian whose identity is derived from an ethnic Macedonian standpoint
- Would there be any desire within the New Republic for such a distinction?, and with it, possibly the pursuit of guaranteed minority status or even autonomous governance for the indigenous Macedonian population?
Of course I’m well aware this topic in general (let alone some of the points I’ve specifically brought up) would naturally be viewed as highly controversial, but taking into account the course each government has pursued, and the eventual support or general apathy amongst the citizenry in respect of that course, I personally think there is some validity for having such a discussion (but I guess we’ll see), and as always, some pro-activeness/forward thinking on our behalf, or rather lets call it “contingency planning”, for such a possible eventuation wouldn’t do any harm.
Interested to know if anyone has any general thoughts on this subject, feel free to share your opinions if you have one, or two, or three, negative or positive. Feel free to tell me I've got the whole premise wrong etc, I really don’t think there can be any wrong answers at this point.
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