Latest News & Developments

[Albo]

Macedonia Made Huge Payments to War Crimes Convict

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-paid-hefty-sum-to-war-crimes-convict-10-19-2017

[mklion]

Macedonia Made Huge Payments to War Crimes Convict

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ict-10-19-2017

Great. He is a hero. His family deserves more if you ask me.

[Albo]

Macedonia Has Provided a Blueprint for the Balkans

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonian-has-provided-a-blueprint-for-the-balkans-10-19-2017

[Phoenix]

Macedonia Has Provided a Blueprint for the Balkans

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ans-10-19-2017

It's still early days to be attributing too much substance to the 'people-power movement' in Macedonia, just as it's too early to write-off any US coercion in the result.

The true test of people power is yet to come...

[Albo]

Macedonia Gives Kumanovo Gunmen Heavy Jail Terms

The Skopje Criminal Court on Thursday gave life sentences to seven of the 37 ethnic Albanian defendants accused of involvement in a two-day shootout with police in Kumanovo in 2015, while most of the rest got long jail terms.
Sinisa Jakov Marusic BIRN Skopje

A Skopje court on Thursday gave life sentences to seven of the 37 defendants charged with taking part in a bloody two-day gun battle with police in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo in May 2105.

Thirteen people were sentenced to 40 years in prison, six got 20 years, one got 18 years, two got 14 years, two got 13 years and two were sentenced to 12 years. Four of the 37 defendants were acquitted.

The defendants were found guilty of terrorism, either for participation in or assistance of a two-day shootout with Macedonian security forces that left 18 people dead, including eight police, in the town.

Special police were deployed around and inside the court building for the issue of the verdicts in this ethnically charged case.

The atmosphere in court was also tense. Only three defendants were allowed to hear their verdicts in person. The judge ordered the others to be removed due to their loud protests.

“We are not terrorists, we are the NLA [National Liberation Army]. The terrorists attacked parliament while you attacked us!” one of the defendants shouted before being removed from the court.

He was referring to the April 27 attack on the Macedonian parliament by supporters of the former ruling VMRO DPMNE party.

The defendants will have a chance to lodge appeals before the Court of Appeals.

At the last hearing in late September, lawyers for the defendants, in their closing statements, insisted that the evidence against their clients was insufficient and circumstantial and said that they should be acquitted.

Some of the defendants who had admitted participation in the armed clashes with police in Kumanovo maintained that they were victims of a politically motivated set-up.

The trial started in February 2016. But in June last year, proceedings had to restart after the prosecution merged the case with another related case, in which eight people are suspected of helping the armed group.

The prosecution said that the men stole weapons from a police station, which they then used to attack the security forces in Kumanovo on May 9 and 10, 2015.

The defendants denied attacking the police and insisted that they were only defending themselves from attack.

The case and the controversy that surrounds it will not likely end with the court ruling. In September, addressing public concerns about the case, Macedonia's new Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, whose centre-left government was elected in May, said he favoured a retrial.

If that happens, the authorities may request international help and supervision to remove all remaining doubts about the case.

A special group of judicial experts working on judicial reforms is currently mulling a special law that would allow retrials of this and other cases in which interference by the past VMRO DPMNE-led government, which held power for 11 years, is supected.

[Albo]

Macedonian Schools Work to Bridge Ethnic Divide

https://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonian-schools-say-no-to-ethnic-violence-11-01-2017

[Odi Zvezdo]

PM Zaev expects strong reaction from Russia over Macedonia's NATO Admission

http://www.mia.mk/en/Inside/RenderSingleNews/401/133949749

This is beyond a joke...yet not one citizen has reacted to this puppet..

2018...the Year of the Eurodonians...

[Albo]

https://youtu.be/xzlL12m5BFY

[Ljubco_IZEV]

I'm counting days until Zaev will be assassinated... He probally wont last more than a year. There are still some veterans from the 2001 war, and do you think they will only sit and watch as Zaev destroys our country? He'll be long dead before that happens.

[Risto the Great]

The vets should have shot gruevski as well. I don't see much of a difference yet.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

The vets should have shot gruevski as well. I don't see much of a difference yet.

............................................Spot on

[Ljubco_IZEV]

Gruevski is good for us Macedonians, for others not. The protests against him were made mostly by siptars and gypsies (and of course sdsm supporters). He should come here to strumica or radoviš, where there isn't a single siptar. In fact, all of southern Macedonia is largely populated by Macedonians only. Here is Gruevski needed.

[Risto the Great]

He was making deals and governments with the Albanians you speak of.

Gruevski is good for us Macedonians, for others not. The protests against him were made mostly by siptars and gypsies (and of course sdsm supporters). He should come here to strumica or radoviš, where there isn't a single siptar. In fact, all of southern Macedonia is largely populated by Macedonians only. Here is Gruevski needed.

[Ljubco_IZEV]

Oh, in that case sure, he needs to get shot aswell.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Both DPMNE and SDSM sold the people out, we need to get over this party loyalty bullshit and just recognise the politicians in Skopje are all bought out and care little if at all about Macedonia.