Macedonians Storm Parliament

[Risto the Great]

How about Central Balkan Republic??? Zaev can take dust the old manila folder from Kiro Gligorov and place a rubber stamp on it!!!

CBR
where slavs and albanians uphold the principles of democracy and anything else America wants.

[Tomche Makedonche]

CBR
where slavs and albanians uphold the principles of democracy and anything else America wants.

Well taking into account the design/look of the ventilator, and the fact that CBR is the designated model range for the Honda Fireblade, the Japs might object to that combination on the basis that we are trying to steal their cultural heritage... but I guess we can just sign another interim agreement, this time with Japan, utilising an alternate acronym until we can work out an amicable compromise...

[Odi Zvezdo]

CBR
where slavs and albanians uphold the principles of democracy and anything else America wants.

Not Slavs....they'll be Central Balkan Republicans!!!

[Pelagonija]

How about they call the place Gaybania? The new flag can have a picture of our new commi dictator ZZ giving blowies to an egghead, and in the background you will have a picture of our people protesting corruption representing the coloured revolution.

With a name like that the EU might move their capital from Brussels to skopje.

[Phoenix]

How about they call the place Gaybania? The new flag can have a picture of our new commi dictator ZZ giving blowies to an egghead, and in the background you will have a picture of our people protesting corruption representing the coloured revolution.

With a name like that the EU might move their capital from Brussels to skopje.

All Zajko needs to do is promise his supporters:

- a glittering turd
- one golden goose
- a money tree from the Western Hemisphere
- one flying pig
...and hey presto!

Job done...

[Pelagonija]

As a local I wonder what's DardantëShtipit opinion on the potential consequences of a ZZ led government? Will there be mass wholesale changes as per above? Or will it be BAU? Pros? Cons?

Excuse the tongue in cheek?

[Albo]

Macedonian Violence Boosts Albanian Support for Zaev

The recent rampage in parliament shocked Macedonia’s large Albanian community - and strengthened their conviction that their best hope lies in a new government under Zoran Zaev.

Sinisa Jakov Marusic
BIRN
Skopje

It is a warm midday in Skopje's Old Turkish Bazaar, ideal for the increased number of shoppers and groups of foreign tourists clogging its narrow alleyways.

Shopkeepers and restaurateurs, many of them ethnic Albanians, happily rub their palms in anticipation of the rise in trade, cheerily serving their customers.

Nothing in this scene reminds anyone of the violence that occurred in Skopje on April 27, when a mob of supporters of the former ruling right-wing VMRO DPMNE party stormed the parliament attacking MPs.

Their targets were MPs from the new majority, led by the Social Democrats, SDSM, and the three main ethnic-Albanian parties who had just elected a new speaker, the first Albanian to hold that post, Talat Xhaferi.

Luckily, the violence did not spill onto the streets, triggering more serious and even potentially uncontrollable clashes.
The parties making up the new majority engaged themselves strenuously in preventing their sympathizers from coming onto the streets to rescue the besieged MPs.

“Who [which political option] do you support?” asked 55-year-old pistachio salesman and nighttime taxi driver Xhevad, opening a conversation with a BIRN reporter.

The direct question was not hostile or rude. His wide smile suggested he was just curious about who he was talking to. In the Balkans, revealing one’s political preferences is as good a conversational starter as any.

“Don't worry, you don't have to answer. It does not matter anyway,” he smiled, happy to catch a reporter off-guard.

“What happened [in parliament] was horrifying. It was a catastrophe,” Xhevad added, when we came back to the topic.

“But they [the men who stormed parliament] couldn’t destroy the entire country because no one wanted to fight back! They just showed their true faces. Now let the police deal with them and they should let us be.”

Xhevad said he had anticipated the violence that followed two months of protest marches by VMRO DPMNE supporters, directed against the announced formation of the new opposition-led government and which were filled with anti-Albanian rhetoric.

Despite mustering a majority in parliament, President Gjorge Ivanov has refused to allow the formation of new government, insisted that any government led by Zoran Zaev’s Social Democrats would jeopardize Macedonia’s sovereignty.

This is because before the election Zaev accepted several demands set by the ethnic Albanian parties, including a call for greater official use of the Albanian language.

Xhevad and all the others that BIRN encountered in Skopje’s Old Bazaar, however, lean more to the SDSM’s interpretation of things.

They believe that VMRO DPMNE, which has led Macedonia’s government since 2006, is refusing to surrender power mainly because its leaders fear standing trial for corruption.

“They [VMRO DPMNE] are just crooks who want to avoid justice for what they have done. That's why no one should be offended when they accuse the Albanians, and we should remain calm; we know it is all a lie and that their time is up,” Xhevad concluded.

Afrim, a 23-year-old student in Skopje who comes from the western mainly Albanian town of Gostivar, was drinking coffee with his friends in one of the nearby open terraces.

He said he was disturbed by the gruesome images of an ethnic Albanian MP, Zijadin Sela, part of the new majority, being dragged unconscious and covered in blood by presumed assailants in parliament.

Sela sustained the most serious injuries from the attackers who also injured nine other MPs, including the SDSM leader, Zaev.

Sela is now in hospital and recovering, his party, DPA-Movement for Reforms, said.

“Some young people like me wanted to head that night to parliament to defend our [Albanian] MPs. But someone, maybe from the [political] parties, called people and we were stopped,” Afrim said.

“It was tense to watch,” he added.”I would have headed there too if they had called me. But I don't want trouble. It could have got out of control and they [VMRO DPMNE] would have just used that to portray us [Albanians] as violent and as starting a war.”

The breakthrough over the election of a speaker, after a month-long VMRO DPMNE blockade of parliament’s constitutive session, gave Afrim him hope that a new government will soon be elected. He did not hide his sympathy for Zaev, who is likely to lead the new government.

“He will be far better than [VMRO DPMNE leader and ex-PM Nikola] Gruevski. He is not anti-Albanian and wants peace and prosperity and better life for all ... I wish him luck,” Afrim said.

Ejup, a 47-year-old shoemaker, one of the last remaining in the Old Bazaar, started his conversation appealing for peace.

"No one wants war. We must be reasonable. It will be bad for everyone, Turks, Albanians, Macedonians, everyone... If this Old Bazaar can be a home for everyone, why can't our country be home for everyone, too?” he asked.

Asked about the announced new government, he rooted strongly for the SDSM.

“Zaev is a hero,” he said. “He stood there [in parliament] taking the blows himself, not hiding behind some thugs like this other guy did [meaning Gruevski]. He has my support.”

In the December 11 general elections, Zaev’s SDSM, a traditional ethnic Macedonian party, for the first time in Macedonia's history won significant support in the Albanian community.

The party’s determinedly civic approach and its decision to include Albanians in its front ranks attracted between 40,000 and 60,000 thousand Albanian votes, observers have calculated.

Observers say part of the Albanian support for Zaev stems from bitter dissatisfaction with the ethnically exclusive nationalism of Gruevski.

The latest survey published in February, after the elections, by Telma TV and MCMS, an NGO, carried out by M Prospect agency, suggested that this trend towards winning Albanian support had grown, for the first time in Macedonian history putting the SDSM ahead of the traditional ethnic Albanian parties.

In the poll, 20 per cent of ethnic Albanian respondents opted for the SDSM, well head of the 15 per cent who said they supported Besa. Of the rest, 14 per cent chose the Democratic Union for integration, DUI, 10 per cent supported the Democratic Party of Albaians, DPA, while 6 per cent supported the Alliance for Albanians, a coalition led by Sela’s DPA- Movement for Reforms.

“I want to see good politicians leading this country who care for the common folk. I don't care if they are Albanian or Macedonian,” the pistachio salesman Xhevad concluded.

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti....GNSPPIO6.dpuf

[DraganOfStip]

As a local I wonder what's DardantëShtipit opinion on the potential consequences of a ZZ led government? Will there be mass wholesale changes as per above? Or will it be BAU? Pros? Cons?

Excuse the tongue in cheek?

You know, for one of the most recent members here you seem to take too much liberty when corresponding to senior members. I just wonder how much more will the admins here put up with your arrogance before you get a nice spanking. My username is written just above my avatar, if you have problems reading it then I suggest you visit the optometrist.
To answer your question (and you seem you have a lot of them, strange you didn't list them by numbers this time?), what will happen is ZZ taking a grip on everything that can shake his rule including judiciary, police, state employees, media control, corruption, and continuing the Albanization process which Macedonia is undergoing for quite some time now. In other words, he will continue where Grujo left off, with the exception of extending the mandate of the SJO so that he gets rid of his political enemies. Oh wait darn it, Grujo was doing that too... Oh well, let's just say he'll continue Grujo's policy of dictatorship. Macedonia instead of being released from the shackles will only be "under new management".

[Bill77]

Dragan,

Your whatabouteries have Never been a strong argument, and are now becoming boring.

[DraganOfStip]

Dragan,

Your whatabouteries have Never been a strong argument, and are now becoming boring.

My "whatabouterie" was asked for by another member, I simply answered.
Sorry if it didn't meet your action sequence standards

[Gocka]

I don't follow, what was particularly boring about what he said?

Dragan,

Your whatabouteries have Never been a strong argument, and are now becoming boring.

[Risto the Great]

I don't follow, what was particularly boring about what he said?

I often look at comments people make about Dragan and scratch my head in wonder. I can only assume they don't know the history of his contributions and momentum of his logic. I find it refreshing and illuminating.

[vicsinad]

I often look at comments people make about Dragan and scratch my head in wonder. I can only assume they don't know the history of his contributions and momentum of his logic. I find it refreshing and illuminating.

In addition to that, I think often times we read into others' comments what we want to read. I think that's what's happening here with some people's responses to Dragan's posts.

[Gocka]

I echo that 100%. I think some here, have either a soft spot for DPMNE, or a total disdain for SDSM, and any hint at criticism of DPMNE leads to assumption that Dragan must have a soft spot for SDSM. Sometimes its also peoples own insecurities and closeted feelings that make them assume that others must also have similar soft spots.

In addition to that, I think often times we read into others' comments what we want to read. I think that's what's happening here with some people's responses to Dragan's posts.

I feel that same lately. Me and Dragan have certainly bumped heads once or twice, nothing personal just disagreements mostly on my sense of Macedonian apathy.

But I will be the first to come out and commend Dragan, and I said this earlier in this thread, that Dragan has really grown right in front of our eyes, and I am very happy for him and proud of him for that.

I believe he has reached enlightenment, and can see right through the bullshit of both DPMNE and SDSM. Why people are criticizing him for that is beyond me, if anything it shows the partisanship and lack of enlightenment of others, not of Dragan.

It seems many want to portray Dragan as being pro SDSM, or a closet SDSM supporter, when in reality this line of thinking seems to be coming from people who seem to be closet DPMNE supporters but don't want to admit it.

I often look at comments people make about Dragan and scratch my head in wonder. I can only assume they don't know the history of his contributions and momentum of his logic. I find it refreshing and illuminating.

[Bill77]

I don't follow, what was particularly boring about what he said?

The repetitive "what about Gruo..... What about VMRO....."
Repetition of anything eventually gets fucken boring.

We know Gruo was a skunk.

But he is a has been..... Now What do we do about this new moron Zaev? and "what about Gruevski" is not a legitimate argument or excuse.... Its avoidance to the real question.



Dragan..... You marched behind Zaev in those anti Gruevski protests and I sincerely mean it when I say good for you!

Now how are you going to respond to this other wrong which is Zaev in power?
Are you going to join the protesters in front of parliament (That's if they haven't given up) and report to us just like you did in that so called colourful revolution you took part in?


PS: you did mention back then, you were disappointed that SDSM hijacked the protest and I give you credit for that. But to me you do seem now to get defensive when someone brings up the name Zaev

Also it's important I add this which might explain what I am on about. Pelagonija asked this..

As a local I wonder what's DardantëShtipit opinion on the potential consequences of a ZZ led government? Will there be mass wholesale changes as per above? Or will it be BAU? Pros? Cons?

Excuse the tongue in cheek?

your response mentions Gruo 3 times..... While the question re Zaev.... ZZ was mentioned once.