Word: macedonias
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...meet rebel demands, which are essentially for a partition of the country. Because the Macedonian Slav part would not be politically or economically viable, and it would be suicide for any government in Skopje to accept such a deal. So the situation is very dangerous. The disintegration of Macedonia, with tragic human consequences, is a very real possibility now, particularly if the international community fails to intervene...
...Couldn't the Macedonians get help from other states in the region, or from NATO? After all, Macedonia helped out NATO by offering its territory for bases during the Kosovo...
...That's a real problem, because Macedonia has hardly any friends among its neighbors. Serbia has always wanted to dominate it, Greece doesn't even recognize the state's name as legitimate, and Bulgaria, while it recognizes Macedonia, believes the Macedonians are actually Bulgarians and their nationhood is fictitious. Bulgaria would be happy to assimilate the Macedonians under the guise of helping them, which is why their offer of military assistance was turned down by Skopje. And they're certainly not going to get any help from Kosovo or Albania...
...NATO is afraid that any intervention in Macedonia will destabilize the situation in Kosovo, and the last thing they want is to be confronting Albanian nationalists there. So NATO is likely to sit on its hands and watch another Balkan disaster unfold...
...where a relatively small band of extremists, the guerrillas and their political backers, have taken the initiative and are dictating the rules. Perhaps the international community thinks satisfying their present appetites would calm things down. I seriously doubt this. If such use of force as we're seeing in Macedonia is politically rewarded, everybody in the Balkans would immediately learn the lesson and new flash points will quickly emerge throughout the region...