The Ilinden Uprising
The Ilinden Uprising celebration and remembrance will have a very different feel this year in Macedonia. So, for that matter, will Macedonia’s celebration of independence on September 8. It will be good for Macedonians to celebrate these historical events in an atmosphere of a bit more hope than compared with the past, oh, seven or so years. As Macedonians prepare to celebrate and remember the Ilinden Uprising of 1903, I think it’s important to reflect on both your identity as Macedonians and your identity as Macedonia.
In our documentary film, A Name is a Name, our fictional traveler spoke with the then-mayor of Krushevo, Lefkija Gazhoska, in the famed Makedonium in Krushevo. She said, in part, “The contribution of Krushevo as a Republic, which was established in 1903 after the St. Elijah rebellion, is a fundamental part of Macedonian statehood and undoubtedly is well-known to everybody. Those ten days in which the statehood and organs of government of the Republic or statehood of the Macedonian people in Krushevo were established means a lot to today’s stable, independent and self-governing Republic of Macedonia. The thing that we, people from Krushevo, praise or are dignified by, is that even in that first government, multi-nationalism, multi-ethnicity and religious expressiveness were represented. Of the six representatives from that government there were two Macedonians, two Vlachs and two Albanians. Ever since then Krushevo nurtures tolerance and coexistence, and in some way, respect for the person…Life here means that Macedonians always and everywhere carry Krushevo in his heart and always on the 2nd of August come back here to gather again, as we like to say, from the fount of revolution, from the fount of nationality and from the fount of his existence so as not to forget who we are, no matter where we are.”
The late Sir Roger Scruton (1944-2020) writes about conserving the nation state in his book A Political Philosophy – Arguments for Conservatism, and notes that “Nations are composed of neighbors, in other words of people who share a territory. Hence they stand in need of a territorial jurisdiction. Territorial jurisdictions require legislation, and therefore a political process. This process transforms shared territory into a shared identity. And that identity is the nation state.”
Macedonia qualifies as a nation state; while very old as a place, a territory, it is a modern-day nation state as a legal entity. Scruton goes on to discuss “national loyalty.” “National loyalty,” he writes, “involves a love of home and a preparedness to defend it” I wholeheartedly agree that “national loyalty” is a love of home, territory, and a preparedness to defend it. The home, the territory, in this case, is Macedonia.
Scruton continues, writing “Democracies owe their existence to national loyalties – the loyalties that are supposedly shared by government and opposition, by all political parties and by the electorate as a whole. Wherever the experience of nationality is weak or non-existent democracy has failed to take root.” Now think of Macedonia and loyalty to the state, the home, the territory. Democracy in Macedonia has been weak, especially over the past seven years simply because there are groups of people not loyal to defending the state, the home, the territory.
Scruton’s prescription to this problem of weakness is thus: “The wise policy is to accept the arrangements, however imperfect, that have evolved through custom and inheritance, to improve them by small adjustments, but not to jeopardize them by large-scale alterations the consequences of which nobody can really envisage.”
This is where Ali Ahmeti and his NLA, first, and DUI, second, were so dangerous, not just to Macedonia, but to the region. Every action he took as terrorist/warlord, first, and then as 20-years-plus head of his party, was designed to break Macedonia apart as a democracy and nation-state. His latest proposals to turn Macedonia into Belgium are no different; he wants to break Macedonia apart. His loyalty is not to Macedonia, but to him, first, and his grandiose idea of a separate, personal fiefdom, second.
Now VLEN, the junior coalition partner in the current Macedonian government, is proposing a separate “Albanian” academy of sciences and arts. This is an unnecessary and unserious idea for the simple reason that it creates parallel institutions which are, in fact, dangerous, not just for Macedonia but for any democracy. There currently is a Macedonian Academy for Sciences and Arts (MANU), which represents all of Macedonia’s citizens, no matter their ethnicity and of course includes ethnic Albanians. The academics of MANU have a much better idea than the politicians of VLEN when it comes to their membership. While not as dangerous as Ahmeti’s 2001 war or takeover of the last government, just as water freezes into ice which cracks and destroys concrete over time, this proposal of theirs is ultimately poisonous.
While it appears to me that ethnic Albanians will always have “problems” with the state of Macedonia, “small adjustments” as Scruton writes, not “large-scale alterations” are what is needed to iron out the imperfections inherent in any nation state. This is where, as Scruton writes, legislation and a political process are necessary in making those small adjustments; not war, not blackmail, not threats and intimidation, not lawfare, and certainly not belligerency which has been the pathway of too many politicians in Macedonia.
Going back to the Ilinden Uprising and the mayor’s remarks, we see that there has always been a unique multi-ethnic character in Macedonia as a place. But it is the Macedonians, together with other ethnic groups that live in Macedonia, who, when placing the interests of the state, the home, the territory above their own, have been successful in making Macedonia a more prosperous and better place to live in and to leave for future generations.