Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

gave him 7,000 euros, because his
apartment was bigger," says Mehdi.
As for why he transferred to
Sever, Mehdi says that "even before
the war started in Macedonia I wanted
to sell my two-room apartment
granted to me by the state with the
mediation of my employer, where I
still work. All my brothers and my
sister live in Gazi Baba, Sever and
Serava, so I wanted to be closer to
them."
Later on, Mehdi said that a considerable
number of Macedonians
have migrated from their neighbourhood
and that the prices of the apartments
are very high. "My neighbour
Berat stresses that he bought a threeroom
apartment for 65,000 euros
from a Macedonian. While wanting to
talk more about his reason for moving
to Sever, which had been the only
solution according to Mehdi, he said
that "before the war, but nowadays as
well, everyone believed that the
Macedonians who were selling their
apartments on the Albanian side, did
so because they do not trust their
Albanian neighbours. The Albanians
who lived, so to say, on the
Macedonian side have the same
motives for moving as well."
Mehdi adds, "during these last
months as well, the same trend is continuing,
even when two years have
already gone by since the end of the
war in Macedonia."
While we were speaking with
Mehdi and his Albanian neighbour,
Lulzim Rustemi, about their lives
with their Macedonian neighbours,
they never forgot to add the fact that
"apartments being sold by
Macedonians have high prices. Our
neighbour Faik bought his 75-squaremeter
apartment for 48,000 euros."
Real estate agents say, "the agency
has been selling only those apartments
that are listed by the owners of the apartments
or houses. They put it on the market
with us and we represent their real
estate. We have nothing in common with
the apartments that are sold with the selfinitiative
of the owners." The same, in
order to remain anonymous, said that the
"apartment owners in the neighbourhoods
of Sever, John Kennedy and
Topansko Pole have not said that they
are moving into Macedonian majority
neighbourhoods, attempting to find
security there, but that's implicit."
(The author is a journalist at
the daily newspaper Fakti)
122
Macedonians move to the
left side of the Vardar
I am selling a three-bedroom
apartment in chair for a onebedroom
apartment in Karposh
Daniela Trpchevska
"Selling a two-bedroom apartment
in Skopje Sever." "Sellingexchanging
an apartment in Chair."
"Selling an apartment in Topansko
Pole. Urgent!"…These are the most
frequent advertisements you can see
leafing through the newspapers. Real
estate agencies in the city supplement
this initial picture, pointing out
that the biggest range of apartments
for sale is in the region from Center
to Radishani, which includes the settlements
Bit-Pazar, Chair, Topansko
Pole, Skopje Sever, and Butel 1 and
2. The data also shows that 90% of
the population selling property in
this part of the city is Macedonian
and 10% are members of the other
communities in the country.
MIGRATION LASTING
MORE THAN TWO
DECADES
The problem with the migration
from one side of Vardar to the other
has become severe. This process has
been going on for more that two
decades, intensifying in the 1990s,
then accelerating as a consequence
of the post-conflict period and the
disrupted interethnic trust. The main
reason for so many people moving
out which began in the 1990s,
according to the citizens is that there
is no central heating in Chair, says
Ace Milenkovski, the Mayor of
Chair municipality. And now?
"We need some balance
in the city's
investments. There
are 70,000 inhabitants
of Chair, who should
feel that they live in
Skopje, that they are
part of the city. The
last big investment in
this part of the city
was back in 1974 with
the construction of
the apartment buildings
in Skopje Sever,"
says the mayor of
Chair, Aco
Milenkovski
Meetings, not divisions, June 2003