Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

a posthumous medal. They wrote
about him in newspapers. His sons
rejoiced about going back to their
old house and about their feelings
of peace and hope. Their father's
sister, who had lived alone in
Pogradec as a tenant in her own
house, was given back her home.
1991
Yugoslavia, where the older
brother had been a citizen, fell
apart. He did not live to see this
time, which he could not have even
imagined. His sons and his daughter,
who once had been immigrants,
then members of the Albanian
"minority," and after that belonged
to the Albanian "nationality,"
became citizens of the new independent
Republic of Macedonia, by
whose constitution they were identified
as a "nationality." History
continued to pass through dark
paradoxes in the Balkans. The
Berlin Wall had fallen, and Europe
started to integrate, while the
Balkans, or more precisely
Yugoslavia-its biggest part-started
to disintegrate at a feverish pace.
New borders were created and pain
and turmoil passed from one to the
other.
Many children of the older
brother, now with respectable families
and successful children,
exhausted by the fast tempo of their
lives, died young. Democracy was
expected to bring new civic values
to the disintegrated countries, values
already achieved in the West.
But the price was too high.
Unbelievable civil wars started in
Europe: Bosnia, Vukovar, Kosovo
… 300,000 dead … millions without
a roof over their heads.
There was too much history to
be mastered by every man, every
family, and every nation. Old contradictions
gathered again on the
borders. They became painful
again. They caused people's deaths.
The older brother's children and
grandchildren tried to keep pace
with the new reality; to find their
place as members of a "minority"
for some and of a "nationality" for
others, in a country they were supposed
to share with the Macedonian
majority.
1998
The country of the younger
brother was shaking, tumultuous
and staggering as never before.
After the Democrats, the Socialists
came to power. This change of government
was followed by the enormous
eruption of national anger in
the Balkans. Rural Albania, formerly
dominant, turned into a concentration
camp, and took revenge on
urban Albania, where the former
executors of Albania's dictatorial
policy still lived. That passed, but
revolt and anarchy continued and
the situation bottomed out again
until real catharsis was achieved…
The older brother's sons were
facing historical temptation, and
new risks again. They endured it,
hoping.
1999
The Kosovo crisis continued.
Miloshevich's anschluss of Kosovo
was not successful. The most
painful border in Europe became
the one between Kosovo and
Macedonia. More than 350,000
Albanians from Kosovo were rescued
by crossing it. Great solidarity
was shown in a great tragedy. After
the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia,
Yugoslav troops withdrew from
Kosovo, but Albanians also withdrew
from Macedonia.
Better days were expected to
come for sure. Albanians took part
in legislative and executive power,
and in other institutions of the system
in Macedonia. With the evolution
of a young democracy, changes
crucial to the position of Albanians
in education and in other institutions
were coming into sight. No
matter how strong a will existed for
making quick changes, both sides
were burdened with old problems,
especially manifest on the fragile
borders.
2000
Finally, the last dictatorship in
the Balkans ended. Miloshevich's
infamous regime fell. The Kosovo
crisis remained. And it was taken to
the cursed borders again. The circle
of history repeated through paradoxes.
And while borders were disappearing
in the western part of
Europe, borders in the Balkans
were not only multiplying but
becoming even more painful, more
tragic lines of partition, taking new
victims into the new century…\.
The Republic of Macedonia,
which had been previously the symbol
of the "peaceful Balkan oasis,"
hardly managed to preserve its
peace paid with victims on the
northern border. A part of it, according
to official representatives, was
occupied by a group of "extremists,
terrorists and Albanian bandits."
Albanians themselves, mostly condemning
extremism and terrorism,
uttered those words with pain,
frightened by their fatal connotation.
Whatever they are called, history
will, as always, crystallize the
truth. One truth, however, is certain;
that the life shared by Macedonians
and Albanians, up to now without
greater historical conflicts and
hatred, was struck the first serious
blow.
The older brother's children and
grandchildren were seriously worried.
According to some rhythm of
destiny, they were overtaken by the
syndrome of flight. Many friends
from all over the world invited them
to come. They warned them not to
wait till it was too late. A son of
their uncle, who had died long ago,
sent them an e-mail message:
"Don't wait till it's too late, like my
father who didn't listen to yours
when he told him to leave. My
home is your home too!"
The older brother's son, now a
grandfather, deep in his soul felt the
fateful call of flight; the syndrome
of craving to run away from the
enclosing circle, the opportunity to
flee from death... He felt pain, as if
hurt by every bullet shot into the
life common to Macedonians and
Albanians. He felt all his life what
his mother had felt: "My country is
where my children are, and my people
are the people I live with!"
Have so many things changed in
these cursed Balkans, following the
disappearance of his mother and her
wishes, when Europe is so close,
and democracy such a palpable
goal?
(The author is a writer)
25
Liberation from war, April 2001