Macedonia – back in the global spotlight

Abstract:

What has brought Macedonia back into the global spotlight? Basically: the police operation in Kumanovo, 9 and 10 May 2015, which catapulted Macedonia into media headlines around the world. This large-scale operation against what officials identified as a terrorist group (partly infiltrating from Kosovo) ignited fears of fresh internal ethnic clashes like those of 2001, when Macedonian security forces were fighting ethnic Albanian rebels. In 2001 the country was on the verge of a civil war, which was prevented thanks to the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, ultimately a power-sharing agreement. The concern in 2015 has been whether inter-ethnic clashes might erupt again.