30 September 2007
OSCE Recipe for Building a Pluralist, Genuinely Democratic Society in Macedonia
Center for Research and Policy Making, Skopje, Macedonia
Programme Director
Zhidas
Daskalovski
+389 2 3134 085, 2 3216 645 (6)
http://www.crpm.org.mk
Occasional Paper No. 12
(In English and Italian)
Back in October 1995, when Macedonia was admitted as a participating country to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), it accepted the political commitment to treat national minorities in accordance with the principles written down in the Copenhagen Document.
This has significant importance because the country observed in this article is a multiethnic society and has suffered an inter-ethnic conflict during 2001. In addition, the questions of ethnicity, proportional representation of minorities, human rights and educational language policies were principal issues during its short history since independence in 1991.
Furthermore, the complexity of the Macedonian society can be seen through the lenses of the many existing ethnic groups from which—and according to the latest Census of population, households and dwellings—64.18 % are ethnic Macedonians, 25.17 % are ethnic Albanians, 3.85 % ethnic Turks, 2.66 % are Roma, 1.78 % ethnic Serbs, 0.84 % are Bosnians, 0.48 % are Vlachs and 1.04 % are others. (State Statistical Office 2002).
Despite the ethnic diversity, it was the second largest ethnic group, the Albanian one, which succeeded in voicing its demands for greater rights for minorities.