A tale in stone and bronze: old/new strategies for political mobilization in the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

The redesign of Skopje’s main square and the wider central area in the last six years has been a top priority of the Macedonian government. The project, called Skopje 2014, provoked intense domestic debate and controversy as well as international reaction and concern. Although officials say that project’s aim is to unify ethnic Macedonians, it has produced several lines of political, intra-ethnic/interethnic as well as intra-cultural/intercultural divisions in the fragile Macedonian society. The aim of the paper is to offer reflections about its mobilizing potential among ethnic Macedonians in a set of social, economic, and political contexts. In that sense, four areas of mobilization are suggested: (1) around new identity markers; (2) around the name dispute and against threats (real or imagined) to the ethnic and national identity; (3) against the internal Other, that is, the ethnic Albanian community, as well as critics of these identity politics; and (4) in reaction to the global financial crisis and problems within the EU.

Keywords:

• Skopje 2014
• mobilization
• ethno-national identity
• antiquization
• historical myths
• monuments
• Other
• euro-skepticism

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ljupčo Petkovski and Aneta Markovska-Čubrinovska for their insightful comments, remarks, and fruitful discussion of this paper.

Notes

1. For a solid description and analysis of the museum see Angelovska (2014).

2. For example, an April 2014 article in the Independent claims that Macedonia is among the poorest countries in Europe: http://www.independent.mk/articles/3363/Macedonia+mong+the+Poorest+Countries+in+Europe. (Last accessed March 22, 2016.) About the costs of the project, see the detailed and latest investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network: http://skopje2014.prizma.birn.eu.com/en. (Last accessed May 16, 2016.)

3. The term suggested by Brown and Stefoska (2010).

4. See, for example, articles in the international press: Davies (2011), Wölfl (2011), Mayer (2013), and “Skopje: The Future Is in the Past,” Euronews, April 22. http://www.euronews.com/2013/04/22/skopje-the-future-is-in-the-past/. The recent critical reportage aired by Slovenian TV about Skopje 2014, http://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/osmi-dan-prispevki/174295467, provoked a severe reaction from the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party, http://netpress.com.mk/vmro-dpmne-so-reakcija-za-tekst-objaven-vo-rtv-slovenija/. (All last accessed September 25, 2014.)

5. About the various aspect of the project, see, for example, Grandits and Brunnbauer (2013).

6. On the construction of national identities of more than 20 European nations through history writing and their interrelationship with histories of ethnicity/race, class, and religion, see Berger and Lorenz (2008). About the various aspects of the past and its powerful constraints upon the way the present develops, see the remarkable Lowenthal (1985). On German Romanticism (monuments, ideology, and politics) in particular see Mosse (1975). A chapter from the book L’estetica della politica was translated into Macedonian and included in the collection of the essays in Bojadzievska and Talevska (2013).

7. The diminutive form Makedonče can be seen in older Macedonian folk songs, used as a vocative form, too, but without its pejorative meaning (e.g. the partisan song A bre Makedonče!). However, it is an interesting example of a collective self-perception, that is, expressing empathy toward Self. The diminutive “Makedonče,” linguistically is a neutral gender denomination in the Macedonian language. It was probably created throughout centuries of living under domination, poverty, and authoritarian rule. It could be said that on the level of symbolic expression, the gaze of the Other (the powerful ruler or foreigner or neighbors, etc.) constructed the image (or apologetic strategy) that became inherent to collective self-perception. Cf. the useful analysis of the Balkan imaginary and collective self-perception by Dičev (2003) and Stefanovski (1997).

8. In an interview for the Ilinden radio station in Melbourne intended for the Macedonian diaspora, one of the artists involved in the project, Marjan Kamilovski, sees Skopje 2014 as a serious blow to Communist architecture and as a return to civic and classical architectural values. He stresses that key to the project is a focus of the continuity of the Macedonian nation, which he says is not really related to the Slavic migrations – a theory he considers false and imposed by German scholars from the nineteenth century. In his final message to listeners, the artist stresses (in Macedonian):

My message is that Macedonia is living through a national renaissance and, in general, a renaissance of the Macedonian identity. The most important thing in this whole issue is Macedonian continuity, and that is something that must not be conceded at any cost. I mean, there is no pardoning, no trading, and anyone with an intent to trade with the Macedonian identity or with the national history … should be considered an enemy and should be ignored or impeded in an adequate manner.

A transcript of the interview in Macedonian is available at http://www.radioilinden.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6915:2014&catid=156&Itemid=561. (Last accessed September 5, 2014.)

9. For example, in 2009 the story broke that an American medium had talked to the spirit of Alexander the Great. A written summary from Kanal 5 TV is available at http://star.kanal5.com.mk/%28S%28dywzdg45jgdhxf45rfntyb55%29%29/default.aspx?mId=37&eventId=47621&egId=13. (Last accessed September 5, 2014.) In 2006 two senior scholars in the natural sciences (one university professor and one member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts) claimed that part of the inscription on the Rosetta Stone (which they “deciphered”) is not demotic, but rather ancient Macedonian, with similarities to the contemporary Macedonian language (Boševski and Tentov 2005). Their paper was later promoted (at home and abroad) as proof of ethnic continuity since antiquity. Ideas of continuity were then expressed in academia (Panov 2008), as well as in the press, cf. “We have the right to consider ourselves descendants of the ancient Macedonians” interview for Utrinski Vesnik, January 21, 2007: http://www.utrinski.mk/?ItemID=66994D85619FB04BA1D2FC4575FD77FB. (Last accessed 05.09.2014.) Thus, later on, an unnecessary heated public debate began over the question, “Ancient or Slavs?”

10. Available at http://sitel.com.mk/gruevski-proektot-skopje-2014-ja-krena-glavata-na-makedoncite-vo-makedonija. (Last accessed September 4, 2014.)

11. The name Macedonia is perceived by Greece as an integral part of its national-Hellenistic culture; Bulgaria considers the Macedonian language a Bulgarian dialect; the Serbian Orthodox Church denies the autochephality of the Macedonian Orthodox Church.

12. The expression “the wounded ego” was used in a policy brief by the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje, titled “Skopje 2014 Project and its Effects on the Perceptions of Macedonian Identity among the Citizens of Skopje” (June 2013). The document is available at http://www.isshs.edu.mk/documents/1.-Sk2014-ENG.pdf. (Last accessed September 5, 2014.)

13. Aneta Georgievska – Šain, art historian, in an interview about Skopje 2014, for the Skopje website Okno. Available at http://okno.mk/node/23530. (Last accessed September 15, 2014.)

14. Interview for the magazine Patokaz no. 3, 2011, available at http://www.patokazmagazin.com.mk/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=310&Itemid=206&lang=mk. (Last accessed September 5, 2014.) Actually, since socialist times, one of the principal mainstream ideas of Macedonian national history was the romantic notion of a “Centuries-long struggle for independence;” reflected in the titles of major historical works and collections of documents, and still reflected today in the name of the new historical museum (see endnote 4) and in the symbolic function of the “Arch Macedonia.”

15. http://www.dnevnik.mk/default-mk.asp?itemID=0E0E411FE41FD9409C7B901F2E124033&arc=1. (Last accessed March 25, 2016.)

16. For another case, although very different from the Macedonian one, where a country’s “deserving” membership in the EU is propagated through ancient history and cultural ties.

17. The discussion on historical and political myths in Macedonia and the region is already substantial (Vouri 2001; Brunnbauer 2004; Kølsto 2005; Stojanov 2010).

18. Goce Delčev (1872–1903) was a prominent figure in the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization at the end of the nineteenth century. He was responsible for (among other things) organizing armed groups across Macedonia in the struggle for independence from the Ottomans. In contemporary Macedonia he is widely perceived as the most significant revolutionary of that period and as the biggest national hero.

19. It is worth stressing that all of the participants in the study (both scholars and ordinary citizens) requested and were guaranteed anonymity. The authors point out that “the fear of publicly problematizing the project was explicitly expressed by virtually all of them.” http://isshs.edu.mk/documents/1.-Sk2014-ENG.pdf. (Last accessed March 24, 2016.) The last known survey done by Brima Gallup in 2012 suggests that 57.8% of the population is against the project Skopje 2014. http://www.utrinski.mk/?ItemID=A1BDCDFF45EA764E8B7D444DBAC601C4. (Last accessed March 24, 2016.)

20. “The Name Dispute 2013” (published in early 2014) was conducted by the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis,” and the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, and is available at http://www.idscs.org.mk/images/publikacii/idscs-macms-201312/sporot%20za%20imeto%20makedonija_2013.pdf. (Last accessed May 16, 2016.)

21. Furthermore, it is also gender exclusive. For the masculine domination of the cultural imagination and practice in Macedonia (including Skopje 2014), see Milevska, Suzana. “With Special Thanks to: A Balkan Curator in First Person Feminine,” available at http://www.openspace-zkp.org/2013/en/journal.php?j=3&t=9. (Last accessed September 25, 2014); “Ágalma: ‘The objet petit a,’ Alexander the Great, and other excesses of Skopje 2014,” available at http://www.e-flux.com/journal/agalma-the-objet-petit-a-alexander-the-great-and-other-excesses-of-skopje-2014/. (Last accessed September 25, 2014.)

22. The constitutional changes after the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001, especially amendment 4 from 16 November 2001, redefined Macedonia as a state of different ethnic communities. See http://www.sobranie.mk/WBStorage/Files/UstavnaRmizmeni.pdf. (Last accessed September 5, 2014.)

23. Available at http://bit.ly/2hAMwuH. (Last accessed October 3, 2014.)

24. http://alsat.mk/index.php/vesti/od_zemjata/4906-%E2%80%98%D0%A1%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%98%D0%B5-2014%E2%80%99,-%D0%8F%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8-%D0%BC%D0%B5-%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B5-%D0%BE%D0%B4-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D1%82.html. (Last accessed September 9, 2014.)

25. “Sorosoids” is a new epithet used by pro-government media against individuals or NGOs working in cooperation with the Foundation Open Society Macedonia, that is, the Soros Foundation (Nikolovski 2013).