How New Despotism is undermining Macedonia’s identity and independence

The 30^th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Macedonia this year is a good opportunity to review and analyse the lessons that can be learned and how to make it a more sustainable and independent monitory democracy in the future.

In John Keane’s grand history of democracy ‘The Life and Death of Democracy’  he notes that democracy was an integral part of the ancient Macedonian empire.  He shows that in 338 BCE, backed by an army of 32,000 men Philip II crushed the city statelets of Athens and others.   This was repeated  in 260 BCE but that time for good. He dispels the myth that democracy was invented in Athens reminding his readers that democracy was practiced much earlier in the Syrian-Mesopotamian, the Phoenician and many other civilisations and places. 

The Macedonian empire and democracy was crushed by the Roman empire which fought four long wars against it. Macedonian kingdoms re-emerged in the dark ages under King Samoil in Ohrid.  The Ottoman occupation of Macedonia lasted for close to five centuries to 1913. In 1903 Macedonians proclaimed the first Republic in the Balkans which the Ottoman and Western imperialists quickly crushed with vengeance. 

Macedonia’s struggle for freedom, independence and democracy continued during the two Balkan Wars.  Sadly these wars  resulted in the illegal partitioning of Macedonia without the consent of the people by the Western backed Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian colonisers and oppressors. The arrogant imperialists in the West prevented the Macedonians from establishing an independent state just like they did to the Arabs, Kurds and many other decent and respectful people and nations.

Macedonians fought for freedom in the First World War and the Second World War on the right side of history.  They drove out the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupiers and their pro-fascist Albanian proxies.  The Macedonian people managed to establish an independent Macedonian republic in the context of the Yugoslav federation while it lasted.

The collapse of the Yugoslav federation enabled the Macedonians to re-establish their independence using peaceful democratic means such as the referendum in 1991. 

From 1991 to date Macedonia’s path to European integration was blocked by its reckless neighbours like Greece and Bulgaria with the support of political elites in the EU. The US has betrayed Macedonia freedom and democracy by imposing on it disasterous and illegal obstacles and yokes.  The Ohrid Framework Agreement legitimises and empowers terrorists from the Kosovo Liberation Army to be a Western proxy and factor of destabilisation on demand of Macedonian democracy, human rights and rule of law.

The Prespa Agreement is unconstitutional, illegal, undemocratic, unsustainable and a violation of Macedonian human rights. It empowers denialists in the Hellenic Republic to foolishly claim ancient Macedonian identity and history as theirs and to whitewash all of their crimes against Macedonians and others in the occupied territories in Aegean Macedonia, in the Republic of Macedonia and at the UN. The Macedonian despots who agreed to this act of self-destruction were welcomed, wined and dined  by our unelected monarch Queen Elizabeth II, by Merkel and Macron, Trump and Biden.

The Agreement with Bulgaria is backed by the US and the EU. It enables red neck chauvinists and denialists in Bulgaria to steal Macedonian identity and history from the dark ages to date.  It also gives them the authority to block Macedonia’s accession into the EU.  

New despotism has emerged as the preferred way for the US and the EU to convert Macedonia into a puppet state with voluntary servitude to arbitrary power.

The new despots in Macedonia have been engaged in a propaganda process called public gaslighting. It is an organised process to mess with the country’s and people’s identities. It aims to confuse, disorient and destabilise people, institutions and educational systems. It seeks to foster self-doubt and to ruin the capacity to engage in critical thinking and judgement to lure them into submission.  Its victims begin to ignore what is happening to them or around them or to care about the consequences of self-destructive government policies and practices. Without violence, some but not all citizens of Macedonia are converted into complacent and disempowered by-standers. Some buy into the tactics of the manipulator that the concoction called North Macedonia is something which cannot be challenged, resisted or changed.

The biggest threat to democracy, freedom and human rights in Macedonia come from US, NATO and EU backed dictatorships.  The disgraceful despots in Macedonia must be held to account for treason and abuse of power for supporting the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the Prespa Agreement, the Agreement with Bulgaria and for ruining Macedonia’s identity, sovereignty and democracy. 

Australia must work with the Australian Macedonian community to bring to an end the new despotism in Macedonia by finally developing a nuanced, ethical, just and sustainable policy towards Macedonia and Macedonians without foreign interference.