Macedonia on Aug. 13, 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement that ended an armed conflict that was taking place in the country.

Adopting a new state model that incorporates all ethnic communities and is fair in political terms, this agreement laid the groundwork for peaceful cohabitation and reconciliation. The Ohrid agreement did maintain the peaceful atmosphere in the country, but ethnic relations in Macedonia remain fragile even 10 years after the agreement.

Since 1991, the year when Macedonia declared its independence, various ethnic rifts have emerged between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians. Although Albanians had taken part in Macedonia's political system, they were influential in the escalation of occasional tension, caused by the belief that they were being discriminated against in the country. This tension eventually turned into clashes in 2001 that lasted for six months. Signed as a result of mediation by Washington and Brussels, the Ohrid Framework Agreement pulled the country back from the brink of full-scale war and ensured its territorial integrity.

The agreement in question aimed, first and foremost, at ameliorating the Albanians' legal and political status. Significant steps have been taken in this regard in the 10 years that have passed. A great number of laws have been enacted, intended to consolidate the country's multiethnic fabric while the constitution went through serious amendments. In this context, important regulations were approved that enabled ethnic minorities to be represented more equally in the public domain, to use their national symbols and their mother tongues in education, the judiciary and other fields. Nevertheless, many things have been left to be done with regard to both these issues, and in the decentralization of administration, improving the education curriculum, averting cultural alienation and improving social services. More importantly, this has to be done in order to eliminate the mistrust between the communities that still prevails.

The majority of Macedonians have for a long time believed that the Albanians were granted many rights as part of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. Even today, there are ongoing debates in Macedonia on who profited the most from this agreement. Politicians in Macedonia, however, do not dare to reject or implement the agreement as needed. According to former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, ethnic Macedonians might lose their majority among the population. Thus, the Ohrid Framework Agreement might turn into a document that would guarantee the rights of Macedonians in the future. This statement points to the core of the ethnic rifts in Macedonia. Albanians never saw themselves as a minority in Macedonia, and always believed that they should have equal rights as Macedonians. As a matter of fact, what most Albanians desire is transforming Macedonia through a decentralization process into some sort of bilingual federal state. Macedonians, however, deem this a threat to the country's territorial integrity.

In fact, there are dozens of problems in the country that concern all citizens and need to be sorted out. But parties opt for policies based on ethnic identities. According to the 2010 the People-Centred Analysis Report put out by the United Nations Development Programme, most Macedonian citizens do not trust political parties and press organs, and believe that ethnic strains in the country are usually triggered by the politicians themselves. The same report states that a majority of the people do not expect to experience new ethnic clashes, but notes that radical tendencies exist in some segments of the society due to deteriorating economic conditions.

Indeed, the issues of economic development and improving the level of prosperity are among the main challenges awaiting the Macedonian government. But Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is criticized for attempting to increase his influence over state institutions, impairing freedom of the press and expression, violating the judicial independence, inflaming Macedonian nationalist sentiment and implementing short term policies that would do nothing other than to save the day, instead of focusing on the economic development of the country.

The Gruevski government is also under fire for being incompetent when it comes to resolving an ongoing name dispute with Greece. The interesting thing is that the name crisis can also have negative influences on the ethnic ties between Macedonians and Albanians. Having no sentimental connection to the name "Macedonia," Albanians demand the name dispute be resolved as soon as possible in order to pave the way for the country's membership in the EU and NATO.

Awakening of Macedonian identity

One of the relatively new issues that have negative reflections on ethnic relations in Macedonia are efforts of the Macedonian government to give the center of the capital city of Skopje a new face through the Skopje 2014 Project. By means of the project, the government is trying to give central Skopje a more ancient appearance, with the construction of new buildings, marble statues and renovation of old structures. The most striking of statues is that of Alexander the Great, set to be officially inaugurated in September 2011. Some object to the excessive spending on statues in the country, plagued by a 33 percent unemployment rate and where one-third of the population lives under the poverty line, whereas non-Macedonians living in the country are uneasy about the investments being made reflecting the Macedonian and Orthodox Christian culture alone.

There are some efforts under way in the Republic of Macedonia to trace the roots of the Macedonian nation to the ancient state of Macedonia based on the fact that the population of the ancient Macedonian state was not homogeneous both in ethnic and cultural terms. In other words, today's Macedonian historians are attempting to prove that there are historical links between the ancient state of Alexander the Great, Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, one of the famous rulers in the Medieval Balkans, and modern Macedonia. The biggest boost for today's Macedonian historians comes from Macedonian Prime Minister Gruevski. The Gruevski government not only erected the statues of widely acclaimed national heroes Alexander the Great and Tsar Samuel in the center of Skopje, it also named the country's airports, roads and schools after them.

From the Bulgarian point of view, Tsar Samuel is a ruler rooted in Bulgarian history. Thus, Bulgarians are uncomfortable with the depiction of Tsar Samuel as a historic figure of Macedonian history. On the other hand, the fact that Macedonians are staking a claim to Alexander the Great created quite a stir among Greeks. Generally speaking, the Greeks accuse the Gruevski government of writing a new history for the Macedonians. Some intellectuals of Macedonian origin admit that the Macedonian government is striving to revamp the Macedonian ethnic identity and developed the Skopje 2014 Project to this end. And establishing historical connections with Alexander the Great's ancient state and the Macedonians of today indeed means indirectly rejecting the Macedonians' Slavic origins.

A report prepared by the International Crisis Group on Aug. 11, 2011, points to the fact that the Gruevski government has been stirring Macedonian nationalist sentiment. But nationalist movements always incite other nationalist movements. In this context, Albanians and Turks living in Macedonia express their discontent over the fact that the Skopje 2014 Project does not reflect the elements that belong to their culture and history. Saying Macedonia is a multicultural and multinational state, Turks and Albanians demand that statues of their historical figures adorn the center of Skopje as well. Similarly, as a response to the construction of a church in central Skopje, they want a mosque to be built as part of the project. And disputes surrounding the issue sometimes cause unpleasant developments that strain ethnic ties in Macedonia, as was the case in February 2011, when ethnic clashes took place at Skopje's fortress.

Erhan Türbedar, Ph.D., is a foreign policy analyst with the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV).