In the family house of the Ljuma family from Tetovo in North Macedonia, for 20 years the only remaining copy of a very valuable document that determined the fate of the country - the Ohrid Agreement - was kept secret.
"It was in my house in a special safe, in a special box, protected from moisture and all possible damage," Iljir Ljuma told the BBC in Serbian.
The Ohrid Agreement, signed 20 years ago today, ended the conflict between the Albanian National Liberation Army and Macedonian security forces.
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The last in a series of conflicts in the countries of the former Yugoslavia ended after seven months of fighting, with significantly fewer casualties and consequences than in other parts of the former Yugoslavia.
"The Ohrid Agreement in 2001 brought peace and without it, I am absolutely sure, there would have been a total civil war like in other Yugoslav republics," says Dzelal Neziri, a political analyst from North Macedonia.
"That document was, and still is today, a strong foundation for the peace and stability of North Macedonia," he adds.
However, two decades later, the Ohrid Agreement in Macedonia still causes a lot of controversy - so much so that all copies have disappeared over the years.
Or so it was believed, until Ljuma reached into his own archive.
"Now, with legible and original signatures, it has been delivered where it should be - safely," he says.
What did the Ohrid Agreement bring?
North Macedonia became independent in 1991 without a single shot being fired - there were no conflicts and bloody wars like in the other republics of the former Yugoslavia.
However, it is far from the fact that there were no problems in Macedonia, primarily at the ethnic level.
According to the 1991 census, 65 percent of Macedonians and 21 percent of Albanians lived in the country, who mostly lived in the northwestern part, along the border with Kosovo.
In cities like Tetovo and Gostivar, as well as in the surrounding villages, Albanians make up the majority, and there are also some in Skopje and Kumanovo.
"However, the ethnic Macedonians, who were the majority, decided to create a state and a nation based on one ethnicity only - all others were excluded," says Neziri.
One of the most controversial issues was the Albanian language, which was not recognized as an official language in the country, as well as the ban on displaying the Albanian flag in public institutions.
In addition, there were no Albanians in public positions, nor, for example, in the police - not even close to proportional representation in the population.
Officials in Skopje saw demands to change this as a path to "parallel authorities".
"Albanian political parties worked for ten years for improvement, using political and democratic tools, but they failed to achieve results," says Neziri.
"As an alternative, the National Liberation Army was offered, which had the same goal, but different means - weapons and military actions," he adds.
The Albanians also demanded the creation of their own university in Tetovo, and one of the most extreme demands was to declare the so-called "Republic of the Illyrians" in the west of Macedonia, where they form the majority.
That did not happen, but all other issues were regulated by the Ohrid Agreement.
Journalist Aleksandar Čomovski believes that the Ohrid Agreement institutionally enabled Macedonians and Albanians to begin to overcome nationalistic prejudices.
"He is the first barometer that life is possible in Macedonia on the basis of inter-ethnic, cultural and political dialogue," he says.
In addition to conflict resolution, the agreement contains provisions for changing the official languages.
Any language spoken by more than 20 percent of the population became, along with Macedonian, official at the municipal level, and only Albanian meets those criteria.
The agreement was signed by ethnic Macedonians Ljupco Georgievski, the first president of VRMO-DPMNE and former prime minister, as well as Branko Crvenkovski, then president of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM).
On the Albanian side, it was signed by Imer Imeri, then president of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) and Arben Xhaferi, president of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA).
The then president of Macedonia, Boris Trajkovski, as well as foreign representatives - James Perdue from the USA and François Leotard from the European Union - also put their initials.
Dzabir Derala, writer and founder of the non-governmental organization "Civil", emphasizes the importance of the rapid intervention of the international community.
"If in Bosnia it took four and a half years to reach the (Dayton) agreement, which is still extremely problematic, in Kosovo two years to settle the conflict, and even today there is a whole set of misunderstandings, peace was established here in six months." , states.
However, Biljana Venkovska from the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje believes that confronting the past, much less reconciliation, was never on the agenda in North Macedonia.
"True reconciliation first of all implies anxiety - looking at all the painful and traumatic events that led to violence, as well as the consequences of violence," he says.
She believes that in North Macedonia "violence gained legitimacy and proved useful", as well as that cultural violence is seen at every step "in the sense of glorification of warriors and insurgents".
As he says, the system that was created after the Ohrid Agreement did not lead to a reduction in segregation, but rather deepened divisions on an ethnic basis.
"In short, the situation in Macedonia is not much different from that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is politically incorrect to say that," he says.
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How was the agreement signed (and lost and preserved)?
Iljir Ljuma is 70 years old and his family has lived in Tetovo for hundreds of years.
"I'm just a city kid, as they say here," he says with a smile.
He is a doctor, but he was previously involved in the political world as a high official of the PDP.
"Ten years ago, on the occasion of an anniversary, the news appeared that not a single copy of the agreement exists either in the government, in the presidency, or in the state archive," says Ljuma.
"It's completely incomprehensible to me, I couldn't believe it was true," he adds.
Where did he get the original copy then?
First, because his Party of Democratic Progress was one of the signatories of the agreement.
"When the party disbanded, I managed to save some of the documents, because the rooms where they were kept were not safe, many were hanging out there," he says.
"I was afraid that someone would destroy them or that they would disappear like the other specimens."
As he states, it is a family tradition to keep such things, so there are also municipal books from the beginning of the 20th century "in Serbo-Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian".
He recently got in touch with Artan Grubi, the deputy prime minister of the Government of North Macedonia, who promised him that the document would end up where it should - in the state archive.
When it was announced that a copy of the agreement had been found, Grubi stated that all the signatories had been contacted and that no one had the original document.
"I'm glad I saved it," says Ljuma with satisfaction.
"It is now safe, and if anyone doubts whether it is the original, they can go to the archives and make sure," he adds.
He also remembers well how everything looked during the negotiations in 2001.
"It took a long time to reach an agreement," he says with a sigh, adding that the most friction was over the use of Albanian as the second official language.
"VMRO claimed that this was creating the federalization of Macedonia," he recalls.
In the end, he says, the most important thing is that there was peace, even though neither side was completely satisfied, which is "normal in those conditions".
"There was no civil war in Macedonia." bosnization of Macedonia," he says.
"With the fact that the Albanians did not get an Albanian republic with this agreement, such as the Republika Srpska in Bosnia - this is important for those who claim that the agreement is only for the benefit of the Albanians," he says.
What was the conflict like?
The first major incident occurred on January 22, when a group of armed Albanians attacked the police station in the village of Tearce, not far from Tetovo.
Then one policeman was killed and three others were injured.
In the middle of February, there were conflicts in Tanuševci, an Albanian village in the north of the country, and soon they spread throughout the entire region.
Most of them were around Tetovo, the second largest city in Macedonia, as well as around Kumanovo.
Neziri was in the middle of it all, but as a war reporter.
"I was a young journalist and I was not emotionally prepared for conflict," he says.
He worked for Fakti, a daily newspaper in the Albanian language.
"Many journalists at that time decided to choose a side, which is both the easiest and safest - when there is a war, those who stay in the middle are always the most affected," he says.
However, he didn't want that.
That's why, he says, he constantly went to the mountains and did interviews with ONA commanders, and then to state officials' media conferences.
"If you constantly cross the front line, then you are suspicious of both," he says.
"It was very difficult to work in such conditions and I have many terrible memories from that period, but luckily I survived," he adds.
Shortly after the conflict in Tanuševci, the Macedonian government issued an ultimatum, asking the National Liberation Army to stop the attacks.
At the same time, the dialogue between the Macedonian and Albanian parties began, and in mid-March the mobilization of military reservists and the offensive on the villages around Tetovo began.
Already at the end of April eight policemen were killed in the village of Vejce, at the foot of Šar mountain.
Riots soon began in Skopje, Bitola and Veles, and Albanian establishments were often the target of demonstrators.
Derala was also on the field at that time.
"What I remember from 2001 is the great tension and violence we saw on television, as well as the total division of the population and the media," he says.
However, as he states, there were also those, like his non-governmental organization, who "called for peace and a peaceful resolution".
One of the goals, he adds, was to convince the population not to get involved in the conflict, and they worked on "reconciling entire villages".
"In the Lipkovo region - in the north of the country, along the border with Serbia - we managed to bring to one table people who meant something on both sides, and the discussion was quite heated, but I hope that we helped that region not to be drawn into total war," he says.
However, during that time, the war threatened to escalate completely.
In June, the "Aračinovo case" takes place, one of the key moments of the conflict.
It is about a village eight kilometers from Skopje that was occupied by ONA members, who threatened to target the capital if the army did not stop the attacks.
"We will attack the police stations, the airport, the government and the parliament - we will shell everything we can." stated one of the ONA leaders, known as Commander Hoxha.
"We don't have many of them, but they are effective. We will attack from the mountains," he added.
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At the same time, the political negotiations between the Albanians and the Macedonians are collapsing.
The fighting continues, and a truce is reached at the end of June.
One of the main roles in this was played by Javier Solana, known in Serbia as the Secretary General of the NATO Alliance during the bombing of Yugoslavia, and then the high representative of the European Union for foreign policy and security.
The truce was signed on July 5, 2001, but it did not end there - the fighting around Tetovo continues and the "Ljuboten case" occurs.
In mid-August, eight Macedonian soldiers were killed in a mine explosion on the road between the villages of Ljubinci and Ljuboten, not far from Skopje.
The following day, the police entered Ljuboten, where first there was a shootout with ONA members, and then several Albanian civilians were killed.
Because of that crime, Johan Tarčulovski was sentenced to 12 years in prison before the Hague Tribunal.
It is the only case that ended up before the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia.
The peace agreement was signed on August 13.
Ohrid Agreement i North Macedonia today
However, this was not the end of the conflict.
Sporadic incidents occurred in the years that followed, and 2015 was particularly stormy.
Then, first in April, there were attacks on the police station in the village of Gošince, not far from the border with Kosovo.
"We are the KLA. Tell everyone that neither (president of the country's largest Albanian party DUI Ali) Ahmeti nor (former prime minister Nikola) Gruevski can save you," he said. one of the attackers.
"We don't want the Ohrid Agreement. We want our land, let no one come, we will liquidate everything," he added.
About twenty days later, there was also a fierce conflict in Kumanovo, when several policemen were killed.
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It is true that after 20 years, North Macedonia "still does not have a fully integrated society", Neziri believes, but he adds that things have improved significantly.
"The conflict in Kumanovo is just one proof of that - the Albanian population refused to support that group, they saw that they could get their rights through the political process.
"At the same time, one of the policemen who died was an Albanian, and in 2001 the police force was made up only of Macedonians," he says.
There are more similar examples, he adds, and one of the most important is that in the 2016 elections, ethnic Albanians voted for Macedonian parties and vice versa.
"At the top of the agenda are problems that apply to everyone - unemployment, pollution, European integration, improving living standards, not language," he says.
By the way, two decades after Ohrid - and three after independence - North Macedonia is still not a member of the European Union, but that is why it is in NATO.
Although they are swallowed the new name and reached a long-awaited agreement with Greece, becoming North Macedonia, the date for the start of negotiations has still not been obtained.
The real problem Bulgaria's veto, due to a dispute over history and language.
Journalist Čomovski also sees an improvement in relations within the country in this regard.
"Despite everything, the Albanians still remained a constructive factor of the so-called new state, which is especially evident in the issue of negotiations with Greece and Bulgaria, where they remain in the position of the identity of the citizens of North Macedonia," he says.
However, Venkovska believes that the situation in the country is not good.
"You can see the true picture of society right now - the year of the biggest economic, social, social and health crisis, in which the binational government has 500.000 euros to celebrate the agreement, but therefore no money for fire services, vaccines, hospitals and schools," he says.
As he states, "forgetting and amnesia have been chosen as a tacit policy".
"The two ethnic communities have completely opposite interpretations of the events, in the school system it is a taboo subject - the students are only told to 'ask their parents what happened' - but the political elites immediately reconciled over the privileges of the authorities," he says.
"Macedonia is exhaling, like in that old movie line: Đekna hasn't died yet, and we don't know when she will", he adds.
During that time, the days pass, and the months ahead can bring new storms to Macedonia.
A population census is scheduled for September, the first in 19 years.
There was no census in 2011, and from the spring of 2021 it was postponed to the fall, and the big question is whether it will be held now.
"Associating human rights with the percentage of an ethnic group in the population is a generator of problems that have prevented the census from being carried out so far," Neziri believes.
"When the census becomes a topic, everyone only talks about how many there are, who has what rights, and all the topics from the past immediately come back," he adds.
Chomovski thinks that the census will be difficult to realize in the Covid-19 conditions.
However, as he says, even if it is held, hardly anything will change.
"I think that Albanians are also aware that economic emigration has destroyed their ethnic fabric, and even if they are below 20 percent, their rights will not be threatened," he says.
Admittedly, he adds, the number of Macedonian residents has been declining for a long time, as many go abroad in search of work.
"That exodus exists in the entire Balkans," he says briefly.
Kafa
Iljir Ljuma follows all this from Tetovo, but he is no longer involved in politics.
He works as a doctor, writes poetry and prose "in Albanian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Croatian-Serbian - in Ijekavica," he says with a smile.
He follows the situation in the country, hoping that the European Union will finally arrive.
"Some things have not yet been cleared up regarding corruption and the legal system, I guess that will be sorted out in the years ahead," he points out.
He still remembers the war very well.
"Yes, I saw all that, I was nearby, there was shooting," he says shortly, with a change in his voice.
"But you know what - in the neighborhood where I live there are Macedonians and Albanians and Turks.
"While the shots were heard upstairs, my wife and Macedonian neighbors were drinking coffee... We were worried about the safety of all of us."
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