Yesterday a group of youth from the Albanian opposition in North Macedonia burned a geography textbook in front of the country’s Ministry of Education.
The book in question contained what they considered as racial slurs. The textbook states that Albanians are of Turkish, Roma, and Circassian descent and are in North Macedonia for political reasons.
A spokesperson from The Alliance for Albanian Alternative said:
“These textbooks, as is the case with this book you are seeing here; let them offend us, let them reject our history, but it also lays the groundwork for fascist elements against Albanians in the future.”
As the book was burned around 30 police officers intervened, questioned those in attendance, and asked for identification.
“I don’t know why it’s necessary for a public space where there was no illegal act to gather all those police who apparently had no other reason than to intimidate us,” said one protestor.
North Macedonia recently encountered issues in opening EU accession talks due to Bulgaria’s veto. Their neighbor claims there is not a ‘Macedonian minority’ in Bulgaria and that North Macedonia is trying to deny the common ethnic and linguistic similarities between the two states.
