2 June 2015 No 14 ISSN 1664-7963 Current Concerns PO Box CH-8044 Zurich Current Concerns Switzerland The international journal for independent thought, ethical standards, moral responsibility, Phone: +41 44 350 65 50 Fax: +41 44 350 65 51 and for the promotion and respect of public international law, human rights and humanitarian law E-Mail:
[email protected] Website: www.currentconcerns.ch English Edition of Zeit-Fragen What’s going on in Macedonia? by Karl Müller 14 years ago, in 2001, when the small said the country wants to join NATO. trading centre for drug shipments to Eu- Balkan country of Macedonia, border- However, the government of the coun- rope. During the raid in Kumanovo there ing Serbia in the north and Greece in the try is not supporting the sanctions against was an hour-long firefight in which 22 south, was in the headlines for months. Russia by the US government and the EU. people died, including 8 policemen. The country was in danger of drifting Instead, it has agreed to build a transit Western media commented on the into a civil war. Macedonian KLA (Kos- route in Macedonia for Russia’s planned events in different ways. Some spoke of ovo Liberation Army) fighters, supported pipeline through Turkey (Turkish Stream). too hard an attack by the Macedonian se- by the Kosovar organisation of the same The pipeline route through Turkey had curity forces, which had been ethnically name and also by US intelligence agencies been negotiated between Russia and Tur- motivated and directed against the eth- and the US military, shattered Macedonia key early in 2015.