Scientific-Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry-4.0" BULGARIAN HUB FOR UNITED BALKANS BULLETIN “SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE: DIMENSIONS, CHALLENGES, PERSPECTIVES” ISSN 2683-0574 1 / 2020, Sofia, Bulgaria Partners: Center for International and Development Studies (Republic of North Macedonia) Civil Development Organization (Republic of Kosovo) EUROBALKAN, Association for Research and Development (Republic of Serbia) Group for Legal and Political Studies (Republic of Kosovo) Institute for Development and International Relations (Republic of Croatia) Pilot4Dev (Kingdom of Belgium) The Balkan Forum (Republic of Kosovo) Youth Alliance – Krusevo (Republic of North Macedonia) Scientific Reviewers: Prof. Plamen Pantev, PhD (Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", ISIS, BHUB) Prof. Hristo Bondzolov, PhD (Rector of "St. Cyril and St. Methodious" University of Veliko Turnovo) Prof. Sead Turcalo, PhD (University of Sarajevo) Prof. Slavenko Grgurevic, PhD (EUROBALKAN) Prof. Jana Kukeska, PhD (University of Tourism and Management) Prof. Dr. Sc. Kiril Topalov (Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski") Prof. Dr. Sc. Georgi Bahchevanov (New Bulgarian University) Prof. Ilin Savov, PhD (Higher School of Security and Economics) Assoc. Prof. Blagoj Conev, PhD (Center for International and Development Studies) Dr. Sandro Knezovic (Institute for Development and International Relations) Dr. Petyo Valkov (Counsellor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, BHUB) Compilation and editing of the bulletin: Asst. Prof. Dr. Michael Dimitrov (Special Coordinator of Bulgarian Hub for United Balkans) Petya Vladimirova (Member of the Management board of Bulgarian Hub for United Balkans) BULGARIAN HUB FOR UNITED BALKANS 33B, “Bratya Buxton” Str., 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Website: https://bhub-ngo.org/ Email: [email protected] Publisher: Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0" Contents Post-Independence Identity, Politics and Society in North Macedonia 3 CONEV Blagoj, Assoc. Prof. PhD Geopolitical implications of Small-Scale LNG: Fiction or Reality? 11 DIMITROV Michael, Asst. Prof. PhD The EU and the Western Balkans: Visions and Horizons 21 GABORIT Pascaline, PhD The Problem of Democratic Transition and Consolidation of SEE Countries 28 GUSHEV Tome, PhD Candidate #Dīvide Et Īmpera 43 ILIEV Svetlin The Contemporary Doctrinal Basis of the Albanian National Question 59 NINOV Marian, Assoc. Prof. PhD The History and Historical Committees in the Context of the Restart of the 74 European Atlantic Perspective of Skopje STANEV Stanislav, PhD The Euro-Atlantic Aspiration of the “Albanian Factor” 85 VALKOV Petyo, PhD POST-INDEPENDENCE IDENTITY, POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN NORTH MACEDONIA Assoc. Prof. Blagoj CONEV, PhD (Image source: https://plusinfo.mk/помирувањето-за-крвавиот-четврток/) Summary: With (North) Macedonia's independence in 19911, there was no alternative for the name of the new state and the nation. Namely, although in Greece at that time the politicians and the policy makers developed a very complex political situation to affirm and prove the Hellenistic identity of ancient Macedonia, nevertheless, the name ―Macedonia‖ was engraved as an indissoluble element of the nation's identity that in 1991 stepped on the path of creation of its own nation-state - Macedonia. In fact, Macedonia from 1991 at that time, does not implied any kind of identity conflict with Hellenistic Macedonia, because in the way of defining of the historical identities, and especially the myths which were defining the nation, the Macedonians themselves chose to determine themselves as Slavs, or nation with South Slavic origins i.e. they did not identified the primordiality of their existence with the ancient Macedon, but with the medieval Slavic tribes that inhabit the Balkans, and later begin to identify with territory of Macedonia. Keywords: identity, nation-state, society, politics, history, memory, myths. 1 The official name of the state from 2019 is Republic of North Macedonia or simply North Macedonia. 3 The impact of the national identity on politics and society in North Macedonia ―Today, the culture is accepted, even emphasized, as a political instrument‖2. Frckoski‘s definition of culture as a political instrument has been normal since the post-Great French Revolution era, because culture, as Frckoski defines, it is: ―The most general definition of culture was: norms and rules, customs, and patterns of behavior common to one particular group of people. Therefore, culture was something that homogenized...‖3. And if Frckoski's definition would be compared to Anthony D. Smith‘s definition in the first chapter of the book National Identity, that nations are ―named community possessing an historic territory, shared myths and memories, a common public culture and common laws and customs‖4, then one come to the conclusion that mass or group culture is one of the pillars of the nation. Namely, if common myths and collective memory, mass culture and customs are the basis of a nation‘s identity, according to ethno-symbolic theory, and identity is a political instrument for determining the nation‘s individuality, then it is most natural for culture to be understood as a political instrument. The young Macedonian nation, its historical development from the Revival Period (late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century) to independence, or the establishment of a nation-state in 1991, has its identity core in the ideological layout of the nation's Slavic past. As a revival period organization, Macedonian Scientific- Literary Society, whose president is one of the ideological fathers of the Macedonian nation, Krste Misirkov, in a Memorandum sent to the Council of St. Petersburg Slavic Benevolent Society, he points out that there is another Slavic nation that wants and needs to form its own state, and that, ―in Macedonia the majority of the entire population are Slavs‖5. Such a determination that the Slavic self-consciousness is embedded in the collective memory of the Macedonian population, i.e. the Macedonian nation connects with the other Slavic nations, signifies that the culture which is a mass of that Macedonian population is Slavic and closely related to the other South Slavic cultures. The very problem of identification or cultural determination in Macedonia started when political elites ―... began to develop activities and invest great energy in proving the connection of today's Macedonians with the ancient tradition of Philip II and Alexander the Great ...‖6. 2 Фрчкоски, Љ.Д. (2012). Преговарање во конфликти на идентитети. Скопје: Магор. 3 Ibid, pp. 57 4 Smith, A. (1991). National Identity. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 5 Ристовски, Б. (1978). Димитрија Чуповски (1878-1940) и Македонското научно-литературно другарство. Скопје: Култура. pp. 180-189 6 Габер, В. (2009). Името Македонија. Историја, право, политика. Скопје: Југореклам. pp. 131 4 This was an attempt to link the modern Macedonian nation directly with the historical state form named as Macedon(ia), to secure the prenatality of the present- day Macedonian nation and its primordial existence. Namely, every connection of the nation with its past indicates a desire to prove the nation‘s eternity, but also its permanence, i.e. its existence since the time of history. But what is interesting is that the link to the historical past, that is, the change in the collective memory of the population in terms of understanding the ―eternity‖ of the nation, is to be shown as the fruit of mutatis mutandis in the historical cycle of some of the ancient nations in the region. Thus, as Steven Grosby determines, ethnic groups and nationalities justify their existence through traditional beliefs in the biological relevance of the group and its association with the territory it inhabits7. The biggest problem that arises with this perennial interpretation of the nation is its connection to the ancient past in order to engrave this past as an inalienable part of the collective memory of the group. This inalienable part of the nation‘s identity then becomes a threat to the neighboring nation (in this case the Greek) which already exists with its perennial relations to the cultural heritage of the antiquity, and has defined that cultural heritage as one of the basic elements of its cultural distinctiveness, i.e. as part of its own national identity. This situation leads into a process of conflict between identities and represented one of the biggest political problems in Macedonia before 2019 and in North Macedonia after 2019, as this conflict enables a slow democratic development of the state and the development of the specific and extreme ―Balkan‖ kind of nationalism in Macedonian society, but also in Greece. The inability of political elites to overcome the nation‘s identity conflict with neighboring nations, however, leads to conflict within a multi-ethnic Macedonian society itself, i.e. the Macedonian nation is not formed as a result of the homogenization of a group and its culture, but rather created as a mix of multiple culturally distinct identities. Victor Gaber says for the London Economist (22.11.2007) that: ―They share the unmistakable but absurd assumption that the achievements of an entity known as Macedonia in ancient history should be of decisive importance in modern ethnography or political geography - the fact that an ancient kingdom called Macedonia, only one entity could be entitled to that name. The region is still waiting for a statesman to reject that assumption‖8. Determining