During her working visit to the Republic of Albania, where she participated in the Summit of the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP), President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova met with representatives of the Macedonian National Minority in this country.
She was informed about their situation and the attitude of Albanian institutions towards them, at the state and local level, as well as about the initiatives and planned activities to strengthen national and cultural identity to date.
The President promised that the homeland will continue to make efforts to improve their rights and strengthen ties with the homeland.
The meeting was attended by: Marjana Kostovski-Fellah, representative of the Macedonian National Minority and member of the Committee on National Minorities under the Government of Albania; Endrit Fetahu, Vice President of the Macedonian Alliance for European Integration – the only party of Macedonians in Albania; Nezir Mecha, Vice President of the Macedonian Society “Ilinden” – Tirana; Slavica Sviderska, Professor of Macedonian Language at the Macedonian Language Department at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tirana, and diplomats of the Macedonian Embassy in this country.
President Siljanovska-Davkova expressed satisfaction at being able to hear firsthand relevant representatives and discuss with them the Decision of the Albanian authorities to establish criteria, documentation and procedures for collecting data for identification of persons belonging to national minorities, which also applies to the Macedonians in Albania.
Pointing out that the Decision establishes the criteria that will enable everyone to freely express their national affiliation and the language they speak, she said that it is precisely the members of the Macedonian national minority who are affected by this procedure.
President Siljanovska-Davkova asked several rhetorical questions at the meeting:
Is there a problem if you do what all states do with regard to national minorities in terms of issuing citizenship, for example?
Is there a problem if you open more border crossings?
Is there a problem if you extend the validity of expired passports?
Is there a problem if we, as a state, intervene in granting passports to people who need passports? Everyone in our region does that, and they do it all over the world.
She also asked is there a problem if you help sometimes in learning the Macedonian language? To open more Macedonian language departments. Is there a problem if you open a consulate where there are members of the Macedonian minority?
The President believes that this is not a big problem because it is about identity-related issues.
When asked whether as President she would initiate, help resolve their demands, she said that she would not be there if she had not come with a firm intention, not only to listen to them, but also to convey their problems to the authorities. The President said that we have good relations with the Republic of Albania, we have understanding, and within the framework of this understanding, we should continue where someone stopped and made a mistake, when they should have been even more active. We are obliged to help here.
