Macedonia
Landlocked country in SE Europe, bounded N by Serbia, W by Albania,
S by Greece, and E by Bulgaria.
Government
The 1991 constitution provides for a 120- to 140-member, single-chamber
assembly, the Sobranje, elected by universal suffrage for a four-year
term. The president, who is head of state and of the armed forces,
is directly elected for a similar term. The prime minister is
appointed by the president. Other ministers are elected by the
assembly. The prime minister and other ministers may not concurrently
be members of the assembly.
History
The ancient region of Macedonia (of which the present-day republic
comprises only a part) was originally settled by the Slavs in
the 6th century. It suffered a series of conquests: by Bulgars
in the 7th century, by Byzantium 1014, and by Serbia in the 14th
century. It became part of the Ottoman Empire 1355 and was divided
between Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece after the Balkan Wars 1912-13.
After World War I Serbian Macedonia (equivalent to the present-day
republic) became part of the federal state of Yugoslavia and demands
for greater autonomy were made. During World War II it was occupied
by Bulgaria 1941-44 and in the postwar period, as part of Yugoslavia,
tensions resurfaced between ethnic Macedonians and the Serb-dominated
federal government.
Independence achieved
After the death of Yugoslav president Tito 1980, it became increasingly
apparent that the federal structure would not hold. Macedonia
sought independence but the presence of a large Albanian minority,
and objections by the Greek government to a state bearing the
same name as a region in northern Greece (and the territorial
claim that that might imply), made the transition difficult. In
a Sept 1991 referendum ethnic Macedonians overwhelmingly backed
independence, but the poll was boycotted by the republic's Albanian
and Serb minorities. Independence was declared 1992 and the new
state was admitted to the United Nations (UN) April 1993 under
the provisional name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
although Greece continued to block formal European Union (EU)
recognition. Six EU member states agreed to formally recognize
the new state Dec 1993, followed by the USA Feb 1994. Greece responded
by imposing a trade embargo on the republic. The European Commission
began legal proceedings against Greece in the European Court of
Justice April 1994 over its refusal to lift the embargo. As energy
shortages worsened, a state of emergency was declared Dec 1994.
In Sept 1995 Greece officially recognized Macedonia and restored
diplomatic relations after Macedonia agreed to redesign its flag
(removing the Vergina Star of the Macedonian dynasty of Alexander
the Great) and amend two articles of its constitution to remove
any suggestion of possible claims on the Greek region of Macedonia.
In the meantime, the Macedonian Communist Party had agreed to
relinquish its dominant role 1989 and a new multiparty constitution
was adopted 1991. In the first presidential elections since independence
Oct 1994, the incumbent president Kiro Gligorov was re-elected;
his coalition won 95 of the 120 assembly seats in concurrent parliamentary
elections. Branko Crvenkovski, who had been prime minister since
1992, resumed his role. In Oct 1995 President Gligorov was seriously
injured in a car bomb assassination attempt in Skopje. Stojan
Andov took over temporarily as president. In Feb 1996 the Liberal
Party withdrew from the ruling four-party coalition, leaving power
with the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM), the Party
of Democratic Prosperity (PDP), and the Socialist Party (SP).
In Nov 1996 the UN announced a six-month extension of the mandate
of the UN Preventative Deployment Force in Macedonia (Unpredep)
to 31 May 1997, with a reduction in its forces from 1,100 troops
to 800 by 30 April.
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