On March 23, 2017, the United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) participated in a discussion on The Stream broadcasted by Al-Jazeera.
This debate centered on the mass protests taking place in Macedonia as a result of the ethnic Albanian political platform, also known as the Tirana Platform, negotiated in Tirana, Albania under the auspices of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. Femi Oke and Malika Bilal moderated the discussion with a panel including Besa Arifi, Dragan Alcinov, and Cvetin Chilimanov. UMD’s president Metodija A. Koloski sent in a video message (minute 12:17) asking, “Why are some pushing a change of Macedonia’s constitution, its national symbols, like its flag, its anthem, its coat of arms and making those the priorities of ethnic groups, like the Albanian minority in Macedonia. Shouldn’t we be worried about greater issues, like the fight against crime and corruption, rule of law, and also, jobs for the youth?” To this the panelists seemed to mostly agree, noting that this platform distracts citizens from these real concerns and instead causes them to focus on ethnic issues and divisions. When closing out the show #AJStream highlighted Koloski’s tweet as to how Macedonia should move forward from this situation. Koloski tweeted, “Next step should be political parties to sit on the table, resolve problems, and stop relying on international community to mediate their problems.”
UMD is happy to participate in these sort of discussions and continues to educate people globally on Macedonian affairs.
Click HERE for video.