T K Vogel — research & analysis

In August 2001, after a brief civil war, the Macedonian government signed a peace agreement with representatives of the Albanian community in the town of Ohrid that enshrined the role of the Albanian minority – around a quarter of the population – in Macedonian politics. Five years on, just days after a new government has been sworn in, how has the Ohrid agreement held up?

Overall, Ohrid has been a remarkable success. The fighting has stopped, rebel groups have been disarmed to a tolerable level, relatively peaceful elections have been held. The parties representing Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians have become an integral part of the political process; municipal boundaries have been re-drawn to give greater autonomy to Albanian communities. NATO peacekeepers were replaced by a lightly-armed European Union force in 2003, and both have seen uneventful deployments. Finally, Macedonia was made an EU membership candidate on 17 December 2005, a status it shares with Croatia and Turkey.

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