Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Are events in Macedonia really a surprise?

БНР Новини
Photo: BGNES

A well-armed and trained group of people cast a shadow over Macedonia this weekend, leaving dozens of killed and wounded in fighting with the police in Kumanovo. Having cut his visit to Russia short because of the clashes, after a sitting of the National Security Council, President George Ivanov declared that the police had prevented coordinated terrorist attacks at different locations in the country and that the members of the group were extremists and criminals with remarkable military training and skills and combat experience both in the region and in the Middle East. According to Nikola Gruevski this was the most dangerous terrorist group in the Balkans.

As could have been expected, there followed a series of reactions by politicians from the region and the world expressing concern and anxiety. In a special declaration NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that it was important that all political and community leaders work together to restore calm and conduct a transparent investigation in the interest of the country and the entire region.

But things have not blown over yet and this should not come as a surprise. A breach in the country’s national security should probably have been expected after such a protracted parliamentary and political crisis - with the opposition out of the decision-making process and a deep rift among the government coalition partners, including in their relations with the President.

A parliamentary and political crisis against the backdrop of irreconcilable feuds within the Macedonian, but also the Albanian political community, part of which is represented in the government and part is in opposition. A parliamentary and political crisis against the backdrop of a grave problem – Macedonia’s name which is a stumbling block on the country’s way to accession to NATO and the EU and one more grave problem – recognition of the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox church which places it in an awkward position among the international Orthodox community. A deep domestic parliamentary and political crisis against the backdrop of the paramilitary formations that have been in existence since the time of the 2001 ethnic conflict which want the creation of a “Republic of Ilirida” and want the international factors to pressure the Macedonian authorities into accepting it, otherwise they will destroy the entire Balkans, they say. Paramilitary formations which were created during the 2001 ethnic conflict but which now include fighters with combat experience in the Middle East and probably from the Islamic State itself. It is clear that events in Macedonia need more than an investigation, they need a profound political analysis.

English version: Milena Daynova 




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

How building permits are issued and illegal construction becomes legal

Yet another disaster, yet another series of analyses and post-hoc actions by the relevant institutions. The devastating flood that hit the resort village of Elenite a week ago, claiming four lives, has led the state to realise that the flooded..

published on 10/14/25 5:49 PM
Rumen Radev

Political repression and plunder result from security services shake-up, Bulgarian president says

“ The result of the changes in the services is the crushing of inconvenient opponents, ever more aggressive political repression, and the ever more brazen plunder of public resources and private business – about which we will be learning less and less,”..

published on 10/13/25 4:19 PM

The Bulgarians and the Gagauz in Moldova are wary of the country’s European prospects

The election for parliament in the Republic of Moldova on 28 September, 2025 ended in a landslide victory for the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS). The result was seen by many as a validation of the country’s pro-European policy against the..

updated on 10/9/25 1:58 PM