Macedonia after the Kosovo crisis
Macedonia after the Kosovo crisis

Summary/Abstract: The Macedonian route to political democracy and the market economy has been developed under the strong impact of external shocks. The dramatic dissolution of former Yugoslavia, the wars in its neighbourhoods, UN sanctions against Yugoslavia and the unilateral Greek trade embargo have all had a major influence on the Macedonian economy, internal political stability and security. The Kosovo crisis and the NATO military intervention which took place in spring 1999 was the most recent trauma of this kind. The unresolved Kosovo issue has generated many problems within the region. The incapability of Milošević to solve the “problem” of the Albanian minority in the Yugoslav state, and the failure of the western countries to mediate in resolving the conflict, led to the NATO intervention against Yugoslavia. The epilogue has been the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army from Kosovo while NATO has established a kind of protectorate in the area. In this article, we will analyse the impact and the consequences of the Kosovo crisis on Macedonia, focusing our attention mainly on the economic and political (more precisely the inter-ethnic) aspects of the problem. We use this approach since the economic crisis and inter-ethnic relations are the two key questions in the development (we can say even the survival) of the Macedonian state and because both were closely connected to the Kosovo crisis and the NATO intervention.

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