SERB SPY SAGA – is there more to it?
by Sasha Uzunov
The British newspaper The Guardian has picked up the story quoting a snippet of a Macedonian intelligence report alleging Russian influence. see link here
The deliberate selection of Talat Xhaferi as Macedonia’s Parliamentary Speaker:
LEAD UP TO PARLIAMENTARY VIOLENCE 27 January 2017-
The Tirana Platform – weeks after the Macedonian election had ended – was announced on 7 January 2017 – Macedonian Orthodox Christmas, deliberately designed to provoke anger within the wider ethnic Macedonian community. To say it lacked cultural sensitivity is an understatement. You have to ask why was it not announced before the election to give voters of all ethnic backgrounds a time to digest it instead of accept is as a fait accompli?
Without going over old ground here – the Tirana Platform is designed to federalise and partition Macedonia. The demands are deliberately unjustifiable and unreasonable, meaning they can never be fully met unless the Macedonian state ceases to exist. see links here and here.
In one of the oddest- downright stupid- political moves of the Nikola Gruevski government (2006-16)–a coalition of the nominally Macedonian “nationalist” VMRO-DPMNE and Albanian DUI led by Ali Ahmeti, the man who with US backing invaded Macedonia from Kosovo in 2001 and later “amnestied,–placed another Albanian insurgent and suspected war criminal Talat Xhaferi as Defence Minister in 2013.
see link here
It came as no surprise that Xhaferi would then be “selected’ in a controversial manner as the new Parliamentary Speaker by the Opposition SDSM led by Zoran Zaev in 2017. The reasoning would go if VMRO-DPMNE was willing to have Xhaferi as Defence Minister despite ordering an ambush that killed Macedonian security forces in 2001 known as the Vejce Massaccre on, ironically, 27 April 2001 – timing ! – why can’t he be Parliamentary Speaker? The West was quick to recognise Xhaferi as speaker.
All of this was guaranteed to raise the temperatures. The rest you all you know, the storming of the parliament by “nationalists” and attacks on Zaev, his deputy Radmila Sekerinska having her hair violently by a “wild man” and the inflammatory Albanian nationalist Ziadin Sela, pictured with a bloody face attacked allegedly by “evil Slav-Macedonians”- but according to sceptical Dutch journalist Treist made Sela made a very “speedy recovery.” Violence of any sort should not be condoned or used in parliament. Falling for provocation is no excuse either. Needless to say the violence in the Macedonia parliament ended up favouring the SDSM and Albanian coalition. In effect Macedonia has become a defacto Macedonian-Albanian bi-state. Why Macedonians are being forced to give up their state is breathtaking considering there are already two Albanian states in the Balkans already – Albanian and Kosovo. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia are no more than 17% of the total population. An accurate census is desperately needed. There are three Serbian states in the Balkans – Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia.
The story sounds like a public relations exercise in trying to tone down Jovanovski’s long standing Serbian Cultural Hegemony hiding behind internationalism” routine (pardon the long winded phrase!) or “Cultural Belgradism” (for short) and bolster his “Macedonianess” and “pro western” behaviour, which poses a serious problem to his public image, especially amongst the Western donors funding his tv station, NOVA as well as the ethnic Albanian political bloc. The interesting thing is many who are “pro West” are also openly pro Serb or pro Serb Yugoslavist in Macedonia and some have called for Macedonia to “return” to defacto Serb control or in some kind of federation, with the western part of the country handed over to Kosovo. Some have advocated partition of Macedonia between Kosovo (or Albania) and Bulgaria.
Borjan Jovanovski has oddly called for Macedonia to return to defacto Serb-Yugoslavist rule but simultaneously pushes for Albanian to be made a compulsory language in all Macedonian primary schools. It’s a very unusual ideology, considering the vast majority of Albanians oppose Yugoslavism. He also peddles a pro Serb and pro Greek, in fact a traditional Russian, view that Macedonians are “Slavs.” A view now being called into question by mainstream academics such University of Florida Professor Dr Forian Curta. This deliberate “polarisation” being pushed by Jovanovski can only lead to partition of Macedonia between Kosovo and Serbia…
Jovanovski regards Macedonians as being “Slavs” – a pro Serb and pro Greek ideology, popularised by both Tsarist Russia and later by Stalin’s Soviet Union and accepted as “gospel” in Tito’s Communist Yugoslavia (1944-91). Mainstream academics such Dr Florin Curta of Florida University in the US argue that there was no “Slav Migration” into the Balkans. see link here
Despite being an anti nationalist, Jovanovski hasn’t called for protests outside the Serb Embassy in Skopje over recent events even though he has over 11,000 followers on Twitter and could mobilise 50 to 100 people within minutes. Not even a protest outside the Serbian Embassy over the blatant interference by the Serb intelligence officer being in the Macedonian Parliament. Odd. Very odd !
BORJAN’S SELF-HAGIOGRAPHY – apocryphal tale of a dissident?
He tells of an incredible story about being an inadvertent dissident of the Yugoslav system, despite being the privileged son of a prominent Macedonian Yugoslavist writer, Meto Jovanovski, who was a trusted member of the Yugoslav regime as head of the foreign news / language department of the then Radio Televizija Skopje (RTS), the forerunner of Macedonian State broadcaster during Yugoslavist era. In 1995, his father Meto then decided to set up his own Helsinki Watch committee in Macedonia, despite having no history as a human rights advocate in the Yugoslavist era. A prominent Helsinki Watch committee board member and a close associate of Borjan Jovanovski is ex Macedonian Interior Minister Ljubomir Frckoski, who was accused of being very close to the Serb nationalist regime of Slobodan Milosevic in the early 1990s, especially in turning a blind eye to UN sanctions busting imposed upon Serbia at the time. British academic James Pettifer once described Frckoski a hardliner who was close to Belgrade.
Borjan Jovanovski in his hagiography claims the following:
“Now, my mother is Serbian and I grew up in my mother’s family. My grandfather and my grandmother are Serbian and the first language I learnt was Serbian. But I found this very strange, to say the least. Why shouldn’t we be able to sing in Macedonian? That was the first time in my life I realized some of the problems of the Yugoslav federation.”
After finishing secondary school in 1984, Borjan was required to serve in the Yugoslav People’s Army. Young recruits usually were stationed far from home, in units comprised of young men of all of Yugoslavia’s different nationalities. Obligatory military service was an important pillar of Yugoslav identity formation. Borjan was transferred to Zagreb in Croatia and faced another unpleasant experience with the joint state.
“I was declared a Macedonian nationalist. Why? There was a regulation in the army that if you are Macedonian, you could take your classes in the army in the Macedonian language. That was a clearly stated regulation, but nobody wanted to implement it. When I asked why, the captain declared me a Macedonian nationalist and a “Serbophobe”. I was hurt, also because due to my mother I felt part Serbian myself. It was a huge frustration for me.”
—
Why is it that those who claim to be anti nationalist in Macedonia and attack so called Macedonian nationalism with ferocity (are themselves of Serb background) never protest against Serb nationalism but to cover themselves will write a clever formalistic criticism in which so called Macedonian nationalism is lumped in with genuine Serb nationalism?
The answer to that is by making Macedonian “nationalism” as bad as Serb nationalism you let Serb nationalism off the hook – you turn a people, the Macedonians, genuine victims of brutal colonialism – into perpetrators. It’s also a good “career move” when it comes to questions of USAID funding for “media projects.”
This 1930 article link – Daily Standard (Brisbane, Australia) Sat 1 Feb 1930 Page 2 DEATH AND TERROR IN YUGO-SLAVIA. “Croatia and Macedonia are the most ruthlessly suppressed nationalities…” by Serbian monarchists.
The same technique is used by Lithuanian extreme nationalists and anti Semites who liken Soviet rule with Nazi Germany in order to excuse the targeting of Jews in Lithuania during World War II.
The same strategy is used by Macedonia’s “internationalists” in lumping in Macedonian so called “nationalism” with others – it gives Greek, Serb, Bulgar, Albanian nationalism & colonialism an alibi or lets it off the hook !
————-
By positing twin genocides, Lithuanians become victims—and “Judeo-Bolsheviks” become perpetrators—in a second, mirror-image holocaust. As Ephraim Zuroff of the Wiesenthal Center summarised, “If everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty.”
To Leonidas Donskis, a part-Jewish Lithuanian intellectual who has served in the European Parliament in Brussels where he has opposed official Nazi/Soviet equivalence resolutions, the ultimate purpose of the “double genocide” theory is to allow Eastern European ultra-nationalists to “portray the people who were killing the Jews as people who fought the Soviet regime. [It is] dangerous nonsense.”
—-
TEAM UZUNOV contacted the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb, requesting if any documentation from old Yugoslav Army records, Zagreb command, existed, relating to Borjan Jovanovski’s alleged incident, and because of its “serious” nature would have been noted in a file somewhere.
No documents were located. Furthermore, Amnesty International was keeping detailed records of dissidents in the then Yugoslavia. Illustrated (right) is an Amnesty International booklet.
If anything all of this sounds like a well crafted media release designed to soften Borjan’s “Serbianess” post 1991, should it become an issue later over his attacks on so called Macedonian “nationalism.” As you will see below the above story doesn’t quite tally with his truly feelings and actions (or deliberate in-actions):
We also asked about the Draskovic Double Act (circled in blue) – the Draskovic Double Act is explained here – see link. It means saying one thing for public consumption but meaning something different privately. For example – publicly acting like an “internationalist” but really being a Serb cultural hegemonist in private and just saying enough to cover your tracks without really meaning it. That’s the Draskovic Double Act in a nutshell. Put in practice it would be a refusal to protest against Serb nationalism.
BUT HERE IS BORIS MALAGURSKI: Canadian Serb nationalist film maker Malagurski who hides behind “anti globalism” with this preposterous documentary film, The Weight of Chains, which more an apologist for Slobodan Milosevic, is a staunch critic of the West yet his views reflect “pro West” Borjan Jovanovski’s view of Macedonia being in some kind of “federal union” with Serbia…interesting, hmmmm !
Jovanovski portrays himself in the media as an “anti nationalist” and Albanian “rights” activist. So his reaction, his stubborn refusal to protest outside the Serbian Embassy in Skopje, puts him at odds with this public image that he cultivates as well the story he is now peddling. Again we ask, if he is an internationalist why is Serbian nationalism and Serbian cultural hegemony such a very very sensitive subject? Young people in Macedonia can openly discuss drug addiction, political corruption, gender and gay rights issues but Serbian cultural hegemony remains a taboo. Very odd indeed !
The purpose of the story which has also splashed across the pages of the esteemed Guardian is to make all those who oppose the new government in Macedonia as stooges of both Serbia and Russia, even if you are critical of both Serbia and Russia; and critical of both SDSM and VMRO-DMNE. You’ve been boxed in deliberately in a cunning Check Mate.
It is not about examining or chastising Serbian nationalism – as you can clearly see by Borjan Jovanovski’s words and actions or lack of actions in NOT protesting against Serbian nationalism and interference in Macedonia but by bludgeoning you into submission – the change of Macedonia’s name, federalisation and ironically partition between Kosovo and Serbia. Again that polarisation technique. Moreover, the purpose of the story is also to take attention off those in the SDSM ranks, including Borjan Jovanovski’s close associate Ljubomir Frckoski and his extensive links to Serbia during the 1990s and breaking the UN and EU sanctions imposed upon Slobodan Milosevic’s rump Yugoslavia as it fought the wars in Croatia and Bosnia (see below).
IN 2012 – Macedonia’s President George Ivanov snubbed Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic’s inauguration over Nikolic’s comments about a Greater Serbia. see the link here . It’s hardly the behaviour of a Belgrade “stooge.” Ironically, The Macedonian Democratic Party of Serbs kicked up a stink.
——
So what can we make of the story of the alleged Serb-Russian collusion? The story revolves around a number of alleged “leaks” and sources including telephone intercepts of conversations detailing communications between Lazanski, Stoijlokovic, and Zivaljevic, the BIA agent. The most obvious thing to ask is are they not acting like Serb nationalists? Probably yes? Is that how Serb nationalists behave, probably yes. If that is the case, is it relevant if their patron is Moscow, Washington or even Athens? No. Because a Serbian nationalist agenda is a Serbian nationalist agenda. Something deliberately downplayed, hence no protests in Macedonia. That’s the odd part in all of this. As US Senator John McCain (see below) has revealed Vucic is deliberately playing a balancing act between Russia and the West. Could using the events in Macedonia not also be part of that strategy? Macedonia as a bargaining chip? Serbian intelligence has been very active in Macedonia since it Macedonia became independent from Yugoslavia in 1991.
If anything, these recent revelations are simply a continuation of an old policy. But in those 26 years of independence there has been largely silence and no protests, even when the US Embassy in Skopje was vandalised in 1999 by those with links to Serbian intelligence. Odd.
In 2010 the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to which Tomislav Nikolic (Serbian state President 2012-17), and his successor Alexander Vucic and Miroslav Lazanski belong or are aligned to, hired an ex US Ambassador William Montgomery, the man who took down Slobodan Milosevic, as a lobbyist. This is strange “pro Russian behaviour !” link here
Montgomery was a Clinton appointee. He advocates the partition of Bosnia with the Republika Srpska component joining Serbia. see link here. You can read the agreement / contract here between Nikolic and Montgomery – link here
VMRO-DPMNE’S JOINT SERB-MACEDONIAN EMBASSY IN 2014 & SDSM’S SERB SPINNERS
In a puzzling move for a Macedonian government which likened itself to be patriotic, a joint Serb-Macedonian Embassy sharing agreement was reached in 2104. Why Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski pushed such an idea remains strange. What is even stranger is there were no opposition protests in the streets against it. Borjan Jovanovski, Branko Geroski, and the other assortment of “internationalists” did absolutely nothing. Why? As you can see from the comments above, Borjan becomes aggressive when asked why he chooses not to protest outside the Serb Embassy in Skopje.
There have been other incidents, such as Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic’s nasty racist comments about Macedonians and largely silence from both sides of Macedonian politics. You have to ask why?
Gruevski and Dacic get up close and personal. Absolutely no protests in the streets in Skopje from anyone, nationalist or internationalist, during the joint Serb-Macedonian Embassy deal. How odd?
In early 2016, Zoran Zaev’s SDSM (Social Democrats) engaged a controversial Serbian Public Relations firm, Ruskin and Hunt, known for spinning news and for close connections with Serbia’s political elite. TEAM UZUNOV followed up by contacting both the Australian and United States Embassies for Macedonia. The Australian Ambassador responded whilst the US Embassy didn’t respond:
Ruskin & Hunt Managing Director Milan Scepic was a close advisor to the Serbian “Iron lady” Maja Gojkovic, a hardcore Serb nationalist and one time defender of extremist Vojislav Seselj.
Our email to the US Embassy (redacted):
COLOUR REVOLUTION – SERB ASSISTANCE?
Story from April 2016: TEAM UZUNOV contacted the Serbian Foreign Ministry, and Canvas, as well as Canvas founder Srdja Popovic to comment. But as yet no responses have been forthcoming.
However, the Canadian Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, which also covers Macedonia did release a statement to TEAM UZUNOV over the alleged involvement of Serbian activists from Canvas:
Canadian Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Amy Mills:
“Canada is closely monitoring developments in Macedonia, including the recent protests.
“We call on the Government of Macedonia to respect the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
“We are aware of reports of vandalism, and urge all protestors to demonstrate peacefully.”
Australian Embassy in Belgrade has sent two staff to Macedonia for the crisis.
The Australian Ambassador to Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and stationed in Belgrade, Mrs Julia Feeney made this comment to TEAM UZUNOV:
“I have two staff in country at the moment monitoring the overall situation,” she said. “There are many issues [to deal with].”
PRETEND CONFLICT BETWEEN VUCIC AND ZAEV? US endorses Vucic, US endorses Zaev. What conflict?
US Senator John McCain visit to Belgrade, Serbia:
THE CONTROVERSIAL LJUBOMIR DANAILOV FRCKOSKI:
Macedonia’s ex Interior and Foreign Minister, Frckoski, remains an enigma – a man with fingers in many pies: politician, pundit, “public intellectual” but a controversial figure, nonetheless. During his time as interior Minister in the 1990s he was accused by prominent British academic James Pettifer (see link) of being too close to Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian intelligence in sanctions busting during the Yugoslavist wars. Frckoski is also a close associate of Borjan Jovanovski and a fellow member of the Helsinki Watch Committee in Macedonia. A strange place for a politician known for his heavy handedness in dealing with “dissidents.” during his time as Macedonia’s Interior Minister – see link here
According to a 1995 report compiled by 1st Lieutenant Preston V Murray, US Army’s 432d Civil Affairs Battalion, there was widespread corruption amongst Macedonia’s Border and Customs officials, who come under the control of the Interior Ministry. The US together with some Scandanavian nations were part of the UNPREDEP (United Nations Preventative Deployment mission in Macedonia) to monitor Macedonia’s border and to ward off possible Serb aggression. There were UN sections imposed upon the Milosevic regime coupled with a deliberate and nasty illegal Greek blockade against landlocked Macedonia in an attempt to strangle the nation to death. In order to survive, Macedonia partook in massive smuggling on behalf of Serbia. Serb intelligence was very active on Macedonian soil and as Pettifer explained (see above) there was collusion between Belgrade and Skopje. Moreover, there was collusion between Serbia (rump Yugoslavia) and EU/NATO member Greece during the Yugoslavist wars aimed at destroying Macedonia (see below).
MILENKO NEDELKOVSKI – Borjan Jovanovski’s nemesis.
The larger than life, bombastic Milenko Nedelkovski, a TV shock jock close to ex PM Gruevski, despite Nedelkovski’s fierce rivalry with arch-nemesis Borjan Jovanovski; he too like Jovanovski is also for Belgrade culture. That doesn’t really give you much “diversity” in modern Macedonian culture.
THE RISE, SLIGHT FALL IN PARLIAMENT AND RISE AGAIN OF SELA!
“I don’t care if the Serbs are his brothers or his nephews as long as he respects the agreements he has made with his Albanian partners,” Sela added.
Bilateral defence consultations Greece-Serbia – 25 May 2016
Quote: “[Serbian] Captain Konjikovac thanked Greece for the continued support to the strategic goals of Serbia’s foreign policy.” link here
PAST ACTIVITIES:
In the early 1990s, Serb and Greek intelligence conspired in what was known as Operation Samaras’s Pincer to destabilise Macedonia. see link here
link here
In 1985 the then Australian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, of which the Republic of Macedonia was a federal unit until independence in 1991, found there was collaboration between Athens and Belgrade in trying to undermine the Macedonian independence movement based in Australia. see link here
The Russian presence in Macedonia remains at strong influence peddling level, which is what most nations do anyway, especially if they have a specific foreign policy agenda.
Macedonia is firmly in the Western camp. You might recall the Khaled El Masri rendition / torture scandal from 2003.
According to the same Guardian Newspaper, the war in Macedonia was the consequences of US support for the Kosovo Liberation Army, which then decided to “chance its arm” and grab territory in adjoining Macedonia. see link
When that failed, as in the Macedonian security forces got the upper hand after starting on the back foot, the US and NATO intervened to save their political clients in Macedonia. A lot of the current tensions, traumas in The Republic of Macedonia come from this period. Ali Ahmeti the ringleader was never brought to justice, instead rewarded for starting a war. The point is now largely irrelevant if he has aligned with VMRO-DPMNE or SDSM.
The Ohrid Framework Agreement, nothing more than a face saving gesture for the US support of the KLA in Macedonia, is death by a thousand cuts for Macedonia. see link
The Tirana Platform is the coup de grace to the Macedonian state – the road to federalisation and partition between Kosovo and Serbia – or if that doesn’t tickle you fancy, then Kosovo and Bulgaria.
UPDATE –