Kosovo referred to as "Metohi", Skopje minister decorated for "ethnic cleansing of Albanians"

A real scandal has been going on for weeks in North Macedonia. Ivan Stoilkovic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Inter-Community Relations, uses the offensive Serbian term "Kosovo and Metohija" to refer to the Republic of Kosovo, a state that Skopje officially recognizes, in a statement published on the ministry's official website.

Despite the controversy and the pledge that the statement would be amended in line with North Macedonia's official position, this has not happened.

The Democratic Union for Integration also denounces the fact that in recent days Stoilkovic has been decorated by a Serbian association of Volunteers of the War of 1912-1918, a group that has carried out ethnic cleansing against Albanians in North Macedonia.

“In that period, especially during the Balkan Wars and World War I, the civilian population in the present-day territories of North Macedonia, especially Albanians, faced ethnic cleansing, massacres and mass displacement. Historical sources testify to the burning of entire Albanian villages, rapes, torture and mass executions. In Tetovo, Gostivar, Skopje, Kicevo and many other regions, Albanians were targeted by Serbian forces, treating them as an obstacle to the project of Serbian assimilation and territorial expansion. According to historical evidence, over tens of thousands of Albanians were killed, and thousands more were forcibly expelled from their homes. In some cases, the barbarities included the rape and burning alive of Albanian civilians.”

DUI emphasizes that it is “a tragic irony that a government official, who heads the ministry responsible for the Ohrid Agreement and represents a state that should promote reconciliation and coexistence, accepts a decoration from an association directly related to such a painful period for Albanians in North Macedonia and publishes it as a recognition.”

It also underlines that this act is nothing less than an attempt to legitimize the crimes of the past and insult the memory of thousands of Albanian victims. (A2 Televizion)