MAKKAH, 9 May — Macedonia, the only — former Yugoslav Republic — to escape the horror of ethnic war in the 90’s.

An oasis of peace in the war-torn Balkans has now suddenly been pushed to the brink of civil war, apparently over long simmering grievances obscured by the more violent dramas in Bosnia and Kosovo.

On March 25th this year, the Macedonian Army launched the first combat offensive in its 10-year history, aiming to dislodge ethnic Albanian fighters from the hills above the city of Tetova.

The recent problems may be due to the discriminatory treatment of ethnic Albanians, but the long-term reasons can be found in the whimsical drawing and redrawing of borders, and the division and partition of the Balkans, so many times, into different small republics. On political grounds, ignoring the ethnic mosaic of the region.

The Albanians, who are the descendants of the Illyrians, were the first to exist in the Balkan Peninsula. They fought the Romans, the ancient Greeks and the Byzantines.

The Encyclopedia Britannica mentions the presence of the Illyrians well before the first millennium BC and it defines clearly the borders of the Illyrian kingdom.

The first time Serbs and Croats appeared on the scene, was in the 7th century (exactly in 626 AD), during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who brought them from the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains (today’s Ukraine), as mercenaries to guard the Byzantine towers and fortresses on the Danube river, which was the northern border of the Empire.

The Slav bandits who came from the West side of the Carpathian mountains (today’s Russia and Czechoslovakia) continuously raided these borders.

This is how the first Serbs and Croats arrived in the Balkans. They increased in numbers and grabbed more and more lands from the inhabitants of the Balkans ruthlessly.

Today, they invented a story that Albanians invaded their historical land in Kosova from Albania exactly in the same manner as the Macedonians of today claim.

The borders of Balkans have been drawn and redrawn three/four times: In 1878, 1912 and 1945. Under the pretext of aiding the Slav peoples of the Balkans, who belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russians declared war on Turkey and the treaty of San Stefano was signed with Turkey in March 1878.

By this treaty, Russia secured a dominating position in the Balkans by establishing a great state of Bulgaria.

The Conference of Berlin in June-July 1878 abandoned the large Bulgaria. In place of that a new settlement for the Balkans was laid down.

The Sandjak with its capital Novi-Pazar was divided into two parts: One part was added to Serbia and the other to Montenegro. Also parts of northwest Albania were given to Montenegro, while Northeast of Albania was ceded to Serbia, thus increasing the size of Serbia and Montenegro to satisfy the Russians at the Conference of Berlin in 1878.

In 1913, a conference was organized by France to decide the fate of the Balkans after the Ottoman withdrawal and in that conference it was decided to create the state of Yugoslavia.

The European powers decided in this conference to form a state to be served as a buffer zone against any future invasions of Europe by the Ottomans. They called this state Yugoslavia with lands taken from Albania, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria. These entities later were known as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Vojvodina, Montenegro, Kosova, Sandjak and Macedonia.

Thus in 1926, most of the Albanian territory was dispersed in bits and pieces by giving the majority of its fertile lands of the Kosova province to the newly created state of Yugoslavia and the province of Chamuria to Greece.

Ulchin and Tivari provinces had already been given to Montenegro at the Conference of Berlin in 1878. Finally, Albania of today was reduced in size to become about 28,748 sq.km. out of its original 90,000 sq.km.

Serbia took bosnia-Herzegovina and Sandjak, soon after the withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian forces.

Sandjak, with its capital Novi Pazar, was a Muslim dominated area, which Serbia divided into two parts: It took one part to itself and the other part was ceded to Montenegro thus increasing its size to what is known today as the Republic of Montenegro. The European powers created Yugoslavia as a buffer zone against any future Ottoman or Muslim invasions into Europe. That is the reason why Serbia was crying out loudly for help from Europe to safeguard its borders, as its downfall would be the downfall of Europe? With this mentality Serbia is brainwashing Europe, while the Europeans know exactly how Serbia and Yugoslavia were created and why.

This reorganization of the Balkan countries increased the rivalry, which led to the First World War in 1914. The various changes in the frontiers of the Balkan states including Albania from the First and Second World Wars sowed the seeds of future crisis in the region.

When Albania was taken over by Anwar Khoza, who headed the Communist partisans, it was planned to become part of Yugoslavia. But he found about that plan and rushed to Moscow where he signed a pact with Stalin, who had his own problems with General Tito and transformed Albania into a Communist country on the Stalinist model with an Iron Curtain policy thus closing its borders to the outside world. This became a very big threat to Yugoslavia and even to Greece at that time.

At the Conference of Yalta attended by President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Stalin, it was decided that the Communists may take Albania but leave Greece alone as it had a strong Communist party supported by Tito ready to take over the whole of the Balkans. It almost overthrew the king of Greece who was backed by the British.

It was not a coincidence that Enver Hoxha went to France to continue his studies where he became a Communist. In fact, but all the world’s best known Communists studied in France and many became leaders in their countries (Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia etc.)

This shows exactly how the European powers cobbled together the state of Yugoslavia out of nothing and that is why it collapsed since it was based on no solid foundations. Exactly in the same way as the Bolsheviks created the Soviet Union by forcibly grabbing other people’s lands and turned them into Communists regimes which all collapsed hopelessly.

One thing common here is that the lands grabbed by the Soviets were lands inhabited by Muslims and the lands taken by the Yugoslavs were also mostly inhabited by Muslims, which leads us to believe that this was done on purpose to get rid of the Muslim inhabitants in those areas. Once we read the treatises we see clearly that it was done with a view to force Muslims to migrate to Turkey in large numbers and vacate their lands for the Serbs and the Slavs.

The present Macedonia has been carved out by the European powers when they created the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia out of Albania and Bulgaria. Alexander the Great created the original Macedonia, which is today in Greece. It was annexed to Greece during the Balkan wars in 1913.

Once Yugoslavia was disintegrated, Macedonia declared independence around the end of 1991. During the first days of Bosnian war, they decided to separate from Yugoslavia. Belgrade did not interfere at that time.

But today the Dayton Accord created a new state for the Serbs within Bosnia, called the Republic of Serbska, covering an area more than half of Bosnia and recently the Croats within the Federation also demanded a state for themselves like the Serbs.

But in Macedonia, Greece immediately interfered and stopped the European Union from recognizing the new state unless it changed its name and flag. Greece waged a war of words against Macedonia and printed banners and posters, which showed all places including its international airport as Greek. Finally, the European Community settled for the name FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) with its capital Skopje. Its relations with Greece are still not very much in place, while Macedonia needs Greece for its imports and exports via the port of Thessaloniki.