Non-Subscriber Extract
Foreign Islamists target vulnerable Macedonia minorities
By Christopher Deliso
28 March 2008
Although under-reported, the phenomenon of radicalisation in Macedonia's minority Muslim populations is being closely observed by Macedonia's counter-intelligence services and their Western partners. Macedonian authorities have already contributed actionable intelligence in at least one major Western European counter-terrorism operation.
Although ethnic Albanians (25 per cent of Macedonia's population of two million people are Albanian) make up the majority of the Balkan country's Islamic extremists, smaller Muslim groups, such as the ethnically Macedonian Torbeshi and Gorani populations (approximately 150,000 people), are being disproportionately affected by foreign Islamists.
For these populations, who are historically victims of social, political and economic marginalisation, fundamentalist Islam may be seen as an option if the state cannot address their needs. Furthermore, political manipulation by ethnic Albanian, Turkish and now Macedonian Muslim interests is intensifying as part of national-level power politics for control of Macedonia's largely Albanian-populated west. The emphasis these parties are placing on Macedonian Muslims' Islamic identity will become increasingly significant in affecting their cultural worldview and social orientation.
When the Ottoman Turks introduced Islam to Macedonia in the 14th century, the region was largely Orthodox Christian, due to previous Byzantine, and later medieval Bulgarian and Serbian rule. By the Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913, when the Turks were expelled, Macedonians had largely survived five centuries with their Orthodox faith intact. However, some Ottoman Muslims remained; these were Turks, and others who had converted to Islam for the socio-economic benefits and legal equality the Ottomans had denied to non-Muslims.
Along with Albanian converts, and as in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, some converted Muslims were Slavs. The largest groups (the Torbeshi and Gorani) lived along the mountainous western Albanian border; the former occupied the southwest, and the latter the northwest, spilling over into southwest Kosovo (the current Gora region).
Security concerns also motivated Ottoman-era religious conversion; as only Muslims could organise self-defence, these villagers were helpless against chronic Albanian bandit raids from over the mountains. However, the newly converted Macedonian Muslims were regarded by Christian kin as fickle opportunists; the name Torbeshi comes from the Turkish word torba (bag), the implication being such people would obey whoever filled their bag with gold.
The 19th-century Balkan ethnic nationalist movements challenged the Ottoman religion-based conception of identity. Slavic Muslim populations, which shared the ethnic and linguistic but not religious origins of their Christian kin, were the odd ones out. Their modern stigmatisation by neighbouring ethnic and religious groups derives from this nebulous status.
Identity politics still trouble Macedonia. Neighbouring Greece, which has its own province of Macedonia, has repeatedly threatened to veto the Republic of Macedonia's NATO accession over the name. Bulgaria denies a Macedonian identity or language, claiming that today's Macedonians are 'really' Bulgarians by asserting their own continuity with the medieval Bulgarian Empire that included territory covering present day Macedonia.
Image: Macedonian flag (Macedonia MoD)