By: Risto Karajkov Recently, after a period of prolonged strife within the Islamic Religious Community (IVZ), its leader Sulejman Rexhepi publicly asked the government of Macedonia and representatives of the international community for protection from radical Islamic groups. He called in particular on the “embassy of the United States and the European Union to support [...]

By Risto Karajkov The tension caused by the revealing of the rising numbers of Macedonian citizens who have sought asylum in E.U. countries since the beginning of the year seems to be calming down. Recently the first buses of unsuccessful would-be émigrés returned from Brussels. Belgium was the prime destination for the wave of migrants [...]

by Risto Karajkov Twenty years after the fall of the Wall, the controversial lustration process – the epuration of those who cooperated with the police of Communist regimes – is still in deep waters. And many wonder whether rummaging archives still makes sense. As the summer ended, the Macedonian lustration commission finally opened its doors [...]

By Risto Karajkov A “historic day,” the “fall of the wall,” the “end of visas” — these were some of the headlines in the Balkan media in response to the European Commission (E.C.) proposing visa liberalization for Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro. The visa-free travel could ideally be possible by the beginning of January 2010. Macedonia [...]

By: Risto Karajkov World Politics Review, 14 May 2009 SKOPJE, Macedonia — On May 1, the European Union celebrated the fifth anniversary of its “big bang,” the massive wave of enlargement in 2004 that saw it accept 10 new members — eight former communist countries from Eastern Europe, plus Malta and Cyprus. When Romania and [...]