{"id":12566,"date":"2026-04-13T09:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T08:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=12566"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:42:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:42:00","slug":"skopje-student-protest-over-language-rights-branded-as-greater-albania-in-serbian-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/skopje-student-protest-over-language-rights-branded-as-greater-albania-in-serbian-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Skopje Student Protest Over Language Rights Branded As \u2018Greater Albania\u2019 in Serbian Media\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Original article<\/em><\/a> (in Serbian) was published on 9\/4\/2026; Author: Stefan Kosanovi\u0107<\/em>\u00a0
<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Albanian minority students in Skopje protested in early April demanding the right to take the bar exam in their native language, saying North Macedonia\u2019s Law on the Use of Languages is not being implemented in practice. The students said they resorted to protests after institutions failed for years to respond to their requests and appeals. Serbian outlet Vaseljenska portrayed the rally as part of a broader nationalist agenda tied to the idea of a \u201cGreater Albania,\u201d a characterization the students rejected as misleading.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students from North Macedonia\u2019s Albanian minority marched through Skopje in early April demanding the right to take the bar exam in Albanian, expressing frustration over what they described as the authorities\u2019 failure to enforce the country\u2019s Law on the Use of Languages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law provides for the official use of Albanian in state institutions, including the right to use the language in education, as Albanians make up a significant share of the country\u2019s population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest began at Karpo\u0161 Uprising Square and ended outside the Justice Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demonstrators carried Albanian and U.S. flags, while the protest received support from Albanian political parties in Kosovo, former Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and veterans\u2019 organizations linked to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rally also drew the attention of several Serbian tabloids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlbanians will \u2018swallow\u2019 the Macedonians?! Chaos begins in Skopje: Albanians take to the streets, mass demonstrations announced,\u201d Serbian tabloid Informer wrote<\/a>, while portal Vaseljenska described<\/a> the protesters as \u201cfollowers of \u2018Greater Albania\u2019 blocking the Macedonian capital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaseljenska adopted a strongly partisan tone, claiming the Albanian diaspora \u201chas not given up attempts to attach this once Slavic state of the Western Balkans to its \u2018Greater Albania\u2019 project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mevlan Memedi, a student from Skopje, told Raskrikavanje that no participant had mentioned the idea of \u201cGreater Albania,\u201d accusing some media outlets of twisting legitimate demands into unfounded nationalist narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal was clear: to allow Albanian students to take the bar exams in the language in which we study, and nothing more,\u201d Memedi said. \u201cAnyone trying to present this differently is in fact trying to inflame interethnic tensions in the Balkans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memedi said students turned to protests after exhausting institutional channels without receiving any response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe felt the need for our voice to be heard in a peaceful and democratic way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaseljenska also claimed that \u201cyoung Albanians behaved aggressively, shouting, whistling and chanting slogans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memedi denied the allegations, saying the protest passed without incidents or unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter two years of attempts to contact the justice minister so that the Law on the Use of Languages and the Constitution would be applied regarding the bar exam in Albanian \u2014 the language in which we study \u2014 we were met only with silence,\u201d Memedi told Raskrikavanje.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe faced what can only be described as institutional neglect, which culminated in a peaceful protest with one single demand: for the minister to implement the law, because this is our guaranteed right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian state-affiliated outlet Sputnik reported that chants of \u201cKLA\u201d could be heard during the demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memedi confirmed that some individuals shouted the slogan, but said it was not an organized part of the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you watch the entire footage, you will see that throughout the march the slogans were: \u2018We study in Albanian,\u2019 \u2018There is no state without its youth,\u2019 and \u2018Equality,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet somehow, five seconds of chants of \u2018KLA\u2019 receive more media attention than an hour of chants of \u2018Equality.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Macedonia\u2019s government blamed the situation on the previous administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the former government had passed the Law on Languages, but that the section concerning the judiciary had been challenged before the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a negative opinion from the Venice Commission, which says bilingualism in the judiciary should be abandoned because there are challenges, most often related to the rule of law,\u201d Mickoski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the government had formed a group of constitutional law experts to work on a solution that would be constitutional and in line with international standards, and said a solution would be found \u201cfor many of the challenges and mistakes of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Serbian) was published on 9\/4\/2026; Author: Stefan Kosanovi\u0107\u00a0 Albanian minority students in Skopje protested in early April demanding the right to take the bar exam in their native language, saying North Macedonia\u2019s Law on the Use of Languages is not being implemented in practice. The students said they resorted to protests after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[277,548],"class_list":["post-12566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-protests","tag-students"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12568,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12566\/revisions\/12568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}