Ohrid Agreement

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The Ohrid Agreement, or the Ohrid Framework Agreement was the peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia and Albanian representatives on August 13, 2001. The agreement ended fighting between the National Liberation Army and the Macedonian security forces and set the groundwork for improving the rights of ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia.

The Agreement also included provisions for altering the official languages of the country, with any language spoken by over 20% of the population becoming co-official with the Macedonian language. Currently only Albanian with an approximate 25% of the population fulfils this criterion ^[1].

[edit] History

The Agreement was preceded by the Ohrid discussions, a series of talks between Albanian and Macedonian representatives, along with representatives from the United States and European Union. The talks took place in Ohrid in the south-west of Macedonia.

The Macedonian side was represented by the VMRO-DPMNE and the SDSM, while the Albanian side was represented by the DPA and the PDP. Although actively participating in armed conflict, the National Liberation Army did not participate directly in the talks ^[2].

The position of the Albanians was that as a significant minority in the country their rights should be on a level with the rights of the Macedonians, the majority ethnic group. The constitution guaranteed rights for minorities, but these came under the rights of the majority group.