Gëzim Ostreni: Ali Ahmeti accepted that the Constitution should not define Albanian, but link it to the 20 percent threshold

Gëzim Ostreni, a former KLA general, has revived the debate over the political agreements reached after the 2001 conflict on the “Rishtazi” program, broadcast by the Koha newspaper.

According to Ostreni, Ali Ahmeti, who was the KLA’s political representative at the time, had made concessions without informing him. He claims that Ahmeti had accepted that the Constitution of Macedonia should not explicitly mention the Albanian language, but instead use wording referring to communities making up more than 20 percent of the population.

“During the KLA period, we had separate roles: Ali Ahmeti dealt with the political side, while I dealt with the war effort. I understood this only much later, because I thought it concerned the Albanian language. Communiqué No. 6 called for Macedonia to be an Albanian-Macedonian state. However, it did not mention the Albanian language of Albanians, but rather the language of a people comprising more than 20%. This left the issue open to discussion. For example, if the Bulgarians are accepted and it turns out that they make up 25% here in Macedonia, then Bulgarian would become an official language, while Albanian would lose that status. Political pressure should have been applied so that the provision was not based on a percentage, but clearly mentioned, by name, the Albanian language,” General Ostreni declared.