AARC leaders at the State Department discuss the Albanian language issue with the official for North Macedonia – details

AARC leaders at the State Department discuss the Albanian language issue with the official for North Macedonia – details

The leadership of the Albanian-American Relations Council (AARC) met with State Department official David M. Maher, whose portfolio covers North Macedonia, to discuss recent developments in the country.

The head of this organization, Martin Vulaj, said that the conversation with the American official focused on the recent protests by law students and the broader issue of language rights within the framework of the Ohrid Agreement.

“AARC emphasized that while public discourse often gets bogged down in technical and semantic debates – language law provisions, Venice Commission opinions, the Ohrid Balancing Mechanism, implementation issues, and proposed legislative changes – the central issue is being overlooked.”

Essentially, Vulaj said that the Ohrid Agreement represents a historic reconciliation between two peoples who made a “conscious decision to move forward together, building a cohesive state as equal partners.”

“The fundamental question today is whether this spirit of reconciliation still holds: Are Albanians equal stakeholders in their own country, or simply a people to be tolerated? How this question is answered will ultimately determine the future trajectory of the country. The rest is mere semantics.”/Express/