1 When you read the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the storming of the state company M-NAV at Skopje Airport, you’d think that it’s an everyday announcement about a brawl in one of the untouchable pubs that disturb the peace in central Skopje. You might take it for a mere public order offence. However, the dry police vocabulary translated into normal language means this: A gang broke into the Control Tower of Skopje Airport and beat air traffic controllers while they were at work. The attack was led by a senior DUI official who used his electronic card to lead seven more thugs inside. They carried out the attack on the Control Tower because the controllers rebelled against employments under party patronage. And they beat up Albanians for being traitors to the cause of employments under party patronage.
Dear friends, not even the Taliban entered the Control Tower in Kabul during the most critical moment in 2021 when the Americans were withdrawing from Afghanistan and allowed those who wanted to leave to leave, whereas back home, party goons entered the Control Tower to defend employments under party patronage by punching the controllers while they were managing the air space. The director of M-NAV, Fahrudin Hamidi, says it was just a tiny case of colleagues bickering, which is common in every company. It seems that in companies where the bosses are DUI members, this kind of behaviour at the workplace is considered normal – we do as we please. And if someone dares to rebel, they bring in friends to bicker with them.
Probably, as the director says, the air traffic controllers really were stunned. It wasn’t Bekim Neziri who opened the doors to the thugs with his official card. Krsto Mukovski came and opened the doors for them.
When you enter the fenced territory of the Airport Control Tower, you practically have access to the runway and the platform where the planes are parked. Well, then, if it’s that easy to enter the runway, it means that tomorrow they might also enter planes and hijack them if they’re not satisfied with the tool for equitable representation of the crews. Or they might set off fireworks and throw firecrackers, supplied by Drin Ahmeti, the nephew of the leader of DUI and a “prominent” businessman who owns a shopping mall. Since it’s a case of endangering aviation security, in another country, breaking into a Control Tower would be considered an act of terrorism and the authorities would react accordingly. Back home, a terrorist act is met with a government session scheduled for 5 days after the incident.
2 There’s no need to rush, considering the Minister of Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bochvarski, says he’s not the competent authority for the state-owned company M-NAV and guarantees that the safety of flying is not at risk. It’s safe. The air traffic controllers just got a little beaten up at work. It’s safe. Your coworker is getting punched while he’s looking at the radar screen, and you’re calmly guiding a plane with 180 passengers to a foggy landing. And then, during the break, instead of relaxing, you find yourself making copies of the security camera footage, just in case someone from management decides to delete it.
Flying in Macedonia is safe. Yet, the safest option is to just fly away from here. And for those of us who stayed: “Sorry for the delay, thank you for flying with us.”
3 The attack on the Control Tower happened exactly on Ali Ahmeti’s birthday. Coincidentally, that’s when Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi shared a video from a celebration in his government office, where live music played for the leader, and he sang and smoked with friends.
Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski wasn’t among the merry group. The camera missed him. Perhaps he was busy empting their ashtrays and making sure their glasses were full, just in case he needed to refill their drinks. They must respect him at least that much, they can’t have sent him to buy them cigarettes for them.
4 On the same day, in some parallel reality of Macedonia and the EU, Deputy Prime Minister Bojan Marichic and U.S. Ambassador Angela Aggeler met and discussed the “commitment to the realisation of the European agenda with our strategic partners” and concluded that “it is in the interest of all our citizens.”
After recognising us as an independent and sovereign state, Americans have done more than enough for us. They pushed for our membership in the UN, recognised us under our constitutional name, broke the Greek embargo, ushered us into NATO, trained hundreds of our judges and prosecutors, educated our politicians to be responsible leaders, took our mayors on trips to America to teach them good governance, transparency and how to fight corruption, they trained our army, armed us, protected our cultural heritage, strengthened our media… And what’s left for them to do to rescue us from ourselves? To somehow usher us into the EU.
It seems that in order for the process of pushing us into the EU to go faster and to relieve themselves of the burden of Macedonia, Americans will need to expand their blacklist with more powerful figures within DUI than Ramiz Merko. After all, putting only the mayor of Struga on the US blacklist didn’t make a difference in the exercise of good governance by “Kale’s protégés.”
5 The President of the Judicial Council, Sashko Georgiev, resigned. According to the ruling of the Administrative Court, he held office illegally for 8 months because the members of the Judicial Council dismissed Vesna Dameva illegally.
If the members of the Judicial Council replaced the president illegally, that means they lack legal literacy. And we expect them to assess whether our judges administer justice in accordance with the laws.
It sounds silly, but it’s working out for them. And they don’t even intend to resign. They’re probably preparing to assess the work of the administrative judges who ruled that their performance in law and the judiciary sucks. When it comes to shame, let’s not even start discussing it.
6 Then again, we have one more holiday ahead of us. Out of the four latest announcements on the Government’s website, three are about holidays and non-working days.
Christmas Eve, Christmas, who got the coin, Christ is born, Indeed He is born, then peace on earth, serenity in spirits, mayhem in the control tower…
It’d be great if the citizens of Macedonia had a longer memory span. This way, the intrusion into M-NAV, which would be labelled as a terrorist act in any normal NATO country, will be reduced to mere bickering until Tuesday, when the Government will convene. And until then, a fire might break out in M-NAV, the same way a fire broke out at the State Inspectorate for Environment in 2020 and at the Main Post Office in 2023.
