“Macedonian society is divided on many grounds, like in every other society, between the rich and poor, rightist and leftist, religious divisions, between various ethnic groups, and in that sense it is quite a complicated society. This is how it always has been. In my opinion, it is not a tragedy that on the social scene objectively different interests are conflicting, including those of the ethnic groups, and it is not something evil. It is evil when society is not organized good enough, is not institutionalized, civilized for that conflict to be within the framework of the institutions”, stated Branko Geroski, journalist, in a conversation with CIVIL Media.
Speaking primarily about nationalism in our country, Geroski outlined that the outbursts of this phenomenon, together with chauvinism, are a result precisely of the inability of the institutions to overcome the differences. That is why first there is a quiet aggression, which later escalated to conflict situations.
“Unfortunately, in our 30 years of history, we had a war that indeed was short, but was caused by outburst of nationalism, chauvinism and ethnic intolerance. I think that we will be facing these problems for much longer, namely, nationalism in all spheres of our society…Sometimes it comes out naturally, as something that should be expected. Look at the modern European societies. Extreme political groups, both from the right and left angle of the political spectrum, are once again coming to dominance. When Europe faces these problems, it is normal for us to also face them. However, the real question is how we manage the problems and how we manage to deal with them”, said Geroski.
According to Geroski, there are rules of game that help us cope with nationalism, but in crisis situations the differences come to surface and we succumb. Even though we have potential and knowledge to deal with these problems, not always do we know how to use them.
Biljana Jordanovska
Camera and photography: Dehran Muratov
This post is also available in: MacedonianAlbanian
