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Yugoslavia Macedonia
Next to Kosovo, Macedonia was the most economically deprived
region of Yugoslavia. Like Kosovo, it was dependent on the richer
republics for financial support throughout the postwar period.
For the first forty years after World War II, political life
remained placid and under the firm control of the local party.
But with the explosion of nationalist feeling elsewhere in
Yugoslavia in the late 1980s, the presence of substantial
Albanian and Turkish minorities began to complicate regional
politics. Strikes and protests against economic conditions began
in 1987. After that time, ethnic tensions mounted between
Albanians and Macedonians, especially in the Albanian ghettos of
Skopje, the capital city. Symbolic acts by Macedonian authorities
worsened the situation. In 1989 the Macedonian assembly ratified
a constitutional amendment deleting "Albanian and Turkish
minorities" from the definition of the republic in the 1974
republican constitution. This move, which paralleled the Serbian
constitutional limitation of autonomy in its provinces, drew
criticism domestically and in other republics for its nationalist
overtones. Macedonia also had a centuries-long ethnic dispute
with neighboring Bulgaria and Greece over the identity and
treatment of Macedonian minorities in those countries. This was
the only such situation among the Yugoslav republics, and it
added an independent quality to the cause of Macedonian
nationalism.
As a small republic with voting power equal to all other
republics, Macedonia was pressured and manipulated by both Serbia
and Slovenia in the late 1980s. Consequently, its position in
that conflict was inconsistent. During the late 1980s, Macedonian
policy concentrated alternately on allegiance to Serbia and
Macedonian nationalism, depending on which of two factions
prevailed in the local political establishment. In 1990 the top
Macedonian policymakers still strongly supported a united
Yugoslavia and opposed legalization of rival parties. However,
these policies were increasingly challenged by an independent
political faction led by Vasil Tupurkovski, Macedonian
representative to the Presidency of Yugoslavia. In 1990
Tupurkovski's faction moved toward formation of a separate party
advocating political reform.
Data as of December 1990
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