The true goal of Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski is not to join NATO and the EU, but to become part of Serbia or a new Yugoslavia, writes Miroslav Rizinski.

Miroslav Rizinski is a civil society activist, political observer and former political prisoner in the Republic of Macedonia (2007-2011), Board member of BKKS (Bulgarian Cultural Club – Skopje).

"It became clear recently that the foreign ministries of Serbia and Macedonia have concluded a treaty providing that the personal data and the police file of every Macedonian citizen could be made available to the former metropolis Belgrade even without a formal request. On top of this came the shocking statement by Nikola Gruevski, confirming the information of the Serbian Foreign Minister that joint diplomatic missions of the two countries are likely to be established worldwide.

These initiatives of the Macedonian Prime Minister, a former adviser to the Serbian government, should be seen in the context of his longstanding policy of re-yugoslavisation and antiquisation (helenisation) of the Republic of Macedonia. This policy has only been able to prevent Macedonia from joining the Euro-Atlantic family, and in fact preventing his country from joining NATO and the EU has been Gruevski’s main goal.

What other purpose could serve his "highly patriotic" project "Skopje 2014", described by most visitors as a megalomaniac and kitschy historic Disneyland? Was it designed to confirm what Greek bishop Karavangelis claimed a hundred years ago – that the majority of the population of Macedonia was composed of Greek Slavophones, direct descendants of Alexander the Great? By the way, at that time Karavangelis was quite unsuccessful in advocating this theory.

Nevertheless, Karavangelis has a now an excellent successor, since Gruevski is implementing the ideas of the Greek bishop in the today’s "free" Macedonia, at the expense of the Macedonian taxpayers. Thus Gruevski makes sure the Greek blockade of his country’s bid to join NATO and to begin EU accession negotiations is stronger as ever. And his interest is to use the blockade as an alibi for his undemocratic governance, for the violations of human rights and rule of law, the gross interference and control over the media, for undermining the multi-ethnic society and instigating hatred among people.

Simultaneously, the join celebration of Zebrenjak (marking the occupation of Vardar Macedonia by the Serbian Army) , the renewal of the old theatre "King Alexander I of Yugoslavia" and the Officers’ House (the headquarters where the terror against the Bulgarian population in Royal Yugoslavia was planned), the erection a statue of the Serbian King Dusan, the joint Serbo-Macedonian government meetings and police patrols in the city of Ohrid, along with many other events of such nature, prepare the Macedonian citizens for the idea of resuming a mini-Yugoslavia as an alternative to the Euro-Atlantic organizations.

But would one hundred thousand Macedonians with Bulgarian citizenship and their families be happy to be represented around the world by common Serbian-Macedonian embassies? Is this normal and how would the Serbian embassies be accepted by the Macedonian citizens of Albanian or other ethnic origin? The revolutionary fighters of IMRO are certainly turning in their graves, because the holy name of their organization is used by unscrupulous people for the purpose of such a “serbisation” and “re-yugoslavisation” of Macedonia [Gruevski’s party is also named IMRO-DPMNE].

The explanation that the main reason for merging the diplomatic missions is saving money is childish and only aims to conceal the true motives. There is no precedent in the world when different independent foreign policies have been generated from the same room!

During his rule, Gruevski was "successful" mainly in multiplying the number of the political prisoners and the political emigrants fleeing the country.

Instead of adequately addressing the hot issues of EU accession agenda, Mr. Gruevski's likely dreams for his old days appear to be to seek refuge and to spend the rest of his life in one of the envisaged joint embassies with the Republic of Serbia or the Republic of Srpska, based somewhere in Asia, Africa, South America or in any other remote part of the world.”