SKOPJE, Macedonia, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) leader Ali Ahmeti said that during Macedonia's 2001 civil conflict in Macedonia there was an idea to split the nation.
The Marfax news agency quoted Ahmeti as saying the idea was that of then-Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski. He wanted to split up Macedonia along ethnic lines and shift the borders in the region.
Ahmeti's comments were the first time details of Georgievski's plan to divide Macedonia had been confirmed by a senior political leader.
"Georgievski offered a compromise - the Lipkovo area to be annexed to Kosovo, Tetovo and Gostivar to be annexed to Albania," Ahmeti was quoted as saying. "The messenger of Georgievski's offer made in 2001 was the then president of the Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts (MANU) Gjorgji Efremov."
When Yugoslavia fractured in the early 1990s Macedonia escaped most of the inter-ethnic violence that flared across the Balkans, but rebels staged an uprising in early 2001, demanding greater rights for the ethnic Albanian minority.
