KONTEKSTI DHE SFIDAT REALE RRETH PËRDORIMIT ZYRTAR TË GJUHËS SHQIPE NË MAQEDONINË E VERIUT PAS MARRËVESHJES KORNIZË TË OHRIT
THE CHALLENGES AND THE CONTEXT OF THE USE OF ALBANIAN LANGUAGE IN NORTH MACEDONIA AFTER OHRID FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to explain some aspects regarding the official use of the Albanian language in North Macedonia, having in mind that it became an official language initially with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement in 2001, followed by amendments to the Constitution of the country during the same year, and followed by the adoption of the Law on the use of languages in 2008 and the Law on the use of languages of 2018 which is still in force. The Albanian language constitutes the basic identity element of the Albanian population in North Macedonia and as such was part of the Ohrid Agreement which ended the armed conflict in 2001, a political agreement which addressed a wide range of issues related to ethnic identity, which after the constitutional amendments of 2001, took on an institutional character. The paper follows an explanatory line of this Agreement regarding the use of the Albanian language, as well as the circumstances and the evolving process of translation into concrete laws for the use of the language in the spirit of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. I underline the term evolutionary process, always bearing in mind the fact that the other ethnic issues addressed in the Ohrid Framework Agreement were transformed into laws much earlier than the issue of the official use of the Albanian language, and this development is dedicated to the fact that during the implementation process of the Agreement priority was been given to issues which had a higher potential for conflict, such as ethnic representation in security forces (policy and army), while the official use of the Albanian language in a wide spectrum was treated as a matter that could be discussed and implemented later. The process of the legal regulation of the official use of the Albanian language began in 2008 and was completed with the Law on the Use of Languages of 2018, which includes the use of the Albanian language at the central levels of legislation, including executive, judicial and local institutions. Being a law with a wide scope of action, the interest of this paper are also the challenges faced by the implementation of this law in practice, always bearing in mind the existing institutional capacities of the institutions responsible for implementing this law in the everyday life of the citizens of the country. Overcoming these challenges remains a matter of identity, but also a matter of special developmental importance when we consider the fact that the equal use of languages constitutes the essence of the European values of equality and progress.

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