FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Hundreds of students have started a march in Skopje, protesting the denial of their right to take the bar exam in Albanian alongside Macedonian.
Students are demanding the resignation of the Minister of Justice. "There is no state without youth," "Justice, equality," "Minister Resign," and "Students do not tolerate," are some of the slogans being chanted at the rally.
The march, according to the organizers, will continue to the Ministry of Justice, an institution that does not allow students to take this exam in Albanian alongside Macedonian. The students say that this is not just their 'fight', but it is a 'fight' for the protection of the language.
The protest has also received support from individuals, officials and other associations from the RMV, Albania and Kosovo.
The country's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski promised the students that he would find a solution, while appealing to them not to become a tool of the DUI.
"I guarantee the students that just as many solutions have been found for many challenges and many failures from the past, an appropriate solution will be found for this one as well. I think they already know that and my appeal is to not allow themselves to be tools in the hands of the political party that still lives in the memories of the past, namely in the time of the last century," said Hristijan Mickoski on April 5.
On the other hand, DUI spokesperson Arta Bilalli Zendeli said that the guarantees of rights only apply to the campaign. "The guarantees of rights apparently only apply to the campaign! After the campaign, their voice is not heard, but the voice of the students does not stop before discrimination, arrogance and majoritarianism. Today, students are on the road for dignity," said Bilalli Zendeli.
One of the leaders of VLEN, Izet Mexhiti, said that language policy in North Macedonia, unfortunately, is regulated by a half-baked law. "Half-baked laws provide half-baked solutions. Therefore, the protest is a call for awareness for all political and social actors who must contribute to better legal solutions and long-term institutional policies in the country. Instead of politicization, I call for awareness, because student protests are always an alarm for social phenomena that political structures have an obligation to address in their entirety," said Mexhiti.
The issue of the jurisprudence exam in Albanian has been the subject of much controversy recently after 385 Albanian students from three law faculties (UT, SEEU, UNT) in North Macedonia petitioned the institutions to allow the jurisprudence exam to be given in Albanian, the language in which they study, as they say, it is their right by law.
There is no legal provision in the Law on the Bar Examination stating that this exam can only be held in the Macedonian language.
Meanwhile, Article 2 of the Law on the Use of Languages states that "state government institutions must enable the use of other official languages spoken by at least 20% of citizens", which is the Albanian language.
Article 2 and Article 5 of this law state that “institutions are obliged to enable the use of the Albanian language in all procedures before courts and other state bodies.” This means that if the law on the bar exam does not limit the administration of this exam only in the Macedonian language, it should also be enabled in the Albanian language.
The Ministry of Justice, headed by Igor Fillov, has consistently insisted that the bar exam cannot be held in Albanian, despite the Law on the Use of Languages. While they have called the inspection by the Inspectorate for the Use of Languages pressure.
The Inspectorate for the Use of Languages, after extraordinary supervision, drew the attention of the Ministry of Justice with the argument that they had enabled them to take the jurisprudence exam in the Albanian language despite the legal and constitutional obligation.
The Ombudsman also came up with a concrete proposal for the Government, asking it, through the Ministry of Justice, to initiate a procedure to amend three laws: Jurisprudence, Notary and Bailiff, to harmonize them with the Law on the Use of Languages, so that this exam can also be given in Albanian.
The Ministry of Justice told Portalbit that it has submitted a response to the Ombudsman, in which the procedure for taking the bar exam is explained in detail, and that the bar exam is a professional exam and not an administrative procedure.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, although he had stated that students should be able to take the exam in Albanian, later said that the current law does not allow the jurisprudence exam in Albanian and that he is ready to regulate it, but the decision will be made by the Venice Commission. On March 4, he promised in the Assembly that legal changes will be made so that the exam can also be held in Albanian.
Experts and civil society have assessed that the Albanian exam does not pose a risk and should reflect demographic reality.
The draft law, which would enable the jurisprudence exam to be taken in the Albanian language, was ready in 2024 by the Ministry of Justice, but with the change in parliamentary composition and the new government, it was removed from the assembly agenda and was not mentioned at all by the current government.
The Law on the Implementation of Languages came into force in 2019, since then four justice ministers have been replaced, namely Bojan Maričić, Nikola Tupančevski, Krenar Lloga and currently Igor Filkov. In previous years, even when there was no Albanian minister, the deputy minister was of Albanian origin.
Maqedonet shqiptar duhet te braktisin institucionet e pushtuara nga shulët sllavojevg. Shqiptaret maqedon duhet te veproje sic vepruan shqiptaret e Kosoves kunder institucioneve serbe dhe shtetit pushtues serb. Shqiptaret maqedon duhet te themelore institucionet e tyre nacionale dhe shtetin e tyre nese duan te zhvillohen dhe te prosperojne.
Plasi lufta ne Macedonia me shqiptare te ndahete naqedonia
Kulmi, vendasve u ndalohet te flasin gjuhen e tyre. Shyqyr qe paska te rinj Shqiptare se Maqedoni.
Po u hapen syte ketyre turkoshakeve ta quajne vehten Shqiptare që na kane me liber shtepie për Turkun e Islamin.