Education Holds Key to Bridging North Macedonia’s Ethnic Divide

This goofy nationalism is typical TikTok content, which is often based on simplistic patterns conveying everyday life, be it drama, comedy, or tragedy. In the context of inter-ethnic relations, the Achilles heel of Balkan politics, it perpetuates ethnocentric differentiation between peoples. Its goofiness normalizes this worldview for younger audiences. The feedback, with likes and comments, regardless of whether it is positive or negative, reinforces ethnic separation to the creator and the audience, as support or disapproval is seen as a call to action.

Member of Ethnic Albanian minority wave Albanian flags and shout anti-government slogans during a protest against the current government coalition in Skopje. Photo: EPA/GEORGI LICOVSKI

These nationalist narratives mainly refer to history and politics, and they serve to create two interrelated outcomes. The first is to maintain fear, uncertainty and doubt about the "Other" and thus weaponize inter-ethnic relations. The second is to provide legitimacy to acts of discrimination and hate.

North Macedonia is particularly vulnerable to these simplified divisions and antagonisms. The political field there is formed by actors divided along ethnic lines, most notably the Macedonian and Albanian blocs. These sorts of divisions incentivize ethnic entrepreneurship, which is based on differentiation and opposition strategies between the two most dominant ethnic groups. Twenty years after the 2001 inter-ethnic conflict ended with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the potential to exploit these sensitive topics remains high, and, for some, is profitable.

Education plays no small part in converting intolerance and hate speech into political capital. This is exploited by notable gaps...