The National Liberation Army, also known as the Macedonian UÇK, was an ethnic Albanian militant militia that operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Following the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, it was disarmed through the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which gave greater rights and autonomy to the state's Macedonian Albanians.
Ali Ahmeti, also known by the nom de guerre as Abaz Gjuka is a Macedonian politician of Albanian descent, leader of the Democratic Union for Integration, and a junior coalition partner in the Macedonian government from 2008 to 2024. Ahmeti was the political leader of the former Albanian National Liberation Army in the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia.
The State University of Tetova is a public university in North Macedonia. The university was established on 17 December 1994 as the first Albanian-language higher education institution in Macedonia, though not recognized as a state university by the national government until January 2004. As of 2018–19 academic year, 7,097 students are enrolled at the university.
The 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) insurgent group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and Insurgency in the Preševo Valley, attacked Macedonian security forces at the end of January 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year. There were also claims that the NLA ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking members of the group have denied this. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen individuals on either side, according to sources from both sides of the conflict. With it, the Yugoslav Wars had reached the Republic of Macedonia which had achieved peaceful independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
The Liberation Army of Chameria is a reported paramilitary organization founded in 2001 that is active in the northwestern Greek region of Epirus. The group is reportedly linked to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and National Liberation Army (NLA), both ethnic Albanian militant groups.
The Albanian National Army is an Albanian paramilitary organization which operates in North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo. The group opposes the Ohrid Framework Agreement which ended the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia between members of the National Liberation Army and Macedonian security forces.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in North Macedonia face discrimination and some legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity have been legal in North Macedonia since 1996, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples.
The Smilkovci Lake killings also called the Smilkovci Lake massacre, was the killing of five ethnic Macedonian civilians that took place on 12 April 2012. They were shot and killed at a man-made lake near the village of Smilkovci, outside the Macedonian capital Skopje. According to the Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the attack was carried out with the intent to "incite fear and insecurity" and the ministry called it a "deliberate terrorist act aimed at destabilizing the country". The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights criticised the ministry for prematurely judging the suspects as guilty.
Operation Mountain Storm was carried out on 7 November 2007 by special police forces of the Republic of Macedonia against an armed ethnic Albanian group in the Šar Mountains of Brodec above Tetovo region.
The Vejce ambush, also known by Macedonians as the Vejce massacre, was carried out by the National Liberation Army against a Special Operations Regiment convoy near the village of Vejce during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia. During the attack, eight soldiers were killed.
On 21 April 2015, 40 armed men with UÇK patches attacked a border police station located at Gošince, near the Kosovo border. The group tied and beat the policemen manning the outpost and stole weapons and radios. They stayed for a couple of hours, filming the event, and issued a message through an interpreter before leaving.
The Kondovo Crisis took place in the village of Kondovo, Republic of Macedonia, when an armed group of ethnic Albanians sealed off the village of Kondovo, Republic of Macedonia, a suburb of the capital Skopje.
The 2015 Kumanovo clashes were series of shootouts which erupted during a raid between the Macedonian police and an armed group identifying itself as the National Liberation Army (NLA). They began on 9 May 2015 in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo. During the shootings, 8 Macedonian policemen and 10-14 of the militants were killed, while 37 officers were wounded and hospitalized. The shooting ended on 10 May 2015, in an operation by the Macedonian police, in which 30 militants were arrested and charged with terrorism-related charges by the Macedonian authorities.
The Karpalak ambush, referred to by Macedonians as the Karpalak massacre, was an attack carried out by the National Liberation Army (NLA) against a convoy of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia (ARM) near the village of Grupčin on 8 August 2001 during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia. Ten members of the ARM's Military Reserve Force, including two officers, were killed at Karpalak and three others were wounded. The ambush was the single deadliest incident of the conflict. It was speculated that the ambush was carried out in retaliation for a Macedonian police raid in Skopje, the day before in which five NLA insurgents were killed.
Early parliamentary elections were held in North Macedonia on 15 July 2020. It was originally scheduled for November 2020, but Prime Minister Zoran Zaev called early elections after the European Council failed to come to an agreement on starting talks with North Macedonia on joining the European Union in October 2019. The election date was set for 12 April, but was postponed until July due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia.
The Aračinovo crisis was a series of events triggered by the occupation of the village of Aračinovo, in the outskirts of the Macedonian capital Skopje, by the insurgent National Liberation Army (NLA) in June 2001 and the consequent attempts by the Macedonian army (ARM) to retake the settlement. The Macedonian attack resulted in a standoff with NATO, whose troops evacuated the besieged rebels after a ceasefire accord. The crisis is considered to be the turning point in the Macedonian war of 2001, and one of its most controversial incidents.
The 2021 North Macedonia census, officially known as the Census of Population, Households and Dwellings, 2021, was the third census held in North Macedonia since independence, and the first since 2002. The census recorded a resident population of 1,836,713, a decrease of 9.2 percent, or 185,834, over the preceding 19 years. The census was taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected its administration. It was also considered controversial by some Macedonian groups; the opposition party The Left openly led a boycott. 132,260 individuals did not participate in the census and are officially labelled as "persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources"; no ethnic, language, or religious information is available for these individuals. Nonetheless, the head of the State Statistical Office, Apostol Simovski, stated that the census was successful. The ruling government and the European Commission also welcomed the results.
The battle of Raduša was part of the wider inter-ethnic conflict known as the Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia between the Albanian NLA and Macedonian security forces concentrated near the border with Kosovo. The brunt of the fighting happened near the village of Raduša and Bojane villages that guard the roads to the Rašče water supply which supplies water to the capital city of Skopje.
The Macedonian police forces had a shootout with an armed group near the village of Raduša, Macedonia, close to the Kosovo border, which was smuggling weapons. The Macedonian police recovered a large quantity of weapons and NLA uniforms in their vehicle.
Harun Aliu, known as Commander Kushtrimi, was an Albanian commander and co-founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the Kosovo War and the National Liberation Army (NLA) during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, who later became a politician in Macedonia. He was killed in a shootout near Raduša with the Macedonian police on 12 May 2010.
Macedonian police