Posted on Global Research, June 3, 2015
By Andrew Korybko
Oriental Review

We are publishing the exclusive English translation of the interview given by our regular correspondent Andrew Korybko to the Macedonian edition “NetPress” on the threat of Macedonia division, political background of Kumanovo incident and baseless ambitions of the Western-funded opposition leader Zoran Zaev: 

“This is not Ukraine” is one of the headlines in part of the world media after the failed color revolution attempt in Macedonia conducted by some Western powers and supported by NGOs and the opposition. It seems that the state, the security forces, and the Macedonian people are constantly winning the battles, and slowly but surely, they are emerging as winners in the war against the imperialistic agenda, against fake democracy fighters, and against the millions of dollars poured into the domestic fifth column. According to you, what is this great and historical victory of the Macedonian people and truth attributable to?

The most important factor in effectively combating any Color Revolution, not just Macedonia’s, is a patriotic population, and Macedonians of all kinds streamed into the street to support their country during the massive rally on 18 May. They were already aware of the Color Revolution attempt by Zaev, and the presence of irredentist Albanian supporters and the Macedonia-hating Sergey Stanischev during the ‘opposition’s’ small gathering contributed to the patriotic reaction the day afterwards. What can be learned by this is that a proactive information campaign educating citizens about the looming threat to their country, coupled with soft power failures by the Color Revolutionaries, can solidify the population in opposing the regime change attempt. All of this would be for naught, however, if Macedonians didn’t already value their identity and were confident with it, since one can’t properly defend what they don’t truly love. Finally, it must be pointed out that the government’s preemptive anti-terrorist operation in Kumanovo and the sacrifices of its brave security forces foiled the terrorists’ plans to stage attacks throughout the country on 17 May (the same day as Zaev’s rally), which could have triggered such destabilization that foreign powers (Albania, Bulgaria) may have exploited it in an attempt to conventionally intervene and partition the country.

 In our last interview, you emphasized the strategy to divide Macedonia between Albania and Bulgaria, and since then, some of the Greek media are also noting that all of a sudden we have intrigues, turmoil, and turbulence in all the possible Russian gas transit states in the region, except in Bulgaria and Albania. At the same time, the bodies of the dead terrorists who attacked Kumanovo were buried in Kosovo with heroic honors by people wearing the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) uniforms, while Bulgaria defensively states that in the past they have recognized our independence under the constitutional name. However, it’s not a secret that the current Bulgarian regime is quite pro-American. So, do you think that the fact that the Russian MFA S. Lavrov also shared information about the plan to divide Macedonia was in a way a definite conformation of the monstrous scenario?

Yes, it definitely was. Russia was very smart in publicizing the very realistic fears about a possible Macedonian partition because it drew immediate attention to the actions of Albania and Bulgaria, thereby making it more difficult for them to pull off their plot. It must be underscored that Albania and Bulgaria operate in a ‘good cop, bad cop’ tandem, with Albania and some of its national representatives being the openly aggressive party while Bulgaria behaves more indirectly and covertly. Bulgarian media and commentators have evoked a witty tactic of self-effacing humor in criticizing their armed forces, saying they’re in no capacity to invade anyone. That’s surely true, but what they leave out of the conversation is that a partition doesn’t necessarily have to have a conventional component in initiating it, and that possible Bulgarian involvement (even the death of one of its servicemen, for example) is a trip wire for a large-scale NATO and/or American military response, especially if terrorism is involved (whether it truly is or is simply claimed to be in order to ‘justify’ the reaction). Bulgaria makes no secret out of the fact that it’s the EU and NATO reference point for all things related to the Macedonian Crisis, so the scenario of Bulgaria being used as bait for bringing other countries into a wider military conflict is disturbingly real. Also, amidst this scandal, everyone is forgetting the conspiracy that Bozhidar Dimitrov first suggested which is a manipulated perversion of the Crimea reunification events in order for Bulgaria to occupy most of Macedonia after Albania moves in first.

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