At MANU they are "throwing down the gauntlet", the duels on the field will not be academic

Ljupco Kocarev / President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) / Photo: MIA

MANU President Ljupcho Kotsarev refused to comment on academician Abdulmenaf Bejeti accepting the gauntlet thrown down by academician Katica Qulafkova for the establishment of a third Albanian academy. He does not want to talk about the divisions in the Academy, but he announced that he expects the Assembly of MANU to meet after the holidays for all issues. Kotsarev confirmed for "Sloboden Pechat" that a session was scheduled at MANU for the "French proposal", but that it was postponed until after the holidays.

– I would not comment anything about academician Bezhetti. Those issues should be discussed inside the Academy. After vacations, if one of the departments requests, the Assembly will hold a session. It is true that the session on the "French proposal" was scheduled, then postponed until after the holidays. We postponed it because we did not have the French proposal for inspection on the day it was scheduled - Kotsarev told us, adding that if conclusions emerge from the session, they will be shared with the public.

Elections and protests

Divisions and misunderstandings between academics began after the election of new members of MANU, and culminated after the "French proposal" and the protests against the acceptance of the Negotiating Framework, in which President Kotsarev and Academician Kjulavkova participated.

Whether MANU will be divided into parallel uninational academies or the views of some academics will remain isolated will be clearer in September.

In an interview with Kanal 5, Kjulavkova proposed the establishment of a third Albanian academy, which would be in Macedonia. In an interview for "Vecher" she believes that Badenter's principle is discriminatory towards the Macedonian people.

- Minority ethnic communities are privileged in relation to the majority and constituent Macedonian people - says Qulavkova.

She emphasized that "little by little, our country will start functioning as apartheid, and now the possibility of functioning as a kind of neo-protectorate is opening up. All this is, of course, wrapped solemnly in an empty, empty rhetoric.

Begetti: You don't stay together by force

Bejeti did not remain obliging and in a column for the "Lime" newspaper he told Kjulavkova: "We can separate from MANU immediately without hesitation. We accept the 'thrown gauntlet'! We have already proven that we know how to make scientific and educational institutions even better than them."

- If they don't want us in their bosoms, represented as we are, without consulting other fellow Albanians, because I believe they have no objection, I publicly declare that we can create it, but no longer illegally, informally and privately, as we did in the past with our original institutions, but to part immediately and without hesitation with all financial, spatial and technical means. Let's immediately withdraw 30 percent of the public budget from MANU and have our share with all the public funds that are created from the public money of the taxpayers. We don't always stay together and instead of scientific productivity, we lose creative energy, dealing with daily politics and ethnic, cultural, confessional fragmentations, etc. – wrote Begeti.

He has remarks on the election of new members of MANU and on "some academics who have not moved away from the mentality of the past".

- At the last competition, in the Department of Social Sciences that I lead, out of seven members, we passed the candidate Prof. Dr. Mirushe Hoxha and the Assembly - they overthrew him! Her scientific and academic creativity (three master's degrees and two doctorates, most of which are international) with a resume of more than 20 pages, surpasses the work of at least half of the existing members of the Academy and she did not pass again - writes Bejetti.

It is not the first time that there has been a clash between academics on an inter-ethnic basis. The public remembers the controversial Encyclopedia, which was later destroyed, and MANU raised the tension with the "territory exchange project".

"We are not Economic chamber, so let's divide into Macedonian and Albanian"

Academics who wanted to remain anonymous in a conversation with "Sloboden Pechat" say that MANU does not need inflammatory statements about parallel academies.

- We don't need such statements. MANU is not a Chamber of Commerce, so there should be a Chamber of Commerce of Macedonia and a Chamber of Commerce of Northwest Macedonia. MANU is a scientific institution and we should come out to the public with scientific arguments and facts about the current situation, not with political statements and views. We don't need two academies, but an inclusive process and debate for the prosperity and development of the state - says one of the academics.

 

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