I hoped to wake up in Skopje this morning; in the Balkans following in the footsteps of Saki who was there before the First World War as foreign corespondent for The Morning Post; a warm, sunny Easter weekend ahead.
It’s the capital of North Macedonia and Parliamentary elections were scheduled for Sunday; our Easter Sunday but not their’s. It was the same a year ago in Ukraine. It was an Anglican Easter Sunday, but a Russian Palm Sunday. In the absence of palms it is Willow Sunday. These ladies were on their way to church clutching willow fronds. I took the picture in east Ukraine in April last year, though it has a flavour of Ireland in the 1950s.
North Macedonia became a full member of NATO at the end of last month although EU membership is elusive, France as usual saying “non“. The election has been deferred and my opportunity to join another Election Observation Mission and post a picture of the view from my hotel room, kaput. With a population of about 2 million it’s a bit bigger than Lesotho and a bit smaller tham Slovenia. Did I mention, when I was posted to Belize I was told it’s a bit bigger than Wales? A Guardsman understands that better than almost 9,000 square miles. You will not be surprised that many invaders’ boots have tramped over NM. The plucky North Macedonians have had to ride some punches.
It was part of the kingdom of Paeonia (sounds like a nasty skin disease) then Persian and Roman; something the English have in common with North Macedonians. I was looking forward to divulging this in rural polling stations when the polling staff and I were at a loss for words. Actually I’m often a bit tongue-tied on election missions but only because I’m asked inappropriate questions. If I can get the first remark in, everything goes well. I’ve hopped around like a hoopoe and promised to be married in a rural village in Belarus, should I be planning a wedding in that country.
But what of the North Macedonians? A long, long time ago it was a little bit of the Byzantine Empire, then Ottoman Empire, until the Serbs took over only to be ousted by Bulgaria. Then it was given back to Serbia until the Second World War when Bulgaria took it back. Then part of Yugoslavia until it finally gained independence in 1991.
Some of Saki’s stories owe something to his sojourn in the Balkans. You might like to read The Easter Egg.
Refreshingly and characteristically eclectic today. Astonishingly, the North Macedonians had to change the name of their country to appease the Greeks before they were allowed to join NATO and align more with the West (though France had not been very encouraging re EU membership). Memories in the Balkans tend to be (too) long — what’s a few hundred or even a few thousand years, after all, to temper strong feelings? As it appears that, unlike Poland, they have postponed their elections, perhaps you will be able to monitor them, after all.
Great fun to see the Saki story, with the typical, nicely sardonic point of view. The stories are little gems. Our cat (who led a fairly cosseted life for her 18 years) was named Esmé after the eponymous hyena in the Saki story: http://eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Esm.shtml