During her official visit to North Macedonia, the Albanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elisa Spiropali, made a strong statement in terms of content and diplomatic wording. Speaking about “reciprocity in the treatment of minorities,” Spiropali mentioned Albanians in North Macedonia in the same sentence as the Macedonian minority in Albania, treating them de facto as a minority.
The statement was made within the framework of the official agenda of the visit and was not corrected or clarified at the moment, despite its political and symbolic weight. Albanians in North Macedonia are not a minority, but a state-forming people, with over 30 percent of the population, a constitutional, historical and demographic factor in this country. This special status is recognized not only politically, but also legally, through the Ohrid Agreement and the constitutional order of the country.
The use of the terminology of "reciprocity between minorities" by the Albanian Foreign Minister constitutes a serious deviation from political and historical truth. With this formulation, Albanians are moved from a state-forming subject to a diplomatic object, equating them with national minorities, which contradicts the official positions of the Albanian state to date.
Albanians outside the administrative borders of the Republic of Albania are not a technical element of diplomacy nor a rhetorical instrument of official visits. They are an integral part of the national core and the protection of their political status constitutes a constitutional and moral obligation of Albania. Any relativization of this status, especially by the highest representatives of Albanian diplomacy, produces political consequences and harms the national interest.
Spiropali's statement cannot be considered an innocent diplomatic slip. In the context of an official visit to Skopje, it takes on even greater weight, since diplomatic signals of this level are read and interpreted as state positions. Equating the Albanians of North Macedonia with national minorities legitimizes narratives that have for decades aimed to minimize their state-forming role.
In the absence of an immediate clarification, the statement remains registered as one of the most serious diplomatic blunders of recent times, articulated not in a domestic context, but during an official visit to the country where Albanians constitute one of the main pillars of the state.
