Ohrid Conference Day 3: Lectures and Free Time

Those of you who really know me, know that I can’t sleep without an eye mask (for those of you who don’t really know me, start at the beginning again).  This all started back in 9^th grade I think when someone gave me one for Christmas (Shawna!) and I tried it out. It seriously increases my ability to sleep well and wake more rested. I will even use it after a hurricane with no power around for 100 miles. J But anyway, the sun was killer in this hotel room and I woke up by about 8:30 am. Breakfast was a repeat of the day before, but people came down at a later time than yesterday. I guess a lot of people stayed out until 3 am!

We started at 11:30 (can you picture a US conference starting at 11:30? We are killers for time and early starts!) with a lecture by Dr. Mersel Biliali on “Challenges of Western Balkans with the European Countries.” His talk was pretty interesting, even if he did just read from a paper he had written (heck I would too if I had to give a speech in another language!). His main argument was that the current social problems in vital areas come from a history that is not forgotten. The EU helped with the solutions to the Balkan Wars, but they did so by funding solutions (such as supporting the states) that were dedicated to concrete solutions to improve infrastructure.  He then went on to list the main problems that countries of the Western Balkans have:

Serbia: The main problem is Kosovo. He claims that while “it is difficult to accept a new reality,” they really need to. They also have problems with BiH as a state. In addition to problems with Croatia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH): The stagnation of the economy is the main problem. Aid is necessary to continue institutional efficiency. They need to review the Dayton Agreement.

Kosovo: Obviously the issue with Serbia, but after that there is North Mitrovica which is seeking succession from Kosovo. There is a cautious neighborhood policy with Kosovo from the EU because it is seeking candidate status. He suggests that KFOR stay there, because conflict is possible. Citizens of Kosovo have problems with their travel documents as well, especially into Serbia.

Macedonia: They withdrew from the integration based politics recently, and the current government is undermining their chances to get into the EU. The railroad, highways, and pipelines have been lost due to the dispute with Greece/EU.

He believes that NATO should be present in the area to ease the possibility of outbreak of conflict; yet their forces should decrease as the region gets closer to joining the EU. He believes that the name inssue with Greece and Macedonia is the government’s slight of hand. When they get you focused on this, you are not focused on the horrible economy that MK currently has. (It made me think of the Russo-Japanese War, which in case you didn’t know backfired against Russia which was trying to use it as a distraction.) One of the best quotes was “If Europe isn’t brought to the Balkans, the Balkans will be brought to Europe.” He did follow the “party line” (by party I mean most scholars) that any changing of the borders will destabilize the whole region. I disagree with this sentiment, but do agree with the idea that if everyone has their own nation, then ethnic conflict will be more prevalent.

After a walk and lunch, we were transported to Ohrid for some site seeing. Daniel, Vlado (new guy we met on the way down who is pretty dang cool, if I do say so myself), and I went up to see the churches and fortress that we always see when we go to Ohrid. After walking around and taking in the beauty, we stopped for “coffee” and a view.

cherry blossoms?

Then we went back to the conference for the last lecture of the day. This one was by Dr. Zoran Ilievski about “Turkey: EU Member Candidate or Competitor? “ He was by far the most interesting talk. He Discussed how political mythology is based on images, such as this one:

What does it imply? We did about three or four of these before he moved into his discussion. (Google Turkey and EU and go to images to see the others we used.) He described the Turkish Foreign policy:

1.      A balance of security and freedom [like all countries]

2.      Zero problems with their neighbors. (This is more of a goal than reality right now).

3.      Proactive engagement policies in surrounding regions, with high-level political dialogue with a vision oriented foreign policy.

4.      Economic independence (but they are missing an economic diplomacy wing)

5.      Multicultural coexistence in Middle East, Balkans and the Caucus.

6.      Common understanding of security, balanced and systematic relations with global powers. (the idea that security for one is loss for another, this is in response to that idea)

Is a “Turkey Schengen” region out of the question? Could they create an economic union with the surrounding states for a market or people?  Despite that idea, the rhetoric is harming mediation powers because the west I afraid of recognizing Turkey. In 2010, a Gallup Poll found that MK is the only non-Muslim country in the Balkans to support Turkey with a majority of support.

After his lecture, we had dinner followed by clubbing! Instead of clubbing, I went to meet with Emilija for a drink at the Irish Pub. It was nice to meet and talk with her, since we only get together when I get down to Ohrid. We had a great time talking with each other over a drink. But then we were both exhausted, so we just went home. She was nice enough to drive me back to the hotel center so I didn’t have to take a cab. Then sleep, precious precious sleep.

See you around the globe!

Ohrid Conference Day 2: Lectures galore!

Day Two of the week of conferences started with breakfast, decent food, a European style breakfast (I like my American style with lots of food and options for vegetarians, not just meat, cheese, bread, tomatoes, and cucumbers) [ok, that is over simplifying it, but  (thanks google!) an European breakfast usually consists of bread, cheese, meat, and possibly fruit. An American breakfast usually has eggs, meat, cereal, toast, fruit. They claim the major difference is hot vs. cold.] Anyway, basically it was Daniel and I there for the first 30 minutes, because Macedonians aren’t big breakfast eaters.

I think that the conferences can speak for themselves, and I want to share what I learned and questioned while there. So instead of glossing over the few presentations, I will actually go into detail with them. Feel free to come back in a week or gloss over the next few posts as I go into detail.

The first talk was with Karolina Ristova-Asterud. She was talking about “Building a European Polity.” A polity is a very common phrase used when discussing the European Union (EU). According to D Held, a polity is an empirical and normative model o a political community as a starting reference and embedded in the western logos. But a Wiberian definition includes a political formation or state composed of (1) hierarchical power or organization or order that is included under the threat of monopolized force (2) over people inhabitants (3) on a defined geographical territory.

But the main question is how do we treat the EU? As a state? Post state? New type of organization? Intergovernmental organization? If we treat it as an INTERGOVERNMENTAL POLITY, the member states are the decisive players, no matter how much power is transferred, it will continue in this fashion, it strengthens the power and sovereignty of the state. Is this a new form of hegemony of big states over little states, or is it the little states more powerful in the EU? If we treat it as a SUI GENERIS POLITY (meaning a new kind), we can’t compare it to anything else be it states or intergovernmental organizations.  It has pluralism in policy creation, functional diversification between state and non state actors, lacks hierarchy but has interdependence, and informality in the decision making process. If we treat it as a COMPARATIVE POLITY, we recognize that it is not a state nor an international organization but the member state’s experience is (and should be) influential and used in building the EU policy.  Many characters of the state are included, but not all.  

Dr. Ristova-Asterud marks four perspectives of EU polity in the future:

(1)    Return to classical perspective of international organizations. This would mean not only applying the brakes, but turn back the clock. Everything should be a consensus.

(2)    As intergovernmental technopolis (she thinks this is most likely). What it is now, remains the same and stops integration at the Lisbon treaty.

(3)    Becomes a federal parliamentary state. A daring proposal suggests a higher commitment of power.

(4)    Becomes a supranational parliamentary. It will be a sui generis polity (post sovereignty) that is beyond statehood with mixed multi-levels of governance.

After her talk, we went to lunch! One thing I have to say, is they had vegetarian options every day for every meal. (This is surprising in Macedonia- most of the time, people ask me what vegetarianism is.) Oh, and they give us dessert. I love me some dessert. A group of us then went for a 20 minute walk along the lake front, I mean why not? It’s beautiful and there!

The next talk was by the UK Ambassador to Macedonia, Christopher Yvon. He actually was very interesting to listen too, because he took questions and was frank and not totally diplomatic with us. (He was obviously representing the UK and had to say all the official positions, but he was able to do so in most ways that sounded like he wasn’t just spouting party lines. One of the interesting things he said that was true for most foreign services is that they are accountable to parliament which is worried about national purposes and issues, thus the foreign service has to justify their actions abroad to the national parliament. He challenged the idea that NATO is only for security and the EU is only for prosperity. Also, with the EU and enlargement, as he faced questions with this occurring. A question that has often been raised about enlargement is if it will still have conflicts within the boundary of the EU. Will the conflict still exist if the warring countries are within the EU or will that not change anything at all? He did advise MK to better prepare and provide clarity so that the accession process will go more smoothly.

After a short break, we had another lecture. This one was by Dr. Vanco Uzunov entitled “Protection of the EU Single Market Through Competition Policy.”  He started off his lecture with a very controversial proposition: we only go to school to study to make ourselves more competitive. After a small bit of conversation in which some people agreed, and other said they went solely for the purpose of learning, he continued (kind of) into his main topic. He spent the majority of his time explain commonly known economic topics rather than jumping into the main part of his supposed topic. I felt at first that he was talking down to us by explaining concepts that we all should have known already, but he did get into the “meat” of his topic eventually. One interesting concept is that the EU completion is something not found elsewhere in the world. It not only aims to protect the market completion but also to promote and protect market integration between EU members. In addition, apart from addressing private distortions of competition, it also curbs the distortions of the market by its own member states (ex: subsidies for national companies at the expense of other EU countries products). The EU market is also implemented at a multi-level political system, that the EU and member states are both responsible for implementing. At one point, he tried to say that marriage is something that states don’t regulate, and how would we feel if the state tried to tell us who to marry. He said this about three times before I had to speak up and tell him that the state DOES regulate marriage, not only do we have to go and register/get a marriage license, we are only allowed to marry someone of the opposite sex.

Before dinner, we went for another walk. Dinner was interesting, they offered me an omelet. That night, built into the schedule of the conference was “clubbing in Ohrid.” No joke. They offered us transportation to and from Ohrid to go to a club/pup (with two return options 1am and 3am). I was fine and enjoying myself at the pup before they turned on the strobe lights. Ever since I fell down the stairs in Russia strobe lights make me sick if they are on for more than 30 seconds or so. So the last 45 minutes not so fun! But the rest of the time, it was so lovely to sit (and actually DANCE!) with people. We had a blast! The bus that was supposed to take us back at 1am didn’t show up until 1:30, and boy was it cold.

See you around the globe!

Ohrid with Mama!

I guess you are noticing a theme with the post titles...What can I say, not feeling that inventive!

We woke up early to go to Ohrid. I called a cab, but they had no cabs, so we had to walk to the next taxi stand near-by and get a cab. There were only 2 cabs there, and my first woman taxi driver! She was nice and got us there on time. We bought a return ticket to come home that night as well. The bus left Skopje in a way that I had never seen before, it came back the same way. It was difficult to figure it out. We went through Tetovo, Gostivar, and Kichevo before arriving in Ohrid. We slept most of the way there.

When we got there, we changed our “return any time with in 30 days” to the “5:45 bus home to Skopje.” Then we caught a cab to the center. We then wandered around the down town up to the top of the mountain. We stopped into the Paper Making shop and museum on our way up.

We also stopped off at the old Roman Amphitheater. This guy started talking for us for like 10 minutes. Offering to be our guide. No matter how many times we told them that we didn’t need a guide, we still had to chat for a bit. This was just the first in a long line of people who felt the need to tell us that we needed a guide for the city.

Next we went up to the Old Gate and this really old church. There was this nice lady who gave us a personalized tour of the church. She apparently had done her PhD on the church and the frescoes in the church. Apparently she believes that Mary was 14 and Jacob was 80ish and seen more like a father figure. And that Mary was granted a prominent place in this church like she should be in the Christian religion. All in all the paintings were nice and worth paying to go into the church.

We then went up to the fortress, but along the way we met our second annoying person of the day. He was supposedly a professor, and told us about the history of Ohrid. We told him that we couldn’t pay for a guide and didn’t want a guide, but he followed us anyway and said for free! We let him talk and talk and talk and then said that we were going someplace. And he directly asked for money for alcohol from the “Rich Americans.” When he finally left, my mom and I went into the Samuel’s Fortress.

Samuel was a king of Macedonia in the 900s. He was eventually killed by competing forces, but left the foundation for a later Macedonian state. His history is disputed, with the Bulgarians claiming his birthright. (Wikipedia even calls him Samuel of Bulgaria).

There was much infighting while (Macedonia) was under Byzantine control, including the short kingdom of Samuel. King Samuel ruled from Ohrid from roughly 976 to 1014 AD.[1] His kingdom included most of geographic Macedonia.[2] Samuel’s kingdom is one of the historical areas that receives much attention for later nationality struggles: Was Samuel Bulgarian, as he often called himself? Or was he Macedonian, but used Bulgarian for ease? Is his kingdom the beginning of the struggle for international recognition of the ‘down-trodden Macedonian people’?[3] Adding to the confusion, Samuel’s kingdom fell to the Byzantine Empire under Basil II,[4] and afterwards Serbia briefly gained control of the area of Macedonia and established its capital in Skopje. However, the Serbian kingdom also fell to the Byzantine Empire.[5]

---

[1] Panev, 589

[2] Shea,58; Panev, 590

[3] Panev, 589-590; Cosmopoulos, 57; Shea, 58

[4] Elizabeth Barker, Macedonia: Its Place in Balkan Power Politics (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1950), 14; Cosmopoulos 58; Panev, 590

[5] Barry Turner, “Macedonia” in The Statesman’s Yearbook 2011: the Politics, Cultures, and Economies of the World (New York: Palgrave, 2011), 813.

However, we went up to the top and saw a bunch of really cool views of Ohrid! Have I mentioned that it was cold this day? Like Really REALLY COLD! So cold, that my mom sat up in the wind to get her feet warm.

Then we wandered down to this church. We are guessing that it is St. Ohridski, but Mama just kept calling it “The Church of the Warmth” because it was  heated! One of the few places that was. I say it is St. Ohridski, because I think it was his body in there, and the nice lady earlier had told us his body was moved when a church was built.

After the church we went down to the little church on the edge of the mountain. It is just so beautiful there. Just breath taking-ly beautiful.

We walked past the sign that caused so much trouble with a few people, and I took an ironic picture that I will not be posting do avoid further unwarranted criticism. You can contact me if you want to see it. ;)

Then it was randomly wandering into a celebration. Apparently it was like the Voditi, but with wine. You put like 12 barrels of wine in and one is white- you get lots of wine or something if you find the white one.  And they made (I’m assuming) fish stew in a gigantic pot. But they gave out free (nasty) wine.

Then to lunch at Leonardo’s, since Mama had worked at a Leonardo’s way back when. We had pizza and spaghetti alfredo!

We also wandered a bit through the center before meeting up with Emilija (Vensa’s friend that we meet the first time we went to Ohrid) for coffee. It was great to talk with people! (not that we weren’t talking all day Mama). We had a few drinks and met a new friend. We were also just killing time until our bus left.

When we got into Skopje, we just crashed!

Why yes, we HAVE been to Ohrid!

We are finally able to saw that WE HAVE BEEN TO OHRID!!!!

Everyone asks us “Oh where have you been besides Skopje?” And I list off a few towns, but they ALWAYS follow this up with “What about Ohrid? You HAVE to get to Ohrid!” It’s gotten to the point where I always go in my head “ ohasgpoihasgfj8! I know!” but publicly say “I know! I can’t wait!” But now I can say, I have been. It was only for a day, but I saw basically the whole town (minus museums). We also only saw the outside of the churches, and didn’t go into any actually church. We also walked the whole town, but that would be pretty easy, the streets were pretty small.

Jen and I were able to go down with Vesna, Jen’s friend and co-worker at the university. She offered to drive us there because she needed a break. The trip takes about 2 hours from Tetovo through the mountains. The mountains on this side of Macedonia are not as rocky as the other side. They were filled with more trees and less “Caution rocks falling signs!” It was a bit cloudy and rainy the whole way down (and actually the whole day) but I still should have gotten more pictures! I actually didn’t get any on the way down (STUPID!).

When we got to Ohrid, we met up with Vesna’s friend (Emilija) at a café for a coffee. We all sat and talked for a bit, but then Jen and I wanted to give them some alone time, so we went to take pictures at this little old dock. This commenced….

 followed by this:

When we went back, they were done with their coffee and started wandered towards the mountain. We passed through most of the town taking lots of pictures!

I translated this, and went, wait, WHAT...did I translate that correctly? Yup, yup I did: Men know why

Traditional Ohrid architecture



We made it up to this Old Amphitheater, which according to WikiTravel (because they are the only real source about history of the tourist stuff (even the guides don’t tell you about all of the sights)), was from Ancient Greek times. The only Ancient Greek theater in Macedonia, all others are from Roman times.

We then walked towards the Fortifications with a Upper Gate. The whole old town is encircled by a stone wall.

Then we headed to the main church, St. Bogorodica Perivlepta (I think).

We also passed along the First Archbishopric/school of Macedonian.

Also, some GREAT views. The beauty of this city is almost indescribable.  We walked up to Samuel’s Fortress and then down to St. Jovan church along the edge of the lake.

We also encountered this:

It is meant to say “sign” as in your astrological sign:

Then Emilija had to leave us, but Vesna, Jen and I then wandered back to this little pizza joint where we all enjoyed  a different kind of pizza before heading back to the car and driving home.

Ohrid was AMAZING and I can’t wait to go back to see some of the museums and inside some of the churches!