By Nikica Korubin
In the shadow of the alleged concern for a declarative identity, and its flagrant politicization through the European Parliament’s report, fell the real (lack of) care for our true identity: our cultural heritage—specifically, the one protected by UNESCO—Ohrid and the Ohrid region. The beginning of summer is when UNESCO holds its regular sessions and assesses the state of all protected areas under its jurisdiction and the mandate of its expert bodies for World Natural and Cultural Heritage.
But the beginning of summer is also the time when our government—whether led by VMRO-DPMNE or SDSM, it makes no difference—faced with absolute and systemic disregard for implementing UNESCO’s decisions and recommendations, begins lobbying intensively with member states of the World Heritage Committee. This is the “political” body that makes decisions within UNESCO, attempting to alter the draft decisions issued by its expert body—the World Heritage Centre.
Translated into the language of propaganda and the public narrative being fed, this sounds like: “we saved the status of Ohrid and its region and prevented it from being placed on the list of World Heritage in Danger.” But the only thing being “saved” is the arbitrariness of a “captured state” and its lucrative interests, which for years have refused to implement UNESCO’s recommendations—recommendations which are, in essence, calls to preserve our authentic identity: another name for the cultural and natural heritage of Ohrid and the Ohrid region.
So, if UNESCO for nearly half a century—with its expert, financial, and institutional support—has been protecting the “outstanding universal values” of architecture, archaeological heritage, landscape, urbanism, urban development, the lake, the mountains, the ecosystem, the region—while the state and its institutions not only ignore them but actively and mercilessly destroy them; then who is threatening, and who is defending, our identity?
What exactly is being lobbied for at UNESCO? The protection of destruction? What is this time being bought for? For the “outstanding universal values” to completely vanish, so that even the very reason why Ohrid and its region were recognized as “exceptional and unique natural and cultural heritage” in the first place disappears? What was the time bought from previous lobbying used for—lobbying which delayed the only decision that could (or could have) saved the “remnants of outstanding universal values”?
And so, the government and its institutions can thank Kazakhstan and Turkey for submitting the amendment that delayed action once more and for “securing a political victory.” And perhaps they can even explain to us why they lobbied for the removal of the “feasibility study for coastal zone planning of Lake Ohrid” from the decision, or why they don’t want a clear “timeline for implementation of all previous recommendations”? Or maybe we should ask the delegations of Kazakhstan and Turkey?
After all, isn’t this about identity? Or is this perhaps too complex and “unfit” an identity—one that requires genuine care, love, and commitment, that demands identification with one’s own—unlike the shallow phrases and hollow clichés about “the threat to Macedonian identity”? The identity is indeed under threat—but only from ourselves. From all those obligated to care for it. From all those lobbying against it. From all those choosing propaganda over truth. From all those who hide—both institutionally and individually. From the field that remains silent. From the “experts” actively participating in the façade of concern for cultural heritage.
This is the only identity we could (have) defend(ed). The cultural and civilizational one. And this is how the truth of a spoken word is measured: by the attitude towards one’s own country, one’s cultural and natural heritage, one’s institutions, one’s citizens, truth itself, and the functionality of a society and a system based on the rule of law.
In fact, the state’s approach to UNESCO is a mirrored matrix of its approach to the EU—and it serves as a benchmark for North Macedonia’s path to EU accession. If Ohrid and its region were to be placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, that would mean direct involvement from UNESCO, with its full expert and educational (far more important than financial) capacity for management, conservation, and protection of cultural and natural heritage—something from which we would all benefit. All of us—except “the authorities and the clans,” and their monopolies in all spheres, the very ones who brought us to this point.
Just like EU accession would be a direct entry into a world of rules, systems, and expertise—something that would benefit us all. All of us—except the same actors described above, for whom “identity” is clearly nothing more than a smokescreen and a convenient tool for inaction. Because if it were the other way around—or if we wanted it to be the other way around—they wouldn’t be lobbying for perception and party, for themselves, but for Ohrid and its region. They’d be lobbying for the cultural heritage that is vanishing before our eyes. They’d be lobbying for all of us.
They’d be lobbying for—not against—identity: our cultural and natural heritage.