Kosovo–North Macedonia border

A line drawn without Kosovo

In February 2001 Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia signed a treaty fixing their whole common border, including the stretch along Kosovo, then under UN administration. Macedonia could only negotiate with Belgrade, since UN Resolution 1244 treated Kosovo as part of Yugoslavia, but Kosovo Albanian leaders said repeatedly that they would not recognise the line. Some analysts saw the agreement as one trigger for the armed conflict in Macedonia that began in March 2001.^[2]

The fighting in 2001 took place on the Macedonian side of the border, in Albanian-inhabited villages such as Tanuševci, whose people have relatives across the line in Kosovo. Kosovo commission members later described the 2001 agreement as illegal and as a threat to local people’s property.^[1]

From dispute to demarcation

In 2006 the question flared again. Macedonia wanted the border demarcated before Kosovo’s final status was decided, and Kosovo’s leaders wanted to wait. After Kosovo’s government declared that the border could not be changed, Macedonia’s prime minister Vlado Bučkovski called demarcation a technical matter, and his Kosovo counterpart Agim Çeku agreed.^[3]

Kosovo declared independence on 17 February 2008, and the Ahtisaari plan included the 2001 line. A joint commission, working under a protocol signed in Skopje on 18 April 2008 and meeting first at the International Civilian Office in Pristina, marked it with border pyramids between April 2008 and December 2009. Some residents found their homes on the other side of the line, which made managing their property complicated.^[1]

“…what remains is that we politicians have a joint photo next to a rock at the day of demarcation and to have all this story ended.”^[3]