Conflict resolution and interethnic disputes, the 2001 crisis in FYROM and the case of the Ochrid Αgreement. Sotiriou

Abstract

The beginning of 21st century can be characterized as a turning point for the history of FYROM. The greatest challenge, so far, since its independence from Yugoslavia, brought the state in the front door of a bloody civil war. However, the interstate political procedures alongside with the prompt reaction of international diplomacy, succeeded not only in preventing one more bloody war in the region, but also in establishing an new era in the resolution of crisis. This thesis, by drawing a detailed picture on the background of the conflict, analyzes, in depth, the procedures and the actions taken by the international diplomacy to avoid an impending bloodbath. We can characterize the case of 2001 conflict in FYROM, as a ‘zero-sum’, in which the author analyzes, in three phases, the procedure of conflict resolution. It starts from preventing a crisis to suppressing it, and finally from upholding peace to consolidating it. The methodology of analysis, which is used in this thesis, is the political analysis, with case study the 2001 crisis in FYROM and the Ochrid Framework Agreement, of primary and secondary resources, based on the action of the global presence in the area, before, at the time of the crisis resolution and after it.