Several hundred Albanians from Kosovo have arrived in Skopje on Monday to take part in the protest staged in front of the Macedonian government building, held on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Kumanovo armed incident.
They arrived in Skopje by bus, and their main organizer is Albin Kurti, the leader of the radical political Self-Determination Movement in Kosovo.
Kurti announced via social networks that he will attend the protest, whose participants demand halting the legal proceedings against the terrorist group believed to have carried out the attacks in Kumanovo on May 9-10 last year, and which infiltrated on Macedonian territory from Kosovo. Eight Macedonian police officers were killed in the fatal clashes.
Albin Kurti
The demonstrators also demanded the end of the terror exerted against the Albanians in Macedonia, as well as, according to them, the staged court proceedings led against the cases known in the public as 'Monster' and 'Diva Naselba'.
The usual decor of the Tuesday protests involved thousands of Albanian and Kosovar flags, as well as EU and US flags, complemented by shouts such as 'UCK' - the Albanian abbreviation of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and 'Greater Albania'.
But truth be told, the protest was not marked by one single incident or demolition of buildings, as it is the case with the protests carried out by the followers of the 'I Protest' civil initiative.
Kurti is one of the most radical political figures in Kosovo. He served as a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander and now heads the Self-Determination Movement. He is a fierce adversary of the current Kosovo government and is particularly hostile against current President Hashim Thaci.
Last year, Kurti spent one month in jail after the police have stormed the party's headquarters. His arrest was preceded by a protest organized by the Self-Determination Movement.
He was revolted by the implementation of the Brussels agreement on the establishment of community of Serbian municipalities. His rhetoric always calls for unification of Kosovo and Albania and suspending all relations with Serbian politicians.