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Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Wire-tap scandal brings thousands out against Macedonian leader

By Matt Robinson and Fatos Bytyci SKOPJE (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Macedonia's capital on Sunday, waving Macedonian and Albanian flags in a dramatic display of ethnic unity against a government on the ropes after months of damaging wire-tap revelations. Crowds packed the central avenue in front of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's government office, angry over a flood of disclosures that the West says have cast serious doubt on the state of democracy in the former Yugoslav republic. The crisis rocking Gruevski's nine-year conservative rule is the worst since Western diplomacy dragged the country from the brink of all-out civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, promising it a path to European Union and NATO membership. A dispute with neighbouring Greece over Macedonia’s name has halted its Western integration, and in that time critics say Gruevski has tilted to the right, stoking nationalism and monopolising power in coalition with a party of ethnic Albanian former guerrillas.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com