Memory landscapes in (post)Yugoslavia - The case of North Macedonia

Résumé 0

Having faced a veto by Bulgaria in its EU accession process for the third time, North Macedonia finds itself at the crossroads of various power interplays that are strongly embedded in memory politics. University Professor Dr. Senka Anastasova theorizes relations between history, historiography and narrative identities, and their ramifications in the context of memory politics. Specifically, she analyzes the memoryscape of North Macedonia, contextualizing the external pressures to North Macedonia’s EU accession process, implemented by EU member states Greece and Bulgaria. Reflecting on the importance of the socialist Yugoslav heritage of gender politics and Yugonostalgia, Anastasova outlines the numerous memory strategies used by the Macedonian political elites. In doing so, she accounts for the convergences and divergences between the two largest (Macedonian and Albanian) communities of North Macedonia. Her analysis of the project Skopje 2014, just one of the revisionist projects of the political elites, gives us an insight into the complicated memory struggles within and outside of North Macedonia.