Germany Backs Probe Into Macedonia Bloodshed

Steinmeier told a joint press conference with his Albanian counterpart, Ditmir Bushati, in Berlin that Albania's call for an international probe was justified.

"Last week's incident scared Europe. We hope the situation will not escalate and the authorities in Macedonia will make efforts towards a full and transparent investigation," he said. 

"Macedonia is not only a German but a European concern," he added.

A two-day-long shootout between the police and an armed group in the ethnically mixed Macedonian town of Kumanovo on May 9-10 left 22 people dead, including eight police officers.

The carnage prompted the resignations of Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska and Transportation Minister Mile Janakieski.

The police operation happened against a backdrop of deep political crisis in Macedonia revolving around opposition claims that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski ordered the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people.

Since February, the opposition has been releasing taped conversations that appear to show the government's involvement in a wide range of misdeeds, including electoral fraud, abuse of the justice system and covering up for the murder of a young man by a police officer.

Two weeks after the clashes in Kumanovo, questions remain about who was behind the armed group, what its political goals were and what kind of attacks they were planning.

At least a quarter of Macedonia's population is ethnic Albanian. On Thursday the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama welcomed Germany's backing for the probe.

"Grateful for Germany's support for an international probe for Kumanovo," Rama wrote on twitter. "Justice for Kumanovo a stepping stone for coexistence," he added.