Kumanovo clashes

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a news conference after the NATO Force Integration Unit inauguration in Vilnius, Lithuania, September 3, 2015. - Photo: REUTERS / Ints Kalnins

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not plan to travel to Skopje, but expects Macedonian (FYROM) Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to visit NATO in Brussels on Monday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not plan to travel to Skopje, but expects Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to visit NATO in Brussels on Monday.

Dimitrov, who is part of the new Macedonian government elected last Wednesday, will travel to Greece by invitation of his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias. The exact time of the visit has not yet been revealed.

Photo: Nikola Dimitrijevic / Tanjug

Unrest in Macedonia could easily erupt into ethnic conflict between Macedonians and Albanians, said last night political-military analyst Zoran Dragisic.

The Albanian ambassador in Skopje was on Monday "called to a meeting at Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs," the ministry has announced.

The reason are "the frequent offensive statements and comments by officials of the Republic of Albania, addressed to the Republic of Macedonia and its citizens."

Albania on Thursday warned FYROM (Macedonia), where Albanians make up around a quarter of the population, not to try and turn a political crisis into an ethnic one, EurActiv.com reports.

Earlier this month, Macedonia's president, Gjorge Ivanov, refused to give Social Democrat Zoran Zaev a mandate to form a coalition government with ethnic Albanian parties.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has sent a letter to EU member-states, NATO's secretary-general, and the country's "strategic partners - the US and Turkey."

In the second official statement in less than a day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that foreign interference in Macedonia's affairs had taken on extreme forms.

Russia is concerned over the escalation of the political crisis in Macedonia (FYROM) and is calling on the West to stop its interference in the country's internal affairs, the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

Political leaders in Albania and Kosovo have condemned the decision on Wednesday by Macedonia President Gjorje Ivanov to refuse the offer of a mandate to the Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev because of his alliance with Macedonia's ethnic Albanian parties.