Macedonia’s forgotten Turkish minority
There is no water for daily tasks in Bucim, a remote Turkish village in the southeast of the country.
by Marina von König in Bucim, Macedonia
The dancing circle of wedding guests follows young Turkish man who pours water from a metal canister on the dusty ground in front of a small house in Bucim a remote village in the east of Macedonia. 22-year old Erkan Aliov, brother of the groom, had to drive two kilometres towards the main road to fetch some water for the wedding of his brother.
His family has been lucky, Erkan is the only villager with a car. He and his sister Emine, both of them living in Germany, paid the wedding costs.
Most families here made their living at local copper mines –closed and abandoned since the early 90s. Now, their main income derives from growing tobacco on barren fields in this region between Stip and Strumica, one of the most deprived in the country.
There is growing despair among Turks in this hilly part of the country.
For them, the last years have highlighted how much they have been ignored. They feel that money and attention is available for the bigger Albanian minority and Roma, but their plight has been forgotten.
Barely touched
The scenery of the region – home to some dozen Turkish villages – is idyllic, with hills and trees as far as the eye can see.
Yet, the beauty is only skin deep, for this is one of Macedonia’s poorest regions.
The yearly prospects of Turkish families depend on how much tobacco they will sell. They are happy if they can earn 1000 Euro a year. With some 20 Euro of monthly social benefits this money is hardly enough to sustain families in the village.
But as 27-year old local community leader Ilmi Osmanov explains, hardly anything is being done.
“We are angry because we are not getting any help. No one in this municipality thinks about us, and we need running water, a good road, access to health care and to a secondary school for our children.”
“Every time elections are approaching we get a visit from local politicians, who promise us loads of things, but nothing happens,” Ilmi Osmanov says.
One of the unfulfilled promises is an asphalted road that would connect Bucim with the main road to nearby Radovis.
“We got the first three hundred meters asphalted almost three years ago, before the elections. I calculated that we need twelve more elections to get the village connected to the main road,” Ilmi Osmanov jokes.
Prospects dim
There is more to it than just an unfinished road.
An abandoned copper mine, that lies just a few hundred meters from the village has contaminated the area, including rivers and soil. On a windy day, toxic dust is blown around the area leaving children and adults with swollen faces for days.
There is no running water here – a well that supplied the village with water has almost dried out.
With the income of families going down for the last decade, houses are in urgent need of repair.
Many of them stand abandoned as those Turks who had managed to save some money, emigrated to Turkey, Germany and Holland.
In winter, Bucim and the neighbouring Turkish villages are cut off from the rest of the country and the villagers are left without any medical care.
Most of the almost one hundred children in the village finish only the village-based primary school, where they are taught in Turkish. Road conditions in winter do not allow them to visit a secondary school in Radovis and so many of them speak only little Macedonian – left with no prospects.
Parents here want a different life for their children.
Politicians argue the situation is not so dim. “We have not neglected them. Anyway, these are just a few disadvantaged villages in the east of the country,” says Kenan Hasipi, member of parliament and the President of the Turkish Democratic Party (TDP).
Kenan Hasipi comes from Western Macedonia, where the Turkish minority has partly assimilated with the local Albanian community and is leading a more urban life than in the East.
He accepts that the living conditions of Turks in villages around Radovis are bad, but denies that they have been neglected. “We do everything here in the Parliament to improve their life,” he says.
But for the Bucim villagers these words are empty – for they have felt their life only deteriorating in the last decade.
by Marina von König in Bucim, Macedonia
The dancing circle of wedding guests follows young Turkish man who pours water from a metal canister on the dusty ground in front of a small house in Bucim a remote village in the east of Macedonia. 22-year old Erkan Aliov, brother of the groom, had to drive two kilometres towards the main road to fetch some water for the wedding of his brother.
His family has been lucky, Erkan is the only villager with a car. He and his sister Emine, both of them living in Germany, paid the wedding costs.
Most families here made their living at local copper mines –closed and abandoned since the early 90s. Now, their main income derives from growing tobacco on barren fields in this region between Stip and Strumica, one of the most deprived in the country.
There is growing despair among Turks in this hilly part of the country.
For them, the last years have highlighted how much they have been ignored. They feel that money and attention is available for the bigger Albanian minority and Roma, but their plight has been forgotten.
Barely touched
The scenery of the region – home to some dozen Turkish villages – is idyllic, with hills and trees as far as the eye can see.
Yet, the beauty is only skin deep, for this is one of Macedonia’s poorest regions.
The yearly prospects of Turkish families depend on how much tobacco they will sell. They are happy if they can earn 1000 Euro a year. With some 20 Euro of monthly social benefits this money is hardly enough to sustain families in the village.
But as 27-year old local community leader Ilmi Osmanov explains, hardly anything is being done.
“We are angry because we are not getting any help. No one in this municipality thinks about us, and we need running water, a good road, access to health care and to a secondary school for our children.”
“Every time elections are approaching we get a visit from local politicians, who promise us loads of things, but nothing happens,” Ilmi Osmanov says.
One of the unfulfilled promises is an asphalted road that would connect Bucim with the main road to nearby Radovis.
“We got the first three hundred meters asphalted almost three years ago, before the elections. I calculated that we need twelve more elections to get the village connected to the main road,” Ilmi Osmanov jokes.
Prospects dim
There is more to it than just an unfinished road.
An abandoned copper mine, that lies just a few hundred meters from the village has contaminated the area, including rivers and soil. On a windy day, toxic dust is blown around the area leaving children and adults with swollen faces for days.
There is no running water here – a well that supplied the village with water has almost dried out.
With the income of families going down for the last decade, houses are in urgent need of repair.
Many of them stand abandoned as those Turks who had managed to save some money, emigrated to Turkey, Germany and Holland.
In winter, Bucim and the neighbouring Turkish villages are cut off from the rest of the country and the villagers are left without any medical care.
Most of the almost one hundred children in the village finish only the village-based primary school, where they are taught in Turkish. Road conditions in winter do not allow them to visit a secondary school in Radovis and so many of them speak only little Macedonian – left with no prospects.
Parents here want a different life for their children.
Politicians argue the situation is not so dim. “We have not neglected them. Anyway, these are just a few disadvantaged villages in the east of the country,” says Kenan Hasipi, member of parliament and the President of the Turkish Democratic Party (TDP).
Kenan Hasipi comes from Western Macedonia, where the Turkish minority has partly assimilated with the local Albanian community and is leading a more urban life than in the East.
He accepts that the living conditions of Turks in villages around Radovis are bad, but denies that they have been neglected. “We do everything here in the Parliament to improve their life,” he says.
But for the Bucim villagers these words are empty – for they have felt their life only deteriorating in the last decade.
posted by Marina von König at 3:22 AM
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