What is Illyrida?
Ilirida or Illyrida is unofficial region in the western part of FYROM, with a considerable number of Albanian populaton.
History
On March 24, 1990, in the village of Šipkovica near Tetovo, several ethnic Albanian political activists declared the political autonomy in the form of an autonomous state called Ilirida. The declaration had only symbolic meaning and the idea of an autonomous state of Ilirida is not officially accepted by the ethnic Albanian politicians in FYROM.
On August 13 2001 the leaders of the most relevant Slav parties signed the Ohrid Agreement, which ended the clashes between the regular Slav forces and the Albanian rebels from the National Liberation Army, which was, according to the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) of the United States (US), not an army but rather a loosely-organized terrorist group which calls for the unification of ethnic Albanian areas of the Western Balkans.[1]. With the Ohrid Agreement, the Slavic government pledged to improve the rights of the Albanian population, that makes up 25.3 percent of the population. Those rights include improvements of the status of the Albanian language, increasing the participation of ethnic Albanians in government institutions, police and army and a new model of decentralization. The leaders of the National Liberation Army agreed to give up any separatist demands, to fully recognise all Slavic institutions and disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force.
Borders
There are different views among FYROM Albanians about borders and size of the proposed state. Some of them claim that Ilirida should include municipalities with Albanian majority, others claim that it also should include municipalities with Slavic majority and large Albanian minority (this also include Skopje, the capital), while most extreme views claim that Ilirida should include 2/3 of FYROM.
Source wikipedia.org
My question too many is, should Greece support the creation of such a state or perhaps renaming all of FYROM this name? What stops us from siding with the Albanians in FYROM? I understand some of you may misunderstand me, and perhaps assume I am speaking about physically aiding the Albanians. This is not what I am proposing, I am simply suggesting politically, recognizing its right to exist.
Now let me make it perfectly clear that I do not support the ideology of Greater Albania, I remain loyal to my Serbian Brothers in saying that Kosovo is Serbia. I also remain loyal to Hellenism in my views for liberation for Northern Epirus. However, when it comes to my so called Orthodox Brothers in FYROM, why should I care what the Albanians do? The Albanians might be just be what Greece needs to force the Slavic Government of FYROM into accepting historical truth and ending the name dispute.
Who would we upset besides FYROM with such a move? No one, the United States would praise us, if the Serbs said anything, we can simply remind them that we support them on Kosovo, yet they do not support us on Macedonia and that would be the end of that, but let us not get ahead of ourselves. This is nothing more then a question, an idea, a far fetched proposal and nothing more.
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