OHRID, Macedonia, (Islamweb & News Agencies) -Macedonia started celebrating its National Day public holiday Thursday amid growing hopes that peace is at last within reach following a preliminary agreement between ethnic Albanian and Macedonian Slav parties.
Peace talks on Wednesday ended with Western mediators hailing a conditional agreement on the key issue of language. (Read photo caption below).
While negotiations are to continue Friday towards a full peace accord encompassing other issues that must also be hammered out, the early sign of progress gave Macedonians optimism that a political solution was on its way to end a six-month ethnic Albanian revolt for equal rights that had threatened to bring another Balkans war.
The breakthrough on making Albanian an official language in the former Yugoslav state came after five days of gruelling negotiations mediated by Western envoys in this southwestern Macedonian town.
At the end of Wednesday's talks, US envoy James Pardew hailed the outcome as a "good deal", saying it permitted Albanian as an official language alongside Macedonian in areas where ethnic Albanians made up at least 20 percent of the population.
Ethnic Albanians make up about a third of Macedonia's two million people. Most live in the north, near the border with Kosovo, and in the west, near Albania.
European Union envoy Francois Leotard said: "I want to use this occasion and this positive news to wish all the citizens of Macedonia a very happy national holiday."
There was no immediate word from ethnic Albanian fighters, whose cooperation will be necessary for any final agreement.
On Tuesday, the fighters' political leader, Ali Ahmeti, said he was "not optimistic at all" about the talks.
There have been regular clashes between Albanian fighters and the Slav-dominated government forces in the north of the country despite a July 5 ceasefire, raising fears that the whole country might slip into all-out civil war should the talks fail.
In separate statements, Leotard, Pardew and Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski all stressed that Wednesday's provisional agreement hinged on a final deal being struck on all outstanding issues.
That essentially means an accord on the control and composition of local police forces in areas populated by ethnic Albanians.
Under the deal on language, Albanian would also be used in communication between ethnic Albanian citizens and government departments and agencies, as well as in parliamentary pleniary sessions and committees.
Macedonian, however, will remain the sole language of central government and in international relations.
European Union negotiator Francois Leotard (L) and U.S. special envoy James Pardew talk before a session of crisis talks on Western peace proposals in Ohrid, July 31, 2001. Pardew expressed optimism for the first time in negotiations aimed at ending an ethnic Albanian armed revolt of equal rights and thereby avoiding a fifth Balkan war in the last decade. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)