What happened: On the Day of the Albanian alphabet, late in the evening, unknown perpetrators
vandalized the Museum of Albanian Alphabet in Bitola. The perpetrators smashed the glass front
door of the museum with paving bricks, and hung a poster featuring a lion with a sword who cuts
heads of the two-headed eagle with a sword and wrote “Death to Shiptars”. Over the plaque, they
placed another poster that reads “Stop Shiptar-ization” and crossed out the Albanian national
symbol − a double-headed eagle.
Date, time and location of the incident: 21 November, around 23:00, Museum of Albanian Alphabet,
Bitola.
Source of information: Electronic media MKD.mk. , SDK.mk. 24vesti, TV Tera.
Victim(s) involved: Aside from the material damage, there were no victims of this incident.
Type of the crime(s): Damage to objects of others (Article 243, CC), Causing hatred, discord or
intolerance on national, racial, religious and other discriminatory ground (Article 319, CC).
Perpetrator(s): 2 unknown perpetrators.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity and
the bias indicators are:
1. Target location – the target museum is the Museum of Albanian Alphabet in Bitola;
2. Time – the incident happened on the night of 22 November, the Day of Albanian Alphabet;
3. Pattern of previous incidents – this is a second attack on the Museum of Albanian Alphabet within a
period of around ten days.
Status of the case: Under investigation.
Response of Local Authorities: In MOI’s response to the Committee’s request for public information
regarding this incident, it is stated that after the reporting of the event and under the Public
Prosecutor’s authorization in Bitola, an investigation was conducted by SIA Bitola. At SIA Bitola, the
incident was registered as a criminal act of “Damage to objects of others” which in accordance with
Article 243, paragraph 1 of CC is prosecuted as a private lawsuit. Regarding the reported incident,
the records of the video surveillance were examined and two males were observed at the time of
the incident. Additionally, the response also stated that measures were being taken for resolving the
incident and identifying the perpetrators.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic coexistence
between the two largest communities in the country.
