Students to Shasivari: the judicial exam and other state exams to be held in Albanian

Albanian students have again officially submitted a request to the new Minister of Justice, Jeton Shasivari, asking that the judicial exam be held in Albanian, and the request also includes exams for notaries, enforcement officers and all other state exams which, according to the students, are currently organized only in Macedonian.

The initiator of the student protests, Mevlan Ademi, together with the president of the Student Parliament of the University of Southeast Europe, Besjan Redzepi, after more than two years of waiting, submitted a new request to the institutions. From the photo that Ademi posted on Facebook it can be seen that the document was delivered to the Ministry of Justice; so far there is no official position from the minister.

Ademi explained the motive by appealing to equality and a legal obligation. He wrote: "After more than two years, today, together with the president of the Student Parliament Besjan Redzepi, we again submitted our request. This time, the request includes not only the law exam, but also the exams for notaries, enforcement officers and all state exams which, contrary to the Law on the Use of Languages, continue to be organized only in Macedonian.

Albanian students must not be discriminated against. They should have equal opportunities to be educated, to be certified and to practice their profession in their own country.

Institutions have an obligation to enforce the law, to be at the service of citizens and to respect the language of the people who form the state.

The Albanian language is not a privilege. It is a right guaranteed by law and an indisputable reality of this state," Ademi wrote.

Background and reactions

Three months ago, the government partners — Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and co-presidents Vredi Izet Mezhiti and Bilal Kasami — announced that they had reached an agreement for the judicial exam to be available in Albanian and that the proposal had been sent for review to the Venice Commission.

Former Minister of Justice Igor Filkov took an opposing stance and, in a written statement, emphasized that the judicial exam represents a matter of professionalism and respect for the legal order, and warned that portraying the legal obligation to know Macedonian as discrimination is a dangerous manipulation of the public.

Photo: Facebook