A wave of protests by Albanian students has swept Skopje, in defense of the use and status of the Albanian language in North Macedonia.

Regarding this movement, linguist Ledi Shamku Shkreli, in a statement for News24, described the situation as a critical moment for the Albanian language in the country.

According to her, the roots of this issue date back to the Ohrid Agreement, which provided for the guarantee of rights for communities and the official use of languages. Shamku emphasized that Albanians in North Macedonia are a state-forming factor and that the European model of guaranteeing linguistic rights is democratic, but in practice it has not been implemented properly.

She also criticized the previous concept of "linguistic authorization", implying the need for permission to use Albanian, calling this a deviation from European standards.

"I am lucky to be a researcher because I am not a politician. I study language, the space of the Albanian-speaking person. What I gather is direct. I want to start with the issue of yesterday's protest. I perceived yesterday's protest as if you go to the dentist when you go to get a tooth fixed. The Albanian language has reached a nerve. This issue started with the Ohrid Agreement, where Europe guarantees everything to its minorities. Albanians in North Macedonia are a formative state force. The model that Europe has is very democratic. It guaranteed the presence and official use of the language. It left a model that is European, but in a country that has emerged from a significant ethnic conflict, it should have been considered a problem by ourselves, and not just by the arbitrator. There was once a law on linguistic authorization, so that I could get permission from the state to express myself in Albanian. This democratic-European model that was designed and not implemented. Informally, Albanian is no longer respected in the RMV," she said.