National Liberation Army (Albanians of Macedonia)
| National Liberation Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare) |
|
|---|---|
| Participant in Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia | |
 |
|
| Active | 2000–2002 2004 – present (splinter groups) |
| Leaders |
Ali Ahmeti Samidin Xhezairi Ahmet Krasniqi Rahim Beqiri † |
| Headquarters | Šar Mountains |
| Area of operations | Northwest Macedonia & North Macedonia |
| Strength | 6,000 to 7,000 (Mostly from Kosovo) |
| Originated as | formed by former Kosovo Liberation Army members |
| Became | Officially disbanded |
| Allies | Albania, Kosovo Liberation Army |
| Opponents | Republic of Macedonia, KFOR in Macedonia |
| Battles and wars | Battle of Tetovo in 2001 |
The National Liberation Army (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare - UÇK; Macedonian: Ослободителна народна армија - ОНА, Osloboditelna narodna armija - ONA), also known as the Macedonian UÇK, is a militant organization that operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Following the 2001 Macedonian War, it is believed it was disarmed under the terms of the Ohrid Agreement, under which greater rights and autonomy were to be given to the state's Macedonian Albanians.
Ali Ahmeti organized the NLA of former KLA fighters from Kosovo and Macedonia, Albanian insurgents from Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac in Serbia, young Albanian radicals and nationalists from Macedonia, and foreign mercenaries. The acronym was the same as KLA's in Albanian.
The NLA was founded in the fall of 1999, and was led by former KLA Commander Ali Ahmeti, nephew of one of the founders of the KLA, but was out of the public eye until it began to openly engage the Macedonian military and police. The NLA's proclaimed goal was equal rights for the ethnic Albanian minority within a confederate Macedonia. Senior NLA commanders insisted that "We do not want to endanger the stability and the territorial integrity of Macedonia, but we will fight a guerrilla war until we have won our basic rights, until we are accepted as an equal people inside Macedonia." The Macedonian government claimed the NLA were an extremist terrorist organization seeking to separate Albanian majority areas and unite those territories with Albania.
Beginning on January 22, 2001 the NLA began to carry out attacks on Macedonian security forces, using light weapons. The conflict soon escalated and by the start of March 2001, the NLA had taken effective control of a large swathe of northern and western Macedonia and came within 12 miles of the capital Skopje.
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