Political science professor and leftist activist Mirjana Najcevska mockingly apologized to Alliance of Albanians leader Ziadin Sela, after a Facebook post in which she ridiculed his “Albanian eagle” hand symbol during the visit to a village near Veles.

The symbol became popular among Albanian politicians, especially after it was promoted by Swiss football international Xherdan Shaqiri. Sela used it during a visit to the village of Star Grad, where several Albanian children attended classes in Macedonian, which became a major issue for Albanian political parties.

Najcevska mocked the gesture saying it was a club of “butterfly aficionados” who were promote the sign language and who suffer from a lack of women. She later said that she was contacted by a lawyer who demanded her apology.

I use this opportunity to apologize to all deaf and mute people who use the sign language. I was apparently wrong, the people in the photograph were not waving the butterfly sign, it was something else (let them explain what it is). There were no butterflies, the Albanians don’t like butterflies and were not promoting the sign language. They were promoting something else. I would also like to apologize to the Albanian women who I said were not represented in the photograph. I was asked to apologize, for my comments so I can conclude that the women were there but can’t be seen (they were probably masked). It’s possible that there is no lack of women in the photograph, but a surplus of women. And since Sela is not deaf, or a woman, I could not have insulted him. And if he falls under any of these categories, then I apologize to him, Najcevska said in her “apology”.