With Ramadan Bajram (Eid al Fitr) approaching, the Muslim community in Ohrid invited Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to visit the newly built minaret of the Ali Pasha mosque in downtown Ohrid, Sitel TV reported.

Zaev’s Government was unable to act to stop the construction of the minaret, which was built without a permit from the town hall, as it was desperate to win the Muslim Albanian vote during the presidential and municipal elections. Zaev met with Christians from this main pilgrimage site in Macedonia who protested saying that the minaret will dominate the old city skyline and is being built in a typical Balkan fashion of “marking territory”. Zaev promised that the issue will be handled in accordance with the law, implying respect for the fact that there is no permit to build it, but was politically unable to stop the completion.

The minaret was torn down in 1913, with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. A local Albanian official who was crucial for Zaev’s win in the in the mayoral race in Ohrid, is also building a commercial development in the old city, again without a permit, but this construction is also “untouchable”. The city faces losing its cherished status as one of the UNESCO world heritage sites, in part due to uncontrolled illegal construction.