Aleksandar Tasevski, head of the union of the M-NAV air traffic control, equated the attack on the employees there to terrorism. Several employees were berated and one was physically attacked by DUI party activists and former top DUI official Bekim Neziri on Thursday, after they sided with Tasevski and joined a protest.

It’s not like you’ve entered into a store. In normal countries, an incident like this would probably be considered as a terrorist attack, Tasevski said.

About 40 planes were over Skopje during the incident, including two NATO military transports that were expected to land. Fortunately the incident did not cause a bigger disaster.

Tasevski was facing pressure from the DUI party appointed management of M-NAV for months, after he accused them of corruption, misues of funds and especially of attempts to hire unqualified DUI party activists as air traffic controllers. M-NAV director Fahrudin Hamidi’s attempts to push select candidates to the coveted and well paid posts caused protests of the union and resignations from middle management.

After a press conference on Thursday, where Tasevski was joined by many air traffic controllers, a group of half dozen attackers entered the building. It included active police officers, and was led by Bekim Neziri, who DUI appointed as minister a decade ago and also named as head of M-NAV in the past. He is currently employed in the institution and was likely the one who allowed the group to enter the closely guarded Skopje airport control center – Tasevski claims that the security company was given the contract by DUI and its guards are loyal to the party. In the center, the group singled out an ethnic Albanian controller, who they believed should have sided with DUI, but instead joined the protest, and attacked him.

Public outcry has been simmering for a while over previous warnings from the M-NAV union about abuse in the institution, and after the incident the Government faced strong pressure to deal with the attackers. Neziri and several other attackers were detained in the evening, and sent before a judge, but DUI appointed judge Pajazit Pajaziti refused requests from prosecutors that they are kept in detention. The group was released with their passports seized, and it’s likely that Neziri will still be allowed to go to work and enter the M-NAV building.

Prime Minister Kovacevski has been avoiding to speak out on the issue, but the Government issued a statement that M-NAV will face an audit and the building will be protected by the police. Still, considering how dependent Kovacevski is on DUI support in the coming elections, it’s likely that the incident will be covered up. Neziri is head of the DUI branch in Skopje’s key Cair district, which makes him one of DUI party leader Ali Ahmeti’s top men. It was reported that one of the attackers who joined Neziri is also very close to the powerful First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, who himself built his political career on his often violent outbursts as a nationalist football hooligan.

M-NAV director Hamidi fully supported Neziri. Speaking to the press, he compared the incident to a minor scuffle, caused by disagreements between co-workers, “something that happens everywhere”. He insisted that the organization has worked well on his watch and that he will not resign over the allegations of corruption and nepotistic hiring. He accused union leader Tasevski of nepotism, saying that his father and brother also work there. “They are one of the 5-6 clans we have in M-NAV. They want only their people to be hired as controllers. It’s time somebody else gets hired”, Hamidi said.