The
2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic
Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group began attacking the
security forces of the
Republic of Macedonia at the beginning of February 2001, and ended with the
Ohrid Agreement. The goal of the NLA was to separate Republic of Macedonia and make
Greater Albania. Already in 1999, there were 234,500 Albanian refugees from Kosovo in Macedonia according to the
UNHCR estimates who accounted for 11.7 percent of the total population of Macedonia at the time. There were also claims that the group ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking NLA members have denied this. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen individuals on either side, according to sources from both sides of the conflict. With it, the
Yugoslav Wars had reached previously peaceful Macedonia.