The Macedonian capital, Skopje, was calm this morning after an appeal by the president seemed to cool inter-ethnic tensions brought to boiling point by nationalist riots.
Fears of a second evening of protests by majority Macedonians - outraged that NATO had helped evacuate ethnic Albanian guerrillas from a strategic village with all their weapons - kept many people off the streets.
But the demonstrations did not materialise, allowing cafes and bars to stay open for business after shutting their doors early the previous night against crowds massing in front of parliament, where police reservists fired shots in the air.
In a televised address to the nation, President Mr Boris Trajkosvki said he needed everyone's help to restore peace.
"The shooting in the parliament building could have easily thrown us into civil war. I can understand the anger of those who were peacefully protesting but I cannot understand the others who attacked the parliament building. What was their goal?" he said.
If the calm lasts, it will come as a huge relief to many on both sides of the ethnic divide who had feared the riots marked the beginning of the latest all-out war to tear through the Balkans since former Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991.
It will also encourage Western diplomats and policymakers, who had feared that the evacuation from Aracinovo, instead of defusing tensions, had increased them to a point where they could easily get out of control.