SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
The state and the citizens of Macedonia observed on Sunday 2 August the Day of the Republic, better known among the citizens as Ilinden. The observation of this holiday by the government took place on three locations, at the Kale Fortress in Skopje, the Macedonium monument in Krusevo and the ASNOM memorial Centre in Pelince. The holiday commemorates two important events in the history of Macedonia – the Ilinden uprising in 1903 and the establishment of Macedonia as a separate entity within Democratic Federal Yugoslavia in 1944. Caretaker PM Oliver Spasovski addressed the celebration at the Kale Fortress in Skopje. “We are no longer alone. We are an alliance. Our North Macedonia will never be put under the question mark or isolated from the rest of the world. We celebrate this year’s Republic Day with the slogan ‘Victory for All’, because Ilinden and ASNOM are symbols of unity not divisions,” Spasovski said. Vice-speaker of the Macedonian Parliament Goran Misovski attended and addressed the celebration held in Krusevo. “All Macedonian citizens are the successors of Ilinden, because this is the best concept that incorporates the common values that bring people together and make them proud citizens of the country. North Macedonia, although small in size, has become a model in the region and the world, seen in its open approach and sincere dialogue with all neighbours, promoting good-neighbourly policy of cooperation and understanding,” Misovski said. President Stevo Pendarovski addressed the ceremony in Pelince. “In the era of national romanticisms and nationalisms, Ilinden was and remained a symbol of will for own country, based on republican and democratic principles and free life of all ethnic and religious communities in it. More than a century later from the Krusevo Manifesto and 76 years after the ASNOM Declaration on the fundamental rights of the citizen of democratic Macedonia, they continue to inspire, upon the endeavours of revolutionaries, their struggle for justice, which merges humanism, cosmopolitanism and solidarity, placing them in the foundations as the connecting tissue of Macedonian statehood,” Pendarovski said.
