State Officials Observe Anniversary of OFA

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski extended his greetings to the citizens over the 21st anniversary of the singing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA), which concluded the armed conflict in 2001. “North Macedonia has shown throughout the years that it is capable to build mutual future for all its citizens, no matter their ethnicity. The unity in our differences is what makes us strong, all of us Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs, Romani, Bosnians and all other ethnicities which call this country their home. Thanks to these values, today we are members of NATO and are about to become members of the EU too,” Kovacevski wrote. President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski also extended his greetings on this occasion. “OFA preserved the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, and established conditions for changes to the Constitution and laws in order to secure the respect of the human rights of all ethnic minorities in our country. Thanks to OFA we built a model of multi-ethnic democracy, setting some of the highest standards for respect of the rights of minorities,” Pendarovski said. Greetings were also extended by First Deputy PM and Minister of Political System and Inter-ethnic Relations Artan Grubi. “21 years ago, with the signing of OFA, we finally began to deal with the ideologies of hatred, nationalism and discrimination, and today we witness the revolution of the progressive transformation which OFA has done to the state system, bringing democracy and complete cohesion between the people of different ethnicities. No one lost anything because of OFA. In fact, it helped us to get to know each other better and overcome stereotypes and appreciate each other’s values,” Grubi said.