Despite freezing snow conditions, more than 15,000 people took part in Tuesday’s protest to defend the constitutional name of Macedonia. Despite the bad weather and the pressures faced by those who wanted to attend the all-Macedonian protest in Skopje, a huge number of citizens found themselves on the streets of the city in order to defend the name of the state and the identity of the nation. Most participants in the protest waved Macedonian flags and sing Macedonian songs, with an occasional burning of a Greek flag. Protesters fr…
The draft-proposal for solving the name dispute with its seven points will be brought to Skopje this week by the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Kotsias as he will land at the international airport Skopje, reports the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini.” According to this outlet, the name, the range of its use, the identity, the trademarks, the short abbreviations and the acronyms are part of the seven points that the draft-agreement contains. The outlet also states that the proposal for a solution is finished, it contains answers …
US Ambassador Jess Baily at a conference in Parliament regarding the Rule of Law in the Western Balkan countries, in the presence of MEPs, criticized the work of the Council of Public Prosecutors for the voting session on the election of prosecutors. Speaking about reforms to the judiciary, Baily said that with the disputed decisions made by the Council of Public Prosecutors, “the public has lost several grams of trust in the judiciary”. He said that several journalists were encouraged to publish articles on how the way prosecutors we…
On the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government is expected to dismiss Jason Miko from the position of Honorary Consul of Macedonia in Tucson, Arizona, USA, to which he was appointed in 2013, BIRN learns. His engagement with VMRO-DPMNE’s government included consulting services for which he was paid from the state budget. BIRN came across two agreements with which the Ministry of Defense engages Miko in 2015 and 2016 for intellectual services in the total amount of 17,875 USD. Before being paid from the state bud…
Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in an interview the Financial Times (FT) said Macedonia and Greece are moving closer to solving longstanding name dispute. Zaev hopes that they will find a compromise before a Nato summit in Brussels on July 11-12. “ I’m optimistic. It’s very difficult, we’re aware of that. But it would be smart for both sides to find a solution as early as possible, ” Zaev said. “Now the new requirement from Greece is that we need to change our constitution. But a constitution is a home rule book. It doe…
Macedonia beat Slovakia 87:74 in first round of the 2021 Eurobasket pre-qualifiers in Skopje late on Sunday. The hosts took the lead from the opening minutes and never looked back. Macedonia led 52:27 at halftime and eased its way to the third win in as many matches. Richard Hendrix was Macedonia's leading scorer with 23 points, followed by Bojan Trajkovski (14) and Vojdan Stojanovski (13). Group A standings: Macedonia 3 wins - 0 losses, Switzerland 1-1, Slovakia 0-3. In the final match of the pre-qualifiers on June 28…
Greek government junior coalition partner Independent Greeks has reiterated its stance of not supporting a name including term 'Macedonia' in the dispute's solution, MIA reports from Athens. "Regarding the issue of Skopje, Independent Greeks will not vote for a solution including term 'Macedonia' or its derivatives in the name of the neighboring country. The reason for this is that Skopje's use of name 'Macedonia' stimulates their irredentism. On the other hand, it seems very difficult, even imposs…
Macedonia observes Monday 14 years from the death of President Boris Trajkovski, who was killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Family members, delegations and citizens will lay flowers at Trajkovski's grave in Skopje. President Trajkovski died in a plane crash on 26 February 2004, when the US-made Beechcraft King Air 200 tried to land at the airport of Mostar, in southern Bosnia, in bad weather. President Trajkovski, six of his closest advisors Dimka Ilkova-Boskovic, Risto Blazevski and Anita Krisan-Loza…
Macedonia has been covered by snow, mostly in Mavrovo (78cm), Lazaropole (51cm), Krusevo (41cm) etc. There are 15cm of snow in capital Skopje. Weather in Macedonia on Monday will be overcast and cold, with snowfalls across the country. Temperatures will range between -4C and -1C. Similar weather in Skopje with temperatures up to -1C.
The agriculture ministers of Macedonia and Serbia are expected by the end of the day to address the flour issue after Serbia has announced it will launch counter-measures to Macedonia's measures introduced for import of flour from Serbia. This was stated Sunday by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. "We are building friendship and positive relations with all of our neighbors. In the past, we have found solutions to more pressing issues and I believe a solution will be found for this one, too. As early as today the ministers are ex…
Macedonia is ranked on the 107th position in the Index for the perception of corruption in 2017 by Transparency International (IT) which sees the country’s position to have fallen for 17 slots compared to the previous year and is the worst result for the country since the index’s existence, stressed Transparency International- Macedonia. There was a reaction by VMRO-DPMNE about Macedonia’s ranking and it stated that SDSM’s governance is marked by many cases of corruption and criminal and that these cases including the nepotism contrib…
The draft-agreement has been finished before being forwarded by the Greek Foreign Ministry to the national government. After the document is sent to Macedonia, most probably, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias will plan a trip to Skopje. Speaking to the Greek state radio station on Saturday, the Minister said that Greece's proposal had been drafted. Kotzias said that most likely he would visit Skopje in March, not in February as it has been widely reported. He noted that he would like to do a small, but symbolic gesture upon his…
Crews have started removing the letters of the 'Alexander the Great' inscription atop the Skopje airport terminal. The removal marks the enforcement of a decision of the government to rename the airport in Skopje, TAV Macedonia - the concessioner of the Macedonian airports - has stated. Starting Saturday morning, letters on the sign in the building are being changed. The airport is renamed into Skopje International Airport. A few days ago, workers started removing signs bearing the name Alexander the Great highway alon…
The name Skopje and Athens will agree upon should at the same time become a constitutional name of the neighboring country, Greek Prime Minister Alaxis Tsipras told a press conference late Friday, after an informal meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. Greece considers that the long-standing name dispute should be a subject of 'sustainable and stable solution that will rest on firm foundations,' Tsipras said. 'Greece is seeking for an erga omnes solution, which means an obligation for one name for both internal and extern…
The public should be aware of certain things concerning the hole in the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of Macedonia (PIOM), and some are announced for the first time. Each year the state is covering the PIOM’s whole and this year it amounts to 500 million euros. He announced a potential increase of the retirement age and the contributions for the employees. -This is an important issue because the current pensioners have been taken care of, but future pensioners should be more worried. We should be worried about stabilizing the …
What I can state as news is yesterday’s visit to Germany and the meetings with the President Frank Walter Steinmeier and the chancellor Angela Merkel, where the passing of the Law on the use of languages was clearly greeted and in a way the behavior of those who opposed the law due to political reasons was condemned. It is a dangerous approach for the country especially for those that with the numerous amendments want to prevent the passing of the bill, said the Deputy Prime Minister for European Issues, Bujar Osmani when he addressed fro…
UNICEF launched Tuesday across the world the Every Child Alive Campaign as a conscious effort stemming from a commitment of all governments to make newborn mortality a thing of the past. UNICEF is calling on governments, health care providers, donors, the private sector, families and businesses to keep every child alive, everywhere, it said in a statement. Macedonia has the second highest rate of newborn mortality in Europe with Moldova being ranked first. "We can give these babies more than a day, more than a month - mor…
Starting from June 1, LOT Polish Airlines is going to launch the first direct connection from Warsaw to Skopje, TAV Macedonia and LOT Polish Airlines announced Wednesday. Flights on this route will be operated daily, 6 times a week, apart from Sundays, by modern Embraer jets. Tickets are already available for purchase sale, via LOT’s Contact Centre, at www.lot.com, and from sales agents. Alper Ersoy, TAV Macedonia General Manager said that this route will also serve both countries to strengthen business ties, to enable better comm…
The reactions after the removal of the monument of Andon Kjoseto in Skopje have not diminished. At three o’clock in the morning, in a typical SDSM way, the monument was removed. Twitter and FB ‘warriors’ were displeased with the city authorities. “You want to play demolition, come on, go ahead. The government will demolish the monuments, and we will demolish the government.” “The Macedonian monument of the Kjoseto is demolished, let’s see you demolish the UCK monuments throughout Macedonia” “With the demolition of monu…
1. The “Macedonian issue” is not a historic national issue, but rather a modern political one. The formation of the Macedonian nationality and national consciousness follows a parallel course with that of the other Balkan nations (Greek, Serbian, Albanian, Bulgarian), throughout the long term collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the ensuing armed conflicts among the newborn nations (Macedonian Struggle, Balkan Wars, First World War). From this point of view, two things follow. First, the term “Macedonian” used to define the nation, is just …
MZT Skopje beat city rivals Rabotnicki to lift the basketball Cup trophy late on Sunday. MZT held a slight lead at halftime (33:31), but Rabotnicki came back and took the advantage in the third quarter. However, the Macedonian champions held a steady lead in the final quarter before closing the match in the final minutes. Bojan Trajkovski was MZT's best player with 18 points, followed by Darko Sokolov with 17 and Damjan Stojanovski with 15. Rabotnicki's Mirakovski was the match's highest scorer with 24 points. …
Prilep-based National Theatre Vojdan Cernodrinski is to celebrate Monday evening its 68th anniversary with performance of comedy From Bad to Worse (‘Od kol na kol’) directed by Kole Angelovski. The National Theatre Vojdan Cernodrinski staged its first play Kir Janja by Jovan Sterija Popovic, directed by Ace Mihajlovski in 1950, thus marking the foundation of a very productive and successful institution of culture. More than 1.6 million theatregoers have seen 370 premieres and 7,500 plays since then. Prilep Theatre’s greatest achie…
President Gjorge Ivanov, accompanied by First Lady Maja Ivanova, is paying an official visit to the Republic of Turkey. President Ivanov will meet host Recept Tayyip Erdogan and lay a wreath at the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara. During the visit, Ivanov will also deliver lecture titled "Challenges of University Education in the third Millennium" before members of the Turkish Council of Higher Education and rectors of state and private universities in Turkey. In addition, he will address the opening of the World Busines…
According to the State Statistical Office data, the Consumer Price Index in January 2018, in comparison with the previous month, was 99.6, while the Retail Price Index was 99.9. A decrease in the Consumer Price Index in January 2018, in comparison with the previous month, was registered in cereals by 3.7%, other bakery products by 3.6%, frozen vegetables other than potatoes and other tubers by 3.2%, other milk products by 2.4%, flours and other cereals by 2.2%, dried vegetables, other preserved or processed vegetables by 1.5%, fresh o…
Macedonia's new government want to change the name of the country, therefore they ordered a fake poll by a newly and so far unknown Institute named Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis-Skopje. The Institute was etsablished in a Hotel in Dojran, southern Macedonia, in April 2016. On it's homepage we find a page where the partners of the Institute are listed. Starting with Macedonia's Soros Open Society Foundation, the European Commission and all the "important" embassies as well as the american governmental or…
The new Slovakian Ambassador to Macedonia, Henrik Markus, presented Friday a copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov. Dimitrov and Markus voiced satisfaction with the Macedonian-Slovakian relations and readiness for their further development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release. Dimitrov whished for Markus to have a successful mission in Macedonia, expressing belief that his diplomatic skill and personal engagement would contribute substantially to developing the relations between the two fr…
European Commission President Jean-Claude Jean-Claude Juncker will visit Macedonia at the end of this month, Vice-Premier for European Affairs Bujar Osmani told TV Telma on Friday. Osmani views Juncker's visit as an impetus for reforms, as 'I am certain that Macedonia will be part of the EC strategic document for enlargement to the Western Balkans', which is to be presented next week in Brussels. Osmani also believes that a date for Macedonia EU accession talks will be set at EU Summit this June.
Fitch Ratings has revised the outlooks on Macedonia’s long-term foreign and local-currency issuer default ratings to positive from negative, and affirmed the ratings at 'BB'. The revision of the Outlook of Macedonia's 'BB' IDRs to Positive reflects the following key rating drivers and their relative weights: The domestic political situation is stabilising and key international relations are improving, after a prolonged political crisis between 2014 and 2017, which saw Macedonia suffer the second largest percentage …
"United Macedonia" calls for the interruption of the parliamentary debate on the law on the use of languages and the law to be submitted to the Venice Commission on constitutional and legal opinion by professors in constitutional and international law who are members of the Commission. "In conditions of deep division in a country where SDSM government claims that the law is constitutional, and the whole patriotic and free think public claims that the law is not constitutional and endangers national and state interest…
Under the title "$ 25,000 from Nimitz for the main Congresseoman of the Greek Lobby in the United States, the United Macedonian Diaspora said that from 1995 to 2017, the United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz donated a total of $ 25,000 in the campaign of Congressman Carolyn Maloney, Democrat from New York, the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Friendship Group with Greece. Also, Nimetz has donated funds in the campaign of former Greek Senator Sarbainz. This information can be found on the official website of the US Federal…
At the Winter Olympics to be held in Pyongyang, South Korea, Macedonia will go with three athletes. The colors of Macedonia will be defended by Antonio Ristevski (Alpine skiing: slalom and giant slalom), Stavre Jada (cross country: sprint and 15km) and Viktoria Todorovska (cross country: 10km). The delegation will travel to Pyongyang on February 7, and two days before will be held the official presentation of the athletes. 92 countrieswill perform at the Winter Olympics. They will compete in 7 sports, 15 sports disciplines and…
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