English
President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova sent a message congratulating the citizens on the occasion of September 8 – Macedonian Independence Day
Dear citizens,
35 years ago we experienced our third Ilinden, the dawn in which the centuries-old dream of a free and independent Macedonian state finally became a reality. With the historic referendum of September 8, 1991, we, the Macedonian citizens, completed the work of the Ilinden and Asnom people, creating our own national and common civic home regardless of ethnicity and religion.
Today, with deep gratitude and reverence, we recall the historical truth that the greatest and most important achievement for a people is to have its own, sovereign and democratic state, which will protect its freedom, identity and dignity and work for its prosperity. Now, its survival and its future depend solely on ourselves.
Although it was declared to last forever, the independent state is not a past perfect, but a present continuous tense. It began with the referendum decision as an important tireless task for each generation to preserve, build and develop it every day.
Macedonian independence rests on three pillars: the first is the trust of every citizen in their own state and in the capacity of its institutions to protect rights, ensure justice and provide equal opportunities for all; the second is the mutual trust between us, the citizens, as a human thread that holds us together, regardless of ethnic, religious, linguistic and any other distinction, and the third is – the inexhaustible, sincere and unwavering faith in the Macedonian future.
In a festive, optimistic spirit, let me remind you that the pages of our past and present record numerous successes in many fields. We have built functional institutions and developed awareness of the common good and state and national interest. We have created a NATO army that guarantees our security. We have developed and are developing an economy that is resistant to pressures and open to world markets. We have gained friends and strategic partners who support us on the long and thorny European path. We have a clear awareness of European belonging and a strategic goal for European membership.
As we celebrate this great day, we once again conclude that over the past three and a half decades we have faced difficult trials, blockades and double standards, which have stimulated unwanted internal processes and problems.
One of the biggest is the emigration of young people in search of a better life. With each departure, a thread in our fabric is broken, and each empty school desk is a silent reminder that we are losing those who were and still are our greatest hope.
The painful truth must not paralyze us, but must mobilize us. The state is not just a system of institutions. The people are the state. We have a generational responsibility to complete the urgent tasks: to eradicate crime and corruption, to establish an uncompromising rule of law and to build a peaceful and just society of equal and fair citizens, regardless of whether they are Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks and others. The Asnom Vow teaches us: “WHAT MACEDONIA WE WILL BUILD, SUCH WE WILL HAVE”. No one else will fix our home but ourselves!
Today, more than ever before, we need proactive, constructive hope, faith that with our own strength we can and must make things better. Our vision is a stable and progressive European state, but above all, a homeland in which young people will not pack their bags, but, here, they will create families and build a future.
It is time to relativize geography and borders and for a deeper connection with our diaspora, to unite all smart, creative and brave people of Macedonian origin in building the homeland as a decent, dignified and prosperous common home.
With particular pride and joy, I congratulate you on the great holiday of September 8, the day when Macedonian citizens, courageously and responsibly fulfilled the legacy of the Ilinden and Asnom people and democratically, in a referendum, with an overwhelming majority declared themselves for a SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE OF MACEDONIA!