English
Iinden is the strongest proof that there are peoples who can be occupied, can be attacked, can be overwhelmed, can be underestimated, but can never be conquered, because freedom does not begin at the borders of a state, but in the heart of a people, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski in his address from Pelince, on the celebration of the national holiday August 2, Ilinden – Day of the Republic.
Mickoski emphasized that today is not just another holiday in the calendar of our country, but a remembrance of a time that is not measured in years, but in ideals, with sacrifices, with dreams and with people who knew that there are moments in history when man no longer lives only for himself, but lives for the people, for his homeland and for the generations that are yet to come.
Ilinden is not just a date, it is also a vow, but also a character. Ilinden is the strongest proof that there are peoples who can be occupied, can be attacked, can be betrayed, can be underestimated, but can never be conquered, because freedom does not begin at the borders of a state, but in the heart of a people. That is why today we celebrate the two Ilindens as one historical whole, because Krusevo and ASNOM are not two different stories, but one series, two pages of the same book, written with faith, with courage and with unwavering determination for Macedonia to be its own, dignified and free, Mickoski emphasized.
The Prime Minister recalled that the idea that freedom is worth more than life was born in Krusevo. At ASNOM, not far from this place, in the monastery of St. Prohor Pcinski, Mickoski recalled, that idea received its state-forming form. In Krusevo, however, he added, it was shown that the people never stop dreaming, and at ASNOM it was shown that the people who do not stop dreaming also know how to create.
He added that in the moments when the ASNOM members in the monastery of St. Prohor Pcinjski voted the founding acts, resolutions and decisions that defined the then Macedonian statehood, they were aware that the historical continuity with August 2, 1903 was of essential importance for the building and strengthening of the Macedonian national identity and therefore they clearly wrote down the connection of the two Ilindens in the documents as one of the main pillars of ASNOM Macedonia.
The Declaration of Fundamental Rights of Citizens in Macedonia was voted after the example of the French Revolution of 1789 and it regulated freedom of speech, the right to nationality, the right to movement, the right to vote, and for the first time the right to vote for women, the right to religion and the right to private property. With this document, ASNOM presented the newly formed state to the Macedonian people and other nationalities in Macedonia not only as a state with a socialist social order – with a dominant communist ideology, but also as a state with elements of a civil political order – said Mickoski.
Anti-fascism, said the Prime Minister, became a permanent Macedonian commitment, and thanks to the policies of the then Macedonian military-political leadership, an ideological civil war with bloody consequences was avoided in Macedonia, something that happened in the former Yugoslav territories during World War II.
The Macedonian freedom fighters in the National Liberation War, with the decisions and resolutions of August 2, 1944, confirmed and permanently sealed another historical fact, which no factor, state or historiography can refute or deny: The Macedonian People’s Liberation Movement during World War II, the Macedonian partisans, the Macedonian army, alone, with their own forces, without any help from outside, liberated Macedonia from the occupiers and thus verified the autochthonous, independent character of the Macedonian statehood. The freedom of Macedonia was not brought by anyone from outside, the Macedonian people and all nationalities fought for and won Macedonian statehood on their own and achieved the centuries-old ideals of the ajduti, komiti, vojvodi, partisans and all known and unknown fighters throughout the decades – the Prime Minister emphasized in his address.