A government delegation, led by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, Minister of Labour and Social Policy Jovana Trencevska and Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Bekim Rexhepi, paid tribute and laid fresh flowers Sunday on the grave of the first President of the Republic of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, who passed away on 1 January 2012.

Sunday marks 11 years since the death of the first president of the Republic of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, who on September 8, 1991, after the successful referendum, proclaimed the independence of the country.

President Gligorov was the first Macedonian president to speak in the Macedonian language at the podium of the United Nations on April 8, 1993, when the Republic of Macedonia became the 181st member of the UN.