The celebration of the great jubilee – the 30th anniversary of the independence of the country and the 80th anniversary of the Macedonian anti-fascist struggle is an occasion to return once again to the civilizational benefits of the Macedonian people, the Macedonian language, Macedonian science and Macedonian art that have existed in this lands inside and outside today’s borders for more than a thousand years, the President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU), Ljupco Kocarev, said in his address at the formal academy “The Modern Macedonian State’s Two Formation Stages: 1941–1991 / 1991–2021.”

In its history, the Macedonian people were mainly under four rulers: over four and a half centuries under Byzantium, nearly a century under Bulgaria, nearly a century under Serbia and five and a half centuries under the Ottoman Empire. Today all those empires and kingdoms have disintegrated and disappeared, and what is left in time and space is the Macedonian spiritual and material heritage. So for more than a thousand years we Macedonians have opposed and continue to oppose the disappearance with what is most indestructible, with our word, with our artistic and scientific spirit, wherever Macedonians lived and live, said Kocarev.

He stressed that joy, pride and peace for three decades of independence do not arise from political circumstances, which are not good.

Current President Stevo Pendarovski and former Presidents Branko Crvenkovski and Gjorge Ivanov as well as Zivko Kondev, Chief of Staff of the First President Kiro Gligorov and Vlado Popovski, who was an advisor in the Cabinet of President Boris Trajkovski, as announced will deliver addresses on the first day of the academy.

The formal academy, organized by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, is part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the independence of the country. The event will be attended by various academics, historians and scientists, in several working sessions divided into two days.