Macedonia today marks the Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle, which celebrates the founding of VMRO – the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

VMRO was founded on October 23rd 1893 in Solun, with the goal of organizing resistance against the Ottoman rule and creation of an independent Macedonian state. Founded by Ivan Hadzi Nikolov, Dame Gruev, Hristo Tatarcev, Petar Pop Arsov, Anton Dimitrov and Hristo Batandziev, the Organization prepared the ultimately failed 1903 Ilinden uprising and continued to arm and mobilize guerrilla units across the region.

In honor of the holiday, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski will attend a celebration at the Museum of Macedonian Struggle in Skopje. Poet Slave Dimoski is this year’s recipient of the 23rd October award.