Skopje, 26 July 2023 (MIA) - For sixty years, Skopje returns solidarity with love and remains an open city for everyone, Minister of Culture Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska posted on social networks on Wednesday. 

Skopje remembers, and will never forget those who died on July 26, 1963, in the devastating earthquake that shattered the city, the Ministry of Culture said.  

"For 60 years, on this day, we have been recalling memories, retelling stories and tragedies that speak of immense pain and sadness. The rescuers who headed to Skopje which was flooded with calls for help, witnessed heartbreaking images while every second meant the difference between life and death," Culture Minister Kostadinovska-Stojchevska said. 

She added that in those terrible moments "the whole country became united in its will to help Skopje and the brotherhood and unity of the Yugoslav people came to the fore, as well as the help of many other countries from all over the world".

"Thus Skopje received the jewel in the crown called solidarity. That gem of solidarity is witnessed today by numerous buildings, public institutions, residential buildings and entire neighborhoods that were built as a gift of love for Skopje," said Kostadinovska-Stojchevska. 

The Culture Minister points out that "in becoming a city of solidarity, Skopje will be remembered as a city whose reconstruction resolution was adopted by the United Nations when they called on the greatest and most important world urban planners and architects at the time Konstantin Doxiadis from Greece, Kenzo Tange from Japan, Adolf Ciborowski from Poland and a whole host of other world and Yugoslav architects and urban planners".

"Everyone was united around the idea of ​​Skopje being a city of a new era, an agora of democracy and a forum of freedom. The foundations of a modern metropolis were drawn and laid, in which the main driver is its continuous development, with features that permeate and build on its authenticity," Kostadinovska-Stojchevska points out. 

The Culture Minister notes that "unfortunately, in the decades that followed, Skopje also suffered an ideological and political earthquake caused by the self-proclaimed quasi-urbanists and identity quasi-engineers through the project "Skopje 2014".

According to Kostadinovska-Stojchevska, Skopje is not a city of divisions, but a city of togetherness and empathy.

She adds that in the days commemorating 60 years since the Skopje earthquake, to the entire world in solidarity that gave Skopje salvation, life and reconstruction, the Government and the Ministry of Culture, on behalf of the capital of the country, extend gratitude with a series of activities united in the event called "Skopje at 5:17", noting that "today, Skopje is love".  

Photo: Ministry of Culture