Skopje, 17 August 2022 (MIA) - The Foreign Ministry (MFA) organized Wednesday a commemoration service in honor of former foreign minister Ilinka Mitreva, who died aged 72 on July 31. The event featured a photo collage of her ministerial career that was streamed online to all diplomatic offices in the country. "Ilinka Mitreva was a real lady who knew how to use her talents and virtues in achieving diplomatic results in her country," Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said in his speech. He said that Mitreva had implemented numerous reforms at the Ministry with the crown being the adoption of the first law on foreign affairs, which envisaged that two thirds of ambassadors should be career diplomats. During her term, more women had been appointed as ambassadors for the first time, according to Osmani. "Ilinka Mitreva will be missed by her family, her friends and by her former colleagues at the Ministry and generations of students. One thing is for sure - she had left a permanent mark at the Foreign Ministry and in the country's foreign policy in an extremely important and turbulent period for our country," said the Minister. Ilinka Mitreva was the first female foreign minister and the first minister who had served two terms. "She had been at the helm of the Ministry for 4,5 years and during that time, she had managed to meet several major strategic goals for our country. She was an extremely brave woman who wasn't afraid of the challenges and was virtuous enough to accept the post of foreign minister at the peak of the conflict in the Republic of Macedonia in May 2001," FM Osmani stated adding she was a great supporter of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, signed during her tenure. Speaking at the commemoration, the former chief of Mitreva's office, Santa Argirova said she had the honor to work for a unique human being, a woman who had loved her country unconditionally. "We need people like Ilinka Mitreva - respected both in the West and the East, respected by both Colin Powell and by Sergey Lavrov, respected by heads of state and government. She was called the Balkan tigress not because she was cruel, but because she was fierce and passionate about her country," Argirova said. Born in 1950 in Skopje, Mitreva was a renowned French language and literature professor at the Skopje Faculty of Philology, who had written many papers, from 1974 until 2001. She was elected as member of Parliament in 1994 and her term ended in 2001. Mitreva served as foreign minister from May 13 until November 2001 and again from 2002 until 2006. She was decorated by the French Republic three times in 1998, 2016 receiving the highest recognition, Knight of the Legion of Honor, in 2021.