Prohor Pchinjski, 2 August 2022 (MIA) — On the first presidential visit to St. Prohor Pchinjski Monastery in 18 years, President Stevo Pendarovski said Serbia’s and North Macedonia’s foreign ministries would work together to organize future celebrations of the country’s national holiday Ilinden in the monastery where the modern Macedonian state was formed. After visiting the monastery, where he laid flowers, President Pendarovski thanked Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Orthodox Church head Porfirije for making it possible to visit the sacred place after 18 years and mark the greatest Macedonian national holiday. “This is where the modern Macedonian state was formed. As you know, for various reasons we could not come and celebrate the holiday here, so we held some alternative, parallel celebrations nearby, but not where the historic ASNOM session was really held,” Pendarovski said. “I hope this is the beginning of a good tradition of celebrating August 2, our second Ilinden, here, and properly paying tribute to those who formed the Macedonian state in 1944,” he added. He said he spoke to Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic about the countries’ foreign ministries organizing future Ilinden celebrations at the monastery together. “Together with Minister Selakovic, who has provided exceptional help in the past few weeks on all the details of this visit, we have agreed to form a working group at the level of foreign ministries as soon as possible to arrange all the details of future celebrations," the head of state said. He also recalled that Skopje and Belgrade had signed an agreement in 2000 over celebrations of cultural and historical events in both countries, which would be the legal basis for forming the working group. The President also thanked the Serbian authorities for placing an ASNOM memorial plate written in both Macedonian and Serbian in the monastery. “I must once again commend and give my respect to our Serbian hosts for managing, in record time, to replace the lost original plaque with a new one bearing the original text, which we paid our tribute to,” Pendarovski said. Asked if there were any discussions on restoring the ASNOM memorial room, he said the monastery head had welcomed the idea. The goal, according to Pendarovski, was to continue celebrating the national holiday in St. Prohor Pchinjski. “The idea is not only to come here this year, but from now on to keep celebrating it here. As you know, there is a new context in our political relations. We have never had any problems, but there were problems between our churches, which were resolved in May this year,” Pendarovski said, adding this was an opportunity to strengthen the friendly relations between the nations. “This is not just a PR-event for our hosts,” he said. “No, this should be a cornerstone, the foundation of new relationships. Because if we do not respect our sanctuaries, if we do not respect our sacred places and those of their past, I think there is no future for bilateral relations,” said Pendarovski. mr/