Skopje, 26 July 2024 (MIA) – President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova will mark Republic Day (August 2) at the ASNOM Memorial Center in Pelince delivering a speech, followed by a visit to the monastery of Prohor Pchinski together with her Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic.

Earlier this week, Siljanovska Davkova had a phone call with Vucic, her office said announcing that the two presidents had agreed to visit the Prohor Pchinski monastery on Republic Day (Ilinden) and mark the 80th anniversary of the First Session of the Antifascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM).

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on Republic Day will be in Krushevo to deliver a speech and Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi will be in Skopje to address an event at the Kale Fortress. 

This year marks the 121st anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising and the 80th anniversary of the First Session of ASNOM. 

On August 2, 1903, some 800 insurgents liberated Krushevo rebelling against the Ottoman Empire. Two days later, Nikola Karev proclaimed the Krushevo Republic becoming its president. The Krushevo Republic lasted for ten days after an Ottoman army of 18,000 soldiers came to the town to out the provisional government.

41 years after the Ilinden Uprising, 115 delegates took part in the First Session of ASNOM at the Prohor Pchinski monastery near Kumanovo, which reaffirmed the social and legal position of Macedonia as an equal federal state as part of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. 

The delegates adopted several documents of great statehood importance, including a decision introducing Macedonian as an official language in the Macedonian state and a declaration on basic human rights in democratic Macedonia. 

MIA file photo