Say Macedonia Campaign continues on Skopje's "Macedonia" square 

Citizens Send Protests to Strasbourg

 

March 24, 2004 - The Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), the Euro Balkan Institute, the Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia (FOSIM), OXO and Transparency Macedonia—the organizers of the Say Macedonia campaign—started an action for public sending of postcards sponsored by MCIC, and signing of the protest letter composed by Euro Balkan Institute. The action commenced March 24, 2004 in front of the GTC mall (Gradski Trgovski Centar), from 11 to 14 hrs.

 

Famous politicians, businessmen, singers, actors, sportspersons, and numerous common citizens joined the action of protest against the Council of Europe's Note ordering the use of the reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and discriminatory language used to refer to the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, members of the Macedonian ethnic minority abroad, the Macedonian culture, the Macedonian language, the Macedonian tradition and so on.

"I sent a 'greeting' from Macedonia to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and their office in Skopje, written with Cyrillic alphabet, and I also added an English comment in brackets, stating that the language of the letter is Macedonian. This idea is great, but it lacks substantial support from the Governmental sector," said Zhidas Daskalovski, one of the citizens who added his name to the protest.

The citizens signed the protest letter, which is to be sent to Mr. Jan Kleijssen, the Director of the Secretary General's Private Office, to the Council of Europe, to the foreign missions in the Republic of Macedonia, to the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, to the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of Macedonia, to the local and the international media, to the Organization of the United Nations and all other interested entities.

 

"We are Macedonians, born in Macedonia, and speaking the Macedonian language. That is our message to Strasbourg. I hope more volunteers will join this campaign," the citizens Ivica Najdovski and Sandra Petrovska said.

 
The campaign will continue. On Thursday and Friday (March 25 and 25) sending of postcards and signing of the petition will take place on the same spot, in front of GTC in Skopje. On Saturday, an event will be held in Skopje's City Park, and from Monday, March 29, the campaign will move to other places through the whole country.

D. Medaroski

(Note: The media interested in obtaining higher-quality, fit-to-print versions of these photographs should contact the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation - mcms@mcms.org.mk. The digital versions are free of charge, if properly credited.)