A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 32 - Tuesday, August 10th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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Serb premier, FYROM president mend fences By Misha Savic - The Associated Press BELGRADE - Two Balkan neighbors mended fences yesterday, with Serbia lifting a de facto ban to allow the president of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to visit the monastery where his nation was born. Entering the monastery grounds that had been informally off limits to officials from his republic for more than a decade, FYROM President Branko Crvenkovski placed a wreath at the site where Slav-Macedonian communist officials met with their Serbian counterparts in 1944 to negotiate the province of Macedonia’s status as a republic in postwar communist Yugoslavia. The meeting was crucial to Macedonia’s position as one of six republics in Yugoslavia, which eventually led to full independence for FYROM and three other republics after the federation started dissolving in 1991. “It was here, 60 years ago, that Macedonia finally got its statehood,” Crvenkovski said at the ceremony, describing his country as “a result of the great energy of many generations, the fruit of great efforts and sacrifice.” He also pledged to bring his impoverished country closer to membership in the EU and NATO. Serbia’s Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica also attended yesterday’s ceremony, in a sign of improving relations between the Balkan neighbors, Serbia’s state television reported.
The
Belgrade government never seriously challenged
FYROM’s statehood, but the Serbian Orthodox
Church, which runs the monastery, has expressed
anger over FYROM’s split from “mother” Serbia and
particularly by the establishment of FYROM’s own
Orthodox Church, which it and other Orthodox
Christian churches do not recognize. |
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