Kiro Gligorov, architect of Macedonian independence, dies at 94
- From: The Australian
- January 03, 2012
The car of Kiro Gligorov after an assassination attempt in central Skopje in October 1995 Source: AFP
KIRO Gligorov, the architect of Macedonia's independence and its first president after the break-up of Yugoslavia, has died at the age of 94.
"Gligorov died late on Sunday at home in Skopje, in his sleep, surrounded by his family," the head of the office, Zivko Kondev, said last night.
Once a top official of the communist Yugoslav federation, of which Macedonia was a part, Mr Gligorov led the then Yugoslav republic to independence in September 1991.
He managed to avoid for Macedonia the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and peacefully deal with various disputes Skopje had with neighbouring Greece, Albania and Bulgaria.
Under Mr Gligorov, it became a United Nations member, though under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM) because Athens opposed its use of the name Macedonia, the name of a Greek northern province.
As the first democratically elected president of Macedonia, Mr Gligorov served two terms, from 1991 to 1999.
In October 1995 Mr Gligorov was the target of a car bomb assassination attempt as he headed to work in Skopje.
His driver and a bystander were killed.
The president spent several months in the hospital, suffering head injuries and losing an eye. He emerged with a lifelong deep scar above his right eye.
Neither the motive nor the perpetrators have ever been found, while it was speculated that a motive could have been his refusal at the time to join a union with Serbia and Montenegro.
Born in 1917 in the eastern Macedonian town of Stip, Gligorov was a member of Yugoslavia's anti-fascist movement during World War II.
He held top positions in communist Yugoslavia, including deputy prime minister, member of the collective presidency and speaker of the parliament.
The early days of his presidency were overshadowed by the bitter dispute with Greece. As well as the newly independent country of 2.1 million people's name, Athens also objected to a symbol on its flag and articles of the Macedonian constitution that Greece believed implied territorial claims.
Greece imposed a crippling 19-month embargo on its northern neighbour, hammering the emerging country's economy.
In 1995, the Macedonian government signed an accord with Athens agreeing to remove the symbol from its flag and revising some articles of the constitution, but talks on the country's name have made little progress. In official bodies such as the UN, the country is known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Mr Gligorov also faced domestic unrest, with the republic's large ethnic Albanian minority pressing for greater cultural and political autonomy.
The demands eventually boiled over into armed conflict about two years after Mr Gligorov's second term was over, with ethnic Albanian rebels battling government troops for about six months in 2001. The two sides eventually signed an internationally brokered peace accord under which minorities were guaranteed greater rights, and NATO peacekeepers were sent to the country.
Mr Gligorov is survived by two daughters and a son. His wife, Nada, died in 2009.
The government proclaimed today a day of morning in Macedonia.
AFP, AP
