“Exclusively today for the event, we stand for a very dynamic and aggressive celebration of the 20th anniversary of Ohrid and the 30th anniversary of independence and we will connect both with aggressive cultural events. By aggressive I mean dynamic, sequential, to fill the vacuum of any negative influences, to fill that vacuum with positive events. So aggressive cultural events, concerts, theater performances,” said First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi at the CIVIL public event on “European values ​​- (im)possible mission: Equality, non-discrimination and multiculturalism through the prism of policies and practices at the national level“. Is the celebration of the anniversaries of the Ohrid Framework Agreement and the independence of the Macedonian state a positive reception of the public and the media, or are there already campaigns that could direct the public’s attention in another direction.

I contacted Ram Ljahaj, who is probably the best opera singer in the world at the moment, to hold a concert with our philharmonic on August 13. Ram is a world star, he was in Sydney last week, today he is in London at the Royal Opera, where he performs.

Let me also inform you exclusively, we have established cooperation with Columbia University from the United States of America, and we will do the academic conference together with them. Professor David Phillips will come together, the Government with Columbia University will organize the celebration of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. I told you a theatrical play, I told you a documentary, I told you support for civil society, debates like this one today. So in that way, with aggressive, positive, affirmative performances, we should not give room for any negative influences and take away the topic from something positive that is a success for the country, such as the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement or the declaration of independence to be redirected to something negatively as a source of conflict.

As I said in my speech, ethnicity, religion and cultural affiliation are diversity, but at the same time they are a source of conflict. We want to end and not give any space to anyone to take advantage of this moment of weakness of this diversity and that is why we are committed to such a great celebration during the end of July, all of August until mid-September.

Irena Krdzic

Camera: Atanas Petrovski

Editing: Arian Mehmeti

Photography: Igor Chadinoski