Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski awarded on Tuesday evening the national Order of Merit to Macedonian writer Olivera Nikolova, actors Bedija Begovska, Blagoja Chorevski, Refet Abazi, and Gjokica Lukarevski, musician Risto Vrtev and theater director Slobodan Unkovski.
According to President Pendarovski, national culture and arts should be valued and local authors and artists recognized.
“Thanks to them, we have something to present to the world and be competitive in the world ‘cultural competition.’ Let us respect and properly value these national values of ours, because this is the way to show our self-respect and our love for our country. Macedonia is not us politicians, Macedonia is its artists,” President Pendarovski said.
