Thirty-five years ago we experienced our third Ilinden, the dawn in which the centuries-old dream of a free and independent Macedonian state finally became a reality. With the historic referendum of September 8, 1991, we, the Macedonian citizens, completed the work of the Ilinden and Asnom people, creating our own national and common civic home regardless of ethnicity and religion, Macedonian President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova said in her congratulatory message on September 8, Macedonia’s Independence Day.
“Today, with deep gratitude and reverence, we recall the historical truth that the greatest and most important achievement for a people is to have its own, sovereign and democratic state, which will protect its freedom, identity and dignity and work for its prosperity. Now, its survival and its future depend solely on us. We have built functional institutions and developed awareness of the common good and state and national interest. We have created a NATO army that guarantees our security. We have developed and are developing an economy resistant to pressures and open to world markets. We have gained friends and strategic partners who support us on the long and thorny European path. We have a clear awareness of European belonging and a strategic goal of European membership,” President Siljanovska Davkova pointed out.
