| BorisVM |
Macedonia apologizes to victims of communist regime
Republic of Macedonia has apologized today to the victims of the communist regime, which ruled the country from 1945 through 1990.
Macedonian Parliament voted 53 to 1 to pass the Declaration for Apologizing to Victims of Communism, tabled by Stojan Andov, President of the Liberal Party.
Majority of deputies backed Andov's initiative, objecting however, that such a Declaration is coming late, since most of the victims of the communist regime are dead and the facts have faded away.
"Macedonia is the only country in the region that still fails to accept the European values", said VMRO DPMNE's Ganka Samoilova Cvetanovska, calling the deputies for unanimous adoption of the Declaration.
Members of the Albanian parties took active part in the discussion, arguing that Albanians suffered more severe discrimination under the communist rule, since they have been denied "all rights, including studying on their mother tongue, and fostering their tradition and culture".
VMRO -Narodna also backed the Declaration, emphasizing its importance "for the sake of the communists' victims who were executed for standing firm on their ideas".
Ljubisav Ivanov, the President of the Socialist Party, voiced his disapproval with the contents of the Declaration, saying that one should not forget that "it was right in that period, when Macedonia was shaped by establishing all state institutions".
The debate in the Macedonian Parliament came after Council of Europe's Resolution, condemning all crimes of the former communist regimes, with no exceptions.
According to the incomplete historiographic data, some 50.000 people were subject to communist oppression in Macedonia. |