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The recent announcement of Skopje that it will place a grand monument of not just Alexander the Great, but numerous Macedonian heroes spanning 2000 years of history had brought up anger from Greek Government officials and Opposition parties at home.
Alexander's monument in downtown Skopje was planned six years ago
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
The recent announcement of Skopje that it will place a grand monument of not just Alexander the Great, but numerous Macedonian heroes spanning 2000 years of history had brought up anger from Greek Government officials and Opposition parties at home.
Athens is against Skopje having a monument because according to public officials there, Alexander was not Macedonian, while at the same time Greece's PM proclaims he is Macedonian and Alexander belongs to Greece. Little twist came from Greek Archeologists who voted against Athens' attempt to place a monument of Alexander because as they put it, "it is foolish to glorify foreign conquerors".
We will let the Greek Government solve their identity crisis and confusion on their own.
Meanwhile, lets go back and look at Macedonia. No one is sure why the opposition (SDSM) is against monuments in the downtown area of the capital. The opposition isn't just against Alexander the Great, rather against monuments of Goce Delcev, Pitu Guli, Czar Samuil, Metodija Andonov - Cento ...
Our investigation has shown that when the SDSM was in power, there were plans set in stone that would have seen a monument of Alexander the Great on Skopje's main square. Back in 2003, there was even a competition which saw local architects submit their plans and ideas for a monument of Alexander the Great. Kristijan Jordanov, Ana Damevska i Gordana Mitrovic won 1000 euros for their plan. Again, this is back in 2003.
As some of you have guessed it their plan included a fountain, while in the middle of it was Alexander on his horse. For unknown reasons, the monument was never built, even though it was approved by the local government. Our sources claim the money for the monument(s) were always pocketed by local politicians.
Today, the Macedonian Government is simply doing what was already approved in 2003. The Opposition's reaction may be just another knee jerk reaction to everything the Government does or it simply longs for the days when they were pocketing money for publicly approved projects.
Alexander's monument in downtown Skopje was planned six years ago
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
The recent announcement of Skopje that it will place a grand monument of not just Alexander the Great, but numerous Macedonian heroes spanning 2000 years of history had brought up anger from Greek Government officials and Opposition parties at home.
Athens is against Skopje having a monument because according to public officials there, Alexander was not Macedonian, while at the same time Greece's PM proclaims he is Macedonian and Alexander belongs to Greece. Little twist came from Greek Archeologists who voted against Athens' attempt to place a monument of Alexander because as they put it, "it is foolish to glorify foreign conquerors".
We will let the Greek Government solve their identity crisis and confusion on their own.
Meanwhile, lets go back and look at Macedonia. No one is sure why the opposition (SDSM) is against monuments in the downtown area of the capital. The opposition isn't just against Alexander the Great, rather against monuments of Goce Delcev, Pitu Guli, Czar Samuil, Metodija Andonov - Cento ...
Our investigation has shown that when the SDSM was in power, there were plans set in stone that would have seen a monument of Alexander the Great on Skopje's main square. Back in 2003, there was even a competition which saw local architects submit their plans and ideas for a monument of Alexander the Great. Kristijan Jordanov, Ana Damevska i Gordana Mitrovic won 1000 euros for their plan. Again, this is back in 2003.
As some of you have guessed it their plan included a fountain, while in the middle of it was Alexander on his horse. For unknown reasons, the monument was never built, even though it was approved by the local government. Our sources claim the money for the monument(s) were always pocketed by local politicians.
Today, the Macedonian Government is simply doing what was already approved in 2003. The Opposition's reaction may be just another knee jerk reaction to everything the Government does or it simply longs for the days when they were pocketing money for publicly approved projects.
