Kiro Gligorov

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Kiro Gligorov (1969)

Kiro Blagoje Gligorov ( Serbian - Cyrillic Киро Глигоров ; born May 3, 1917 in Štip , now North Macedonia ; † January 1, 2012 in Skopje ) was a Yugoslav and Macedonian politician , member of the Yugoslav Communist Party and first President of the Independent Republic of Macedonia.

Life

Gligorov came from an urban petty-bourgeois family. After graduating from high school, he went to Belgrade in 1935 and successfully completed a law degree at the Belgrade Faculty of Law in 1939 . During his student days he first came into contact with the political ideas of communism . Until the German-Italian invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) Gligorov worked as a bank clerk.

After the military defeat and the division of Yugoslavia, Gligorov's Macedonian home region fell under Bulgarian rule. When he arrived in his homeland in 1941, he confirmed his Bulgarian origins. In 1942 Glogorov was arrested in Skopje for his “pro-Serb communist attitude”, but the mayor of the city Spiro Kitanchev stood up for him, whereupon Gligorov was released. In 1943, during the war, Gligorov joined the communist partisan movement and also became a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party . In 1944, Gligorov took part in the formation of the Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Macedonia ( Антифашистичко Собрание на Народното Ослободување на Македонија , ASNOM). He was first secretary of the initiative committee that prepared the establishment of this organization. After the constitution in August 1944, he worked as financial secretary in the presidium of ASNOM. Gligorov thus played a major role in enabling the Macedonians to establish themselves as an independent nation within the communist partisan movement of Yugoslavia. And he also ensured that the JCP could enforce its claim to power in Macedonia. Until Tito's death , he was always a loyal follower of the long-time Yugoslav president.

After the end of the war, Gligorov held various high offices in the Yugoslav state apparatus. Among other things, he was economics minister, then finance minister, and later president of the federal parliament. In the 1960s, Gligorov belonged to a group of economic reformers who wanted to implement a more market-oriented order in Yugoslavia. Their efforts failed due to the resistance of various republic leaderships. In the late 1980s, Gligorov supported the reform attempts by Ante Marković , who was chairman of the Federal Presidium from 1986 to 1988 and then the last Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. Like Marković, Gligorov advocated the introduction of the market economy and the multi-party system.

When the breakup of the Yugoslav state became apparent at the turn of 1990/91, Gligorov ran for the office of President of the Republic in Macedonia. He was elected by a large majority in the first pluralistic elections in Macedonia and sworn in as president on January 27, 1991. Although Gligorov actually advocated the preservation of the Yugoslav federal state, he decided together with the government to bring Macedonia into independence because of the outbreak of war in Slovenia and Croatia.

The declaration of independence took place on September 8, 1991. On November 17, 1991 he put the first democratic constitution of Macedonia into force. Through skilful negotiations Gligorov managed to keep the young state out of the Yugoslav wars. He achieved that the units of the Serbian- dominated federal army withdrew from Macedonia in the spring of 1992. Of the neighboring countries, only Albania and Bulgaria quickly recognized the independence of the new state. The first years of Gligorov's presidency were therefore marked by the struggle for the international recognition of Macedonia, which was blocked by Greece because of the dispute over the name of the state . Remaining Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milošević refused recognition because of disputes over the rights of the Serb minority. Macedonia's admission to the UN in 1993 was a great success in Gligorov's first term. Nevertheless, there were still major foreign policy difficulties afterwards. The name dispute with Greece could not be finally settled. The unresolved domestic political question of how to deal with the numerous Albanian minority in Macedonia also burdened relations with Albania at times.

Gligorov was re-elected as president in 1994, his second term began on November 19, 1994 and ended in 1999. On October 3, 1995, Gligorov was victim of a car bomb attack in central Skopje . While a passerby and the president's driver died, the president survived, seriously injured. The perpetrator and a motive for the attack could not be identified.

Honors

Works

  • Nova Jugoslavija. (The new Yugoslavia, together with Edvard Kardelj ), 1955.
  • Aktuelna pitanja društveno-ekonomskog sistema. (Current questions of the socio-economic system.), 1980.
  • Sve naše (privredne) reforme. (All our economic reforms, together with Marijan Korošić, Branislav Šoškić and others), 1991.
  • Makedonija e sé što imame. (Macedonia is all we have.) 2001.
  • Viorni vreminja - Republika Makedonija, realnost na Balkanot. (Troubled Times - The Republic of Macedonia, Reality in the Balkans.), 2004.

literature

  • Gligor Stojkovski (Ed.): Kiro Gligorov. Assassination ... the potoa . Skopje 2002, ISBN 9989-32-285-6 . (Collection of sources and letters on the assassination attempt on Gligorov.)
  • E. Simoska, N. Gaber, K. Babunski: Politickata kultura na graganite vo Republika Makedonija. Skopje 2001, ISBN 9989-633-13-4 .
  • James Pettifer (Ed.): The New Macedonian question. Basingstoke 1999, ISBN 0-312-22240-8 .
  • Spase Mirceski: Almanah na Republika Makedonija. Hronologija 1990–1997 godina. Skopje 1998.
  • Christophe Chiclet, Bernard Lory (ed.): La République de Macédoine. Nouvelle venue in the European concert. Paris 1998, ISBN 2-7384-6630-3 .
  • Interview with the President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov. In: Südost-Europa , 44, 1995, Heft 8, pp. 508-512.
  • Wolfgang Libal: Macedonia between the fronts. Young state with old conflicts. Vienna / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-203-51201-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Former Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov Dies .
  2. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Gligorov, Kiro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gligorov, Kiro Blagoje; Глигоров, Киро (Macedonian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Macedonian politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Štip
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 2012
Place of death Skopje