text:
Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Република Македонија
Republika Makedonija
Денес над Македонија
Denes nad Makedonija
Today over Macedonia
Location of (green)
in (dark grey) – []" src="http://images.worldlibrary.net/articles/eng/File:Europe-Macedonia.svg" width="250">
and largest city
|Official languages
|Regional languages[3]
|Ethnic groups (2002[4])
|Parliamentary republic
|Gjorge Ivanov
|Prime Minister
|Nikola Gruevski
|Speaker of the Parliament
|Trajko Veljanovski
|Independence from Yugoslavia
|8 September 1991
|Officially recognised
|8 April 1993
25,713 km2 (148th)
9,779 sq mi
|Water (%)
|2011[5] estimate
|2,058,539 (146th)
|2002 census
80.1/km2 (122nd)
210.5/sq mi
|2012 estimate
|$22.147 billion[6]
|Per capita
|GDP (nominal)
|2012 estimate
|$10.198 billion[6]
|Per capita
|Gini (2011)
high · 84th
|Macedonian denar (MKD)
|Time zone
|Summer (DST)
|Drives on the
|Calling code
|Internet TLD
Macedonia ( ; Macedonian: Македонија, transliterated: Makedonija), officially the Republic of Macedonia (Република Македонија, transliterated: Republika Makedonija ( )), is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991. It became a member of the United Nations in 1993, but, as a result of an ongoing dispute with Greece over use of the name Macedonia, it was admitted under the provisional reference of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia[9][10] (поранешна Југословенска Република Македонија,[11] transliterated: Poranešna Jugoslovenska Republika Makedonija), abbreviated as FYROM.
A landlocked country, the Republic of Macedonia is bordered by Kosovo[a] to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.[12] It constitutes approximately the northwestern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia, which also comprises the neighbouring parts of northern Greece and a smaller portion in Bulgaria. The country's capital is Skopje, with 506,926 inhabitants according to the 2002 census. Other cities include Bitola, Kumanovo, Prilep, Tetovo, Ohrid, Veles, Štip, Kočani, Gostivar, Kavadarci, and Strumica. It has over 50 lakes, plus sixteen mountains higher than 2,000 m (6,562 ft). Macedonia is a member of the UN and of the Council of Europe. Since December 2005 it has also been a candidate for joining the European Union and has applied for NATO membership.
- Etymology 1
History 2
- Ancient and Roman period 2.1
- Medieval and Ottoman period 2.2
- Macedonian nationalism 2.3
- Kingdoms of Serbia and Yugoslavia 2.4
- World War II period 2.5
- Socialist Yugoslavia period 2.6
- Declaration of independence 2.7
- Albanian insurgency 2.8
Geography 3
- Topography 3.1
- Hydrography 3.2
- Climate 3.3
- National parks 3.4
- Flora 4
Fauna 5
- Domestic animals 5.1
Politics 6
- Parliament 6.1
- Government 6.2
- Law and courts 6.3
Foreign relations 6.4
- Naming dispute 6.4.1
- Human rights 6.5
- Military 7
Economy 8
- Infrastructure and e-infrastructure 8.1
- Trade and investment 8.2
- Tourism 8.3
Administrative regions 9
- Municipalities 9.1
Demographics 10
- Cities 10.1
- Religion 10.2
- Languages 10.3
- Education 11
Society 12
- Cinema and media 12.1
- Culture 12.2
- Public holidays 12.3
- Cuisine 12.4
- Sport 12.5
- Gallery 13
- International rankings 14
- See also 15
- Notes 16
- References 17
- External links 18
The country's name derives from the Greek Μακεδονία (Makedonía),[13][14] a kingdom (later, region) named after the ancient Macedonians. Their name, Μακεδόνες (Makedónes), derives ultimately from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός (makednós), meaning "tall, taper",[15] which shares the same root as the noun μάκρος (mákros), meaning "length" in both ancient and modern Greek.[16] The name is originally believed to have meant either "highlanders" or "the tall ones", possibly descriptive of the people.[14][17][18] However, according to modern research by Robert S. P. Beekes, both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology.[19]
Ancient and Roman period
In antiquity, most of what is now the Republic of Macedonia was the kingdom of Paeonia,[20] inhabited by the Paeonians, a Thracian people,[21] whilst the northwest was inhabited by the Dardani and the southwest by tribes known historically as the Enchelae, Pelagones and Lyncestae; the latter two are generally regarded as Molossian tribes of the northwestern Greek group, whilst the former two are considered Illyrian.[22][23][24][25][26][27]
In 356 BC Philip II of Macedon absorbed[28] the regions of Upper Macedonia (Lynkestis and Pelagonia) and the southern part of Paeonia (Deuriopus) into the kingdom of Macedon.[29] Philip's son Alexander the Great conquered the remainder of the region, and incorporated it in his empire, reaching as far north as Scupi, but the city and the surrounding area remained part of Dardania.[30]
The Romans established the Province of Macedonia in 146 BC. By the time of Diocletian, the province had been subdivided between Macedonia Prima ("first Macedonia") on the south, encompassing most of the kingdom of Macedon, and Macedonia Salutaris (known also as Macedonia Secunda, "second Macedonia") on the north, encompassing partially Dardania and the whole of Paeonia; most of the country's modern boundaries fell within the latter, with the city of Stobi as its capital.[31] Roman expansion brought the Scupi area under Roman rule in the time of Domitian (81–96 AD), and it fell within the Province of Moesia.[32] Whilst Greek remained the dominant language in the eastern part of the Roman empire, Latin spread to some extent in Macedonia.[33]
Medieval and Ottoman period
Slavic peoples settled in the Balkan region including Macedonia by the late 6th century. During the 580s, Byzantine literature attests to the Slavs raiding Byzantine territories in the region of Macedonia, later aided by Bulgars. Historical records document that in c. 680 a group of Bulgars, Slavs and Byzantines led by a Bulgar called Kuber settled in the region of Keramisian plain, centred on the city of Bitola.[34] Presian's reign apparently coincides with the extension of Bulgarian control over the Slavic tribes in and around Macedonia. The Slavic peoples that settled in the region of Macedonia accepted Christianity as their own religion around the 9th century, during the reign of Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria.
In 1014, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II defeated the armies of Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria, and within four years the Byzantines restored control over the Balkans (including Macedonia) for the first time since the 7th century. However, by the late 12th century, Byzantine decline saw the region contested by various political entities, including a brief Norman occupation in the 1080s.
In the early 13th century, a revived Bulgarian Empire gained control of the region. Plagued by political difficulties, the empire did not last, and the region came once again under Byzantine control in the early 14th century. In the 14th century, it became part of the Serbian Empire, who saw themselves as liberators of their Slavic kin from Byzantine despotism. Skopje became the capital of Tsar Stefan Dusan's empire.
Following Dusan's death, a weak successor appeared, and power struggles between nobles divided the Balkans once again. These events coincided with the entry of the Ottoman Turks into Europe. The Kingdom of Prilep was one of the short-lived states that emerged from the collapse of the Serbian Empire in the 14th century.[35] Gradually, all the central Balkans were conquered by the Ottoman Empire and remained under its domination for five centuries.
Macedonian nationalism
With the beginning of the Bulgarian National Revival in the 18th century, many of the reformers were from this region, including the Miladinov Brothers,[36] Rajko Žinzifov, Joakim Krčovski,[37] Kiril Pejčinoviḱ[38] and others. The bishoprics of Skopje, Debar, Bitola, Ohrid, Veles and Strumica voted to join the Bulgarian Exarchate after it was established in 1870.[39]
Several movements whose goals were the establishment of an autonomous Macedonia, which would encompass the entire region of Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation (ITRO).
In the early years of the organisation membership was open only to Bulgarians, but later it was opened to all inhabitants of European Turkey, regardless of their nationality or religion.[40] The majority of its members, however, were Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottomans, which after some initial successes, including the forming of the "Krushevo Republic", was crushed with much loss of life. The uprising and the forming of the Krushevo Republic are considered the cornerstone and precursors to the eventual establishment of the Macedonian state.
Kingdoms of Serbia and Yugoslavia
Following the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, most of its European-held territories were divided between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The territory of the modern Macedonian state was then named Južna Srbija, "Southern Serbia". After the First World War, the Kingdom of Serbia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the Kingdom was officially renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and divided into provinces called banovinas. Southern Serbia, including all of what is now the Republic of Macedonia, became known as the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The concept of a interbellum. Its leaders – including Todor Alexandrov, Aleksandar Protogerov, and Ivan Mihailov – promoted independence of the Macedonian territory split between Serbia and Greece for the whole population, regardless of religion and ethnicity . The Bulgarian government of Alexander Malinov in 1918 offered to give Pirin Macedonia for that purpose after World War I,[42] but the Great Powers did not adopt this idea because Serbia and Greece opposed it.
IMRO followed by starting an insurgent war in Vardar Banovina, together with
- Use dmy dates from December 2012
- WorldHeritage pages with incorrect protection templates
- Articles including recorded pronunciations
- CS1 errors: dates
- CS1 Macedonian-language sources (mk)
- Articles with DMOZ links
- Coordinates not on Wikidata
- Republic of Macedonia
- Countries in Europe
- Landlocked countries
- Member states of La Francophonie
- Republics
- Slavic countries and territories
- States and territories established in 1991
- Member states of the United Nations
- Official website
- Macedonia entry at The World Factbook
- Macedonia from UCB Libraries GovPubs
- Republic of Macedonia at DMOZ
- Macedonia from the BBC News
- Republic of Macedonia travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Geographic data related to Republic of Macedonia at OpenStreetMap
- Key Development Forecasts for the Republic of Macedonia from International Futures
External links
- ^ "The Macedonian language, written using its Cyrillic alphabet, is the official language in the Republic of Macedonia.", Article 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia
^ "Languages Law passed in Parliament". macedoniaonline.eu. 26 July 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
Using the
- ^ "Regional Languages of Macedonia".
- ^ a b c d "Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Macedonia, 2002 – Book XIII, Skopje, 2005.". State Statistical Office of the Republic of Macedonia.
- ^ Population from the State Statistical Office.
- ^ a b c d "Report for Selected Country". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
- ^ "CIA – The World Factbook – Field Listing :: Distribution of family income – Gini index".
- ^ "2014 Human Development Report Summary". United Nations Development Programme. 2014. pp. 21–25. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ United Nations, A/RES/47/225, 8 April 1993
- ^ United Nations Security Council Resolutions 817 of 7 April and 845 June 18 of 1993, see UN resolutions made on 1993
- ^ "Делегација на Европската Унија во поранешна Југословенска Република Македонија". Retrieved 01-10-2013.
- ^ The Republic of Macedonia – BASIC FACTS, Republic of Macedonia, Ministry of foreign affairs
- ^ Μακεδονία, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ a b Macedonia, Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ μακεδνός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ μάκρος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ Eugene N. Borza, Makedonika, Regina Books, ISBN 0-941690-65-2, p.114: The "highlanders" or "Makedones" of the mountainous regions of western Macedonia are derived from northwest Greek stock; they were akin both to those who at an earlier time may have migrated south to become the historical "Dorians".
- ^ Nigel Guy Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, 2009, p.439: The latest archaeological findings have confirmed that Macedonia took its name from a tribe of tall, Greek-speaking people, the Makednoi.
- ^
- ^ Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (2010). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John Wiley and Sons. p. 13.
- ^ Bauer, Susan Wise: The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome (2007), ISBN 0-393-05974-X, page 518: "...to the north, Thracian tribes known collectively as the Paeonians."
- ^ Willkes, John (1996). The Illyrians. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 49.
- ^ Sealey, Raphael (1976). A history of the Greek city states, ca. 700-338 B.C.. University of California Press. p. 442.
- ^ =Evans, Thammy (2007). Macedonia. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 13.
- ^ Borza, Eugene N. (8 September 1992). In the shadow of Olympus: the emergence of Macedon. Princeton University Press. pp. 74–75.
- ^ Lewis, D.M. et al. (ed.) (1994). The Cambridge ancient history: The fourth century B.C.. Cambridge University Press. pp. 723–724.
- ^ The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman and N. G. L. Hammond,1982,ISBN 0-521-23447-6,page 284
- ^ Warfare in the ancient world: from the Bronze Age to the fall of Rome. By Stefan G. Chrissanthos, page 75
- ^ Poulton, Hugh (23 February 2000). Who are the Macedonians?. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 14.
- ^ Macedonia yesterday and today Author Giorgio Nurigiani, Publisher Teleurope, 1967 p. 77.
- ^ A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, By Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington, page 549
- ^ "Encyclopaedia Britannica – Scopje". Britannica.com. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
- ^ A. F. Christidis, A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p.351: "Despite Roman domination, there was no retreat on the part of Greek tradition in the eastern part of the empire, and only in Macedonia did Latin spread in some extent".
- ^ "Acta Sancti Demetrii", V 195–207, Гръцки извори за българската история, 3, стр. 159–166
- ^ Nicol, Donald Macgillivray (1993). The last Centuries of Byzantium, (1261–1453). Cambridge University Press. p. 500.
- ^ Phillips, John (2004). Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. I.B.Tauris. p. 41.
- ^ Becoming Bulgarian: The Articulation of Bulgarian Identity in the Nineteenth Century in its International Context: an Intellectual History, Ost-European studies, Janette Sampimon, Pegasus, 2006, ISBN 90-6143-311-8, p. 234.
- ^ James Franklin Clarke, Dennis P. Hupchick – "The pen and the sword: studies in Bulgarian history", Columbia University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-88033-149-6, page. 221 (...Peichinovich of Tetovo, Macedonia, author of one of the first Bulgarian books...)
- ^ Gawrych, George Walter (2006). The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913. I.B.Tauris. p. 28. ISBN 1-84511-287-3.
- ^ , Klaus Roth, Ulf Brunnbauer, LIT Verlag Münster, 2010, ISBN 3825813878, p. 136.Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe
- ^ Stanford J. Shaw (27 May 1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 2, Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey 1808–1975. Cambridge University Press. p. 209.
- ^ Gerginov, Kr., Bilyarski, Ts. Unpublished documents for Todor Alexandrov's activities 1910–1919, magazine VIS, book 2, 1987, p.214 – Гергинов, Кр. Билярски, Ц. Непубликувани документи за дейността на Тодор Александров 1910–1919, сп. ВИС, кн. 2 от 1987, с. 214.
- ^ Vassil Karloukovski. "Гиза, Антони, "Балканските държави и Македония", Македонски Научен Институт София, 2001 г". Promacedonia.org. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ Historical dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0-8108-5565-8, pp. 139–140.
- ^ Duncan Perry, "The Republic of Macedonia: finding its way" in Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrot (eds.), Politics, power and the struggle for Democracy in South-Eastern Europe, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 228–229.
- ^ Bulgarian Campaign Committees in Macedonia – 1941 Dimitre Mičev
- ^ Historical dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Valentina Georgieva, Sasha Konechni, Scarecrow Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8108-3336-0, p. 223.
- ^ Hugh Poulton (1995). Who are the Macedonians?. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 102.
- ^ Miller, Marshall Lee (1975). Bulgaria during the Second World War. Stanford University Press. p. 314.
- ^ Bulgaria managed to save its entire 48,000-strong Jewish population during World War II from deportation to concentration camps, but under German pressure those Jews from their newly annexed territories without Bulgarian citizenship were deported, such as those from Vardar Macedonia and Western Thrace. The Holocaust in Macedonia: Deportation of Monastir Jewry United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- ^ Mark Cohen, The Holocaust in Macedonia: Deportation of Monastir Jewry, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- ^ This policy changed after 1943 with the arrival of Tito's envoy Montenegrin Serb Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo. He began in earnest to organise armed resistance to the Bulgarian rule and sharply criticised Sharlo's pro-Bulgarian policy. At a meeting of the partisan brigades, as well as a group of battalions in the Resen region on 21 December 1943, Tempo makes the following comments about Shatorov and the leadership of the MCP: "They thought that the Macedonian people were Bulgarians and that they were oppressed by the hegemony of Great Serbia and had to be transferred to Bulgaria. Their basic slogan is: 'All non-Macedonians out of Macedonia'. The capital J [Serbo-Croatian spelling of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavian, etc.] was deleted from all documents. In fact they did not want Yugoslavia, no matter where it stood politically. When the war started, the initial decision of this leadership was to be separate from Yugoslavia and from Tito. They declared that Macedonia would be free as soon as the Bulgarians came...."
- ^ Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941–45, Nigel Thomas, K. Mikulan, Darko Pavlović, Osprey Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1-85532-473-3, p. 33.
- ^ "Recognition of States: Annex 3". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 15 February 2005. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
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- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. "Britannica's article about Sar Mountains". Britannica.com. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Sar Mountains on the Euratlas map of the Europe's most significant mountain ranges". Euratlas.com. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Macedonia". Mymacedonia.net. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ "Macedonian Flora". Macedonia.co.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ "Ivanov Elected New Macedonian President". BalkanInsight. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Ahmeti accepts the invitation for dialog with Gruevski". Limun.hr. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ "VMRO-DPMNE and DUI form ruling coalition in Macedonia". SeTimes. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
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- ^ "Greece stands by NATO veto threat for Macedonia". Thestar.com.my. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ "EP Urges Accession Talks For Macedonia". BalkanInsight.com. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ EurActiv, 2 November 2012, Bulgaria vetoes Macedonia's EU accession.
- ^ Floudas, Demetrius Andreas; "A Name for a Conflict or a Conflict for a Name? An Analysis of Greece's Dispute with FYROM". 24 (1996) Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 285. 1996. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
- ^ FYROM Name Issue, Hellenic Republic – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- ^ "United Nations Resolution 225 (1993)". United Nations. 8 April 1993. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ European Commission. "Background information — The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Archived from the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ European Broadcasting Union. "Members' Logos". Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ "Analytical Report for the Opinion on the application from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for EU membership" (PDF). Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Europa – The EU at a glance – Maps – FYROM". Europa (web portal). Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ International Olympic Committee. "List of national olympic committees participating in the xix olympic winter games in salt lake city" (PDF). Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. "The situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is critical". Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ Bid to settle Macedonia name row, BBC
- ^ "US snubs Greece over Macedonia". BBC News. 4 November 2004. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
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- ^ Floudas, Demetrius Andreas; "Pardon? A Name for a Conflict? FYROM's Dispute with Greece Revisited" (PDF). in: Kourvetaris et al. (eds.), The New Balkans, East European Monographs: Columbia University Press, 2002, p. 85. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
- ^ a b Ghosts of the past endanger Macedonia's future. Boris Georgievski, BalkanInsight, 27 October 2009 [2].
- ^ Greece slates Skopje's provocative Alexander statue Sinisa Jakov Marusic, Balkan Insight, 15 June 2011 [3]
- ^ By Davorin – Ljubljana. "Macedonia sues Greece for blocking NATO entry". France 24. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia institutes proceedings against Greece for a violation of Article 11 of the Interim Accord of 13 September 1995". International Court of Justice. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
- ^ "Application of the Interim Accord of 13 September 1995". International Court of Justice. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
- ^ The Economist, 11 December 2011
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- ^ National Command Management
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- ^ a b "World Bank development data" (PDF). Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Government of the Republic of Macedonia". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Macedonia's Flat Tax". Nuwireinvestor.com. 15 February 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
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- ^ "Blog Archives » Macedonia's Jewish Community Commemorates the Holocaust, and Embraces the Future". Balkanalysis.com. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
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- ^ OIC.org.mk
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- ^ "Macedonian Opera Marks 60th Anniversary. Culture – Republic of Macedonia".
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^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. Kosovo's independence has been recognised by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states.
- Outline of the Republic of Macedonia
- Symbols of the Republic of Macedonia
- Telecommunications in the Republic of Macedonia
- Transport in the Republic of Macedonia
- Macedonia naming dispute
See also
|Institute for Economics and Peace
|Global Peace Index[133]
|79 out of 162
|Reporters Without Borders
|Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2013[134]
|116 out of 179
|The Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal
|Index of Economic Freedom 2013[135]
|43 out of 177
|Transparency International
|Corruption Perceptions Index 2013[136]
|67 out of 177
|United Nations Development Programme
|Human Development Index 2013[137]
|78 out of 207
|World Bank
|Ease of doing business index 2014[138]
|25 out of 189
International rankings
Pelister National Park.
Širok Sokak Street in Bitola.
Landscape of Mount Korab.
Paintings in St. Panteleimon Church.
Beach near Ljubanista.
The city of Ohrid located on the shores of Lake Ohrid.
Church of St. Clement in Skopje.
Monastery of the Holy Mother of God Eleusa in Strumica.
The Dojran Lake in the town of Dojran.
Ishak Bey Mosque in Skopje's Old Bazaar.
Lake Tikveš near Kavadarci.
Vineyards in Tikveš region.
[132] In the summer months The
The Macedonian national basketball team represents the Republic of Macedonia in international basketball. The team is run by the Basketball Federation of Macedonia, the governing body of basketball in Macedonia which was created in 1992 and joined FIBA in 1993. Macedonia has participated in three Eurobaskets since then with its best finish at 4th place in 2011. It plays its home games at the Boris Trajkovski Arena in Skopje.
Handball is the other important team sport in the country. In 2002 Kometal Skopje won the EHF Women's Champions League European Cup. The European Women's Handball Championship took place in 2008 in Macedonia. The venues in which the tournament took place were located in Skopje and Ohrid; the national team finished seventh place.
Football and handball are the most popular sports in Macedonia. The national football team is controlled by the Football Federation of Macedonia. Their home stadium is the Philip II Arena.
Famous for its rich Šopska salad, an appetiser and side dish which accompanies almost every meal, Macedonian cuisine is also noted for the diversity and quality of its dairy products, wines, and local alcoholic beverages, such as rakija. Tavče Gravče and mastika are considered the national dish and drink of the Republic of Macedonia, respectively.
Macedonian cuisine is a representative of that of the Balkans—reflecting Mediterranean (Greek) and Middle Eastern (Turkish) influences, and to a lesser extent Italian, German and Eastern European (especially Hungarian) ones. The relatively warm climate in Macedonia provides excellent growth conditions for a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits. Thus, Macedonian cuisine is particularly diverse.
Besides these, there are several major religious & minorities holidays. (See:Public holidays in the Republic of Macedonia)
|English name
|Macedonian name
|1–2 January
|New Year
|Нова Година, Nova Godina
|7 January
|Christmas Day (Orthodox)
|Прв ден Божик, Prv den Božik
|Good Friday (Orthodox)
|Велики Петок, Veliki Petok
|Ortodox Easter and other Easter dates do not match; see: List of dates for Easter
|Easter Sunday (Orthodox)
|Прв ден Велигден, Prv den Veligden
|Easter Monday (Orthodox)
|Втор ден Велигден, Vtor den Veligden
|1 May
|Labour Day
|Ден на трудот, Den na trudot
|24 May
|Saints Cyril and Methodius Day
|Св. Кирил и Методиј, Ден на сèсловенските просветители; Sv. Kiril i Metodij, Den na sèslovenskite prosvetiteli
|2 August
|Day of the Republic
|Ден на Републиката, Den na Republikata
|Day when the Republic was established in 1944, also Ilinden uprising in 1903.
|8 September
|Independence Day
|Ден на независноста, Den na nezavisnosta
|Day of independence from Yugoslavia
|11 October
|Revolution Day
|Ден на востанието, Den na vostanieto
|Beginning of Anti-fascist war during WWII in 1941
|23 October
|Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle
|Ден на македонската револуционерна борба,Den na makedonskata revolucionarna borba
|Day when the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was established in 1893.
|1 Shawwal
|Eid ul-Fitr
|Рамазан Бајрам, Ramazan Bajram
|moveable, see: Islamic Calendar
|8 December
|Saint Clement of Ohrid Day
|Св. Климент Охридски, Sv. Kliment Ohridski
The main public holidays in the Republic of Macedonia are:
Public holidays
The most important cultural events in the country are the Ohrid Summer festival of classical music and drama, the Struga Poetry Evenings which gather poets from more than 50 countries in the world, International Camera Festival in Bitola, Open Youth Theatre and Skopje Jazz Festival in Skopje etc. The Macedonian Opera opened in 1947 with a performance of Cavalleria rusticana under the direction of Branko Pomorisac. Every year, the May Opera Evenings are held in Skopje for around 20 nights. The first May Opera performance was that of Kiril Makedonski's Tsar Samuil in May 1972.[131]
Macedonia has a rich cultural heritage in art, architecture, poetry, and music. It has many ancient, protected religious sites. Poetry, cinema, and music festivals are held annually. Macedonian music styles developed under the strong influence of Byzantine church music. Macedonia has a significant number of preserved Byzantine fresco paintings, mainly from the period between the 11th and 16th centuries. There are several thousands square metres of fresco painting preserved, the major part of which is in very good condition and represent masterworks of the Macedonian School of ecclesiastical painting.
In 1994 Milco Manchevski's film "Before the Rain" was nominated as Best Foreign Film. Manchevski continues to be the most prominent modern filmmaker in the country having subsequently written and directed "Dust" and "Shadows."
The oldest newspaper in the country is Nova Makedonija from 1944. Other well known newspaper and magazines are: Utrinski Vesnik, Dnevnik, Vest, Fokus, Večer, Tea Moderna, Makedonsko Sonce, and Koha. Public channel is Macedonian Radio-Television founded in 1993 by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. TEKO TV (1989) from Štip is the first private television channel in the country. Other popular private TV's also are: Sitel, Kanal 5, Telma, Alfa TV, Alsat-M and etc.
The history of film making in the republic dates back over 110 years. The first film to be produced on the territory of the present-day the country was made in 1895 by Janaki and Milton Manaki in Bitola. Throughout the past century, the medium of film has depicted the history, culture and everyday life of the Macedonian people. Over the years many Macedonian films have been presented at film festivals around the world and several of these films have won prestigious awards. The first Macedonian feature film was "Frosina", released in 1952. The first feature film in colour was "Miss Stone", a movie about a Protestant missionary in Ottoman Macedonia. It was released in 1958. The highest grossing feature film in the Republic of Macedonia was Bal-Can-Can, having been seen by over 500,000 people in its first year alone.
Cinema and media
The national library of Macedonia, National and University Library "St. Kliment of Ohrid", is in Skopje.
The United States Agency for International Development has underwritten a project called "Macedonia Connects" which has made Macedonia the first all-broadband wireless country in the world. The Ministry of Education and Sciences reports that 461 schools (primary and secondary) are now connected to the internet.[130] In addition, an Internet Service Provider (On.net), has created a MESH Network to provide WIFI services in the 11 largest cities/towns in the country.
The higher levels of education can be obtained at one of the five state universities: Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, St. Clement of Ohrid University of Bitola, Goce Delčev University of Štip, State University of Tetovo and University for Information Science and Technology "St. Paul The Apostle" in Ohrid. There are a number of private university institutions, such as the European University,[129] Slavic University in Sveti Nikole, the South East European University and others.
- pre-school education
- primary
- secondary
- higher
The Macedonian education system consists of:
A wide variety of languages are spoken in Macedonia, reflecting its ethnic diversity. Besides the official national language, Macedonian, minority languages with substantial numbers of speakers are Albanian, Romani, Turkish (including Balkan Gagauz[120]), Serbian/Bosnian and Aromanian (including Megleno-Romanian).[121][122][123][124][125][126] There are a few villages of Adyghe speakers and an immigrant Greek community.[127][128] Macedonian Sign Language is the primary language of those of the deaf community who did not pick up an oral language in childhood.
According to the last census, 1,344,815 Macedonian citizens declared that they spoke Macedonian, 507,989 declared Albanian, 71,757 Turkish, 38,528 Romani, 6,884 Aromanian, 24,773 Serbian, 8,560 Bosnian, and 19,241 spoke other languages.[119]
Macedonian is closely related to and mutually intelligible with Standard Bulgarian. It also has some similarities with standard Serbian and the intermediate Torlakian and Shop dialects spoken mostly in southern Serbia and western Bulgaria (and by speakers in the north and east of Macedonia). The standard language was codified in the period following World War II and has accumulated a thriving literary tradition. Although it is the only language explicitly designated as an official national language in the constitution, in municipalities where at least 20% of the population is part of another ethnic minority, those individual languages are used for official purposes in local government, alongside Macedonian.
The official and most widely spoken language is Macedonian, which belongs to the Eastern branch of the South Slavic language group. In municipalities where ethnic groups are represented with over 20% of the total population, the language of that ethnic group is co-official.[118]
According to the 2002 Census, 46.5% of the children aged 0–4 were Muslim.[117]
The Macedonian Jewish community, which numbered some 7,200 people on the eve of World War II, was almost entirely destroyed during the war: only 2% of Macedonian Jews survived the Holocaust.[116] After their liberation and the end of the War, most opted to emigrate to Israel. Today, the country's Jewish community numbers approximately 200 persons, almost all of whom live in Skopje. Most Macedonian Jews are Sephardic – the descendants of 15th-century refugees who had fled the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.
There is a small Protestant community. The most famous Protestant in the country is the late president Boris Trajkovski. He was from the Methodist community, which is the largest and oldest Protestant church in the Republic, dating back to the late 19th century. Since the 1980s the Protestant community has grown, partly through new confidence and partly with outside missionary help.
The Macedonian Byzantine Catholic Church has approximately 11,000 adherents in Macedonia. The Church was established in 1918, and is made up mostly of converts to Catholicism and their descendants. The Church is of the Byzantine Rite and is in communion with the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its liturgical worship is performed in Macedonian.[115]
The reaction of the Macedonian Orthodox Church was to cut off all relations with the new Ohrid Archbishopric and to prevent bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church from entering Macedonia. Bishop Jovan was jailed for 18 months for "defaming the Macedonian Orthodox church and harming the religious feelings of local citizens" by distributing Serbian Orthodox church calendars and pamphlets.[114]
There is a tension between the Macedonian and Serbian Orthodox Churches which arose from the former's separation and self-declared autocephaly in 1967. After the negotiations between the two churches were suspended, the Serbian Orthodox Church recognised a group led by Zoran Vraniškovski (also known as Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid, a former Macedonian church bishop, as the Archbishop of Ohrid.
Altogether, there were 1,842 churches and 580 mosques in the country at the end of 2011.[113] The Orthodox and Islamic religious communities have secondary religion schools in Skopje. There is an Orthodox theological college in the capital. The Macedonian Orthodox Church has jurisdiction over 10 provinces (seven in the country and three abroad), has 10 bishops and about 350 priests. A total of 30,000 people are baptised in all the provinces every year.
Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority faith of the Republic of Macedonia making up 64.7% of the population, the vast majority of which belong to the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Various other Christian denominations account for 0.37% of the population. Muslims comprise 33.3% of the population; Macedonia has the fifth-highest proportion of Muslims in Europe, after those of Turkey (96%), Kosovo (90%), Albania (56.7%), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (45%).[111] Most Muslims are Albanians, Turks, or Roma, although few are Macedonian Muslims. The remaining 1.63% is recorded as "unspecified" in the 2002 national census.[112]
|Religions in Republic of Macedonia[110]
|Eastern Orthodoxy
|Other Christianity
The last census data from 2002 shows a population of 2,022,547 inhabitants.[4] The last official estimate from 2009, without significant change, gives a figure of 2,050,671.[108] According to the last census data the largest ethnic group in the country are the Macedonians. The second largest group are the Albanians who dominated much of the northwestern part of the country. Some unofficial estimates indicate that in the Republic of Macedonia there are possibly up to 260,000 Roma.[109]
Most of the current municipalities were unaltered or merely amalgamated from the previous 123 municipalities established in September 1996; others were consolidated and their borders changed. Prior to this, local government was organised into 34 administrative districts, communes, or counties (also opštini).
In August 2004, the Republic of Macedonia was reorganised into 84 municipalities (opštini; sing. opština); 10 of the municipalities constitute the City of Skopje, a distinct unit of local self-government and the country's capital.
Macedonia's statistical regions exist solely for legal and statistical purposes. The regions are:
Administrative regions
Tourism is an important part of the economy of the Republic of Macedonia. The country's large abundance of natural and cultural attractions make it an attractive destination of visitors. It receives about 700,000 tourists annually.[107]
Other key partners are Germany, Italy, the United States, Slovenia, Austria and Turkey.
Since the end of the Greek embargo, Greece has become the country's most important business partner. (See Greek investments in the Republic of Macedonia.) Many Greek companies have bought former state companies in Macedonia,[106] such as the oil refinery Okta, the baking company Zhito Luks, a marble mine in Prilep, textile facilities in Bitola, etc., and employ 20,000 people. However, local cross-border trade between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia sees thousands of Greek shoppers visiting to purchase cheaper domestic products.
The outbreak of the Yugoslav wars and the imposition of sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro caused great damage to the Republic's economy, with Serbia constituting 60% of its markets before the disintegration of Yugoslavia. When Greece imposed a trade embargo on the Republic in 1994–95, the economy was also affected. Some relief was afforded by the end of the Bosnian war in November 1995 and the lifting of the Greek embargo, but the Kosovo War of 1999 and the 2001 Albanian crisis caused further destabilisation.
Trade and investment
Macedonia (along with Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo) belongs to the less-developed southern region of the former Yugoslavia. It suffered severe economic difficulties after independence, when the Yugoslav internal market collapsed and subsidies from Belgrade ended. In addition, it faced many of the same problems faced by other former socialist East European countries during the transition to a market economy. Its main land and rail exports route, through Serbia, remains unreliable with high transit costs, thereby affecting the export of its formerly highly profitable, early vegetables market to Germany. Macedonia's IT market increased 63.8% year on year in 2007, which is the fastest growing in the Adriatic region.[105]
Infrastructure and e-infrastructure
According to Eurostat data, Macedonian PPS GDP per capita stood at 36% of the EU average in 2011.[104]
With a GDP per capita of US$9,157 at purchasing power parity and a Human Development Index of 0.701, Macedonia is less developed and has a considerably smaller economy than most of the former Yugoslav states.
In terms of structure, as of 2005 the service sector constituted by far the largest part of GDP at 57.1%, up from 54.2% in 2000. The industrial sector represents 29.3% of GDP, down from 33.7% in 2000 while agriculture represents only 12.9%, up from 12%.[101] Textiles represent the most significant sector for trade, accounting for more than half of total exports.[102] Other important exports include iron, steel, wine and vegetables.[103]
Despite these reforms, as of 2005 Macedonia's unemployment rate was 37.2%[98] and as of 2006 its poverty rate was 22%.[95] Macedonia has one of the highest shares of people struggling financially, with 72% of its citizens stating that they could only manage on their household's income 'with difficulty' or 'with great difficulty', though Macedonia, along with Croatia, was the only country in the Western Balkans to not report an increase in this statistic.[99] Corruption and a relatively ineffective legal system also act as significant restraints on successful economic development. Macedonia still has one of the lowest per capita GDPs in Europe. Furthermore, the country's grey market is estimated at close to 20% of GDP.[100]
Ranked as the fourth 'best reformatory state' out of 178 countries ranked by the World Bank in 2009, Macedonia has undergone considerable economic reform since independence.[94] The country has developed an open economy with trade accounting for more than 90% of GDP in recent years. Since 1996, Macedonia has witnessed steady, though slow, economic growth with GDP growing by 3.1% in 2005. This figure was projected to rise to an average of 5.2% in the 2006–2010 period.[95] The government has proven successful in its efforts to combat inflation, with an inflation rate of only 3% in 2006 and 2% in 2007,[94] and has implemented policies focused on attracting foreign investment and promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The current government introduced a flat tax system with the intention of making the country more attractive to foreign investment. The flat tax rate was 12% in 2007 and was further lowered to 10% in 2008.[96][97]
The Ministry of Defence develops the Republic's defence strategy and assesses possible threats and risks. It is also responsible for the defence system, including training, readiness, equipment, and development, and for drawing up and presenting the defence budget.[93]
The Macedonian Armed Forces comprise the army, air force and Special Forces. The government's national defence policy aims to guarantee the preservation of the independence and sovereignty of the state, the integrity of its land area and airspace and its constitutional order. Its main goals remain the development and maintenance of a credible capability to defend the nation's vital interests and development of the Armed Forces in a way that ensures their interoperability with the armed forces of NATO and the European Union member states and their capability to participate in the full range of NATO missions.
There do, however, continue to be problems with torture by the police.[91][92]
The Republic of Macedonia is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and the U.N. Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and Convention against Torture, and the Constitution guarantees basic human rights to all Macedonian citizens.
Human rights
In November 2008, Macedonia instituted proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Greece alleging violations of the 1995 Interim Accord that blocked its accession to NATO.[87] The ICJ was requested to order Greece to observe its obligations within the Accord, which is legally binding for both countries. In 2011 The United Nations' International Court of Justice ruled that Greece violated Article 11 of the 1995 Interim Accord by vetoing Macedonia's bid for NATO membership at the 2008 summit in Bucharest.[88] The court, however, did not consider it necessary to grant Macedonia's request that it instruct Greece to refrain from similar actions in the future since "[a]s a general rule, there is no reason to suppose that a State whose act or conduct has been declared wrongful by the Court will repeat that act or conduct in the future, since its good faith must be presumed",[89] nor has there been to date a change in the EU's stance that Macedonia's accession negotiations cannot begin until the name issue is resolved.[90]
Since the coming to power in 2006, and especially since Macedonia's non-invitation to NATO in 2008, the VMRO-DPMNE government has pursued a policy of "[85]
Initially the European Community-nominated Arbitration Commission's opinion was that "the use of the name 'Macedonia' cannot therefore imply any territorial claim against another State";[83] despite the commission's opinion, Greece continued to object to the establishment of relations between the Community and the Republic under its constitutional name.[84]
However, most UN member countries have abandoned the provisional reference and have recognised the country as the Republic of Macedonia instead. These include four of the five permanent UN Security Council members—the United States,[81] Russia, United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China; several members of the European Union such as Bulgaria, Poland, and Slovenia; and over 100 other UN members.[82] The UN has set up a negotiating process with a mediator, Matthew Nimetz, and the two disputed parties, Macedonia and Greece, to try to mediate the dispute. Negotiations continue between the two sides but have yet to reach any settlement of the dispute.
The UN adopted the provisional reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (European Union, the European Broadcasting Union, and the International Olympic Committee, adopted the same convention.[74][75][76][77][78] NATO also uses the reference in official documents but adds an explanation on which member countries recognise the constitutional name.[79] The same reference is also used in any discussion to which Greece is a party[80]
From 1992 to 1995, the two countries engaged in a dispute over the Macedonian state's new flag, which incorporated the Vergina Sun symbol. This aspect of the dispute was resolved when the flag was changed under the terms of an interim accord agreed between the two states in October 1995.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, the name of Macedonia became the object of a dispute between Greece and the newly independent Republic of Macedonia.[71] In the south, the Republic of Macedonia borders the region of Greek Macedonia, which administratively is split into three peripheries (one of them comprising both Western Thrace and a part of Greek Macedonia). Citing historical and territorial concerns resulting from the ambiguity between the Republic of Macedonia, the adjacent Greek region of Macedonia and the ancient kingdom of Macedon which falls within Greek Macedonia, Greece opposes the use of the name "Macedonia" by the Republic of Macedonia without a geographical qualifier, supporting a compound name (such as "Northern Macedonia") for use by all and for all purposes (erga omnes).[72] As millions of ethnic Greeks identify themselves as Macedonians, unrelated to the Slavic people who are associated with the Republic of Macedonia, Greece further objects to the use of the term "Macedonian" for the neighboring country's largest ethnic group. The Republic of Macedonia is accused of appropriating symbols and figures that are historically considered parts of Greece's culture (such as Vergina Sun, a symbol associated with the ancient kingdom of Macedon, and Alexander the Great), and of promoting the irredentist concept of a United Macedonia, which would include territories of Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and Serbia.
Naming dispute
In October 2012 the EU Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle proposed a start of accession negotiations with Macedonia for the fourth time, while the previous efforts were blocked each time by Greece. At the same time Füle visited Bulgaria in a bid to clarify the state's position with respect to Macedonia. He established that Bulgaria almost has joined Greece in vetoing the accession talks with Macedonia. Bulgarian position was that Sofia cannot grant an EU certificate to Skopje, which is systematically employing an ideology of hate towards Bulgaria.[70]
In March 2009 the European Parliament expressed support for Macedonia's EU candidacy and asked the EU Commission to grant the country a date for the start of accession talks by the end of 2009. The parliament also recommended a speedy lifting of the visa regime for Macedonian citizens.[69] However, Macedonia has so far failed to receive a start date for accession talks as a result of the naming dispute. The EU's stance is similar to NATO's in that resolution of the naming dispute is a precondition for the start of accession talks.
but the summit then decided to extend an invitation only on condition of a resolution of the naming conflict with Greece. [68] The USA had previously expressed support for an invitation,[67] On the NATO summit held in
In 2005, the country was officially recognised as a European Union candidate state.
Macedonia is a member of the following international and regional organisations:[66] La Francophonie (since 2001).
- Commencing negotiations for full-fledged membership in the European Union
- Lifting the visa regime for Macedonian nationals
- NATO membership
- Resolving the naming issue with Greece
- Strengthening the economic and public diplomacy
The major interest of the country is a full integration in the European and the Trans-Atlantic integration processes. Five foreign policy priorities are:[65]
Macedonia became a member state of the UN on 8 April 1993, eighteen months after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is referred to within the UN as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", pending a resolution of the long-running dispute with Greece about the country's name.
Foreign relations
Judiciary power is exercised by courts, with the court system being headed by the Judicial Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and the Republican Judicial Council. The assembly appoints the judges.
Law and courts
Executive power in Macedonia is exercised by the Government, whose prime minister is the most politically powerful person in the country. The members of the government are chosen by the Prime Minister and there are ministers for each branch of the society. There are ministers for economy, finance, information technology, society, internal affairs, foreign affairs and other areas. The members of the Government are elected for a mandate of four years. The current Prime Minister is Nikola Gruevski who is serving his third consecutive term in office.
Parliament, or Sobranie (Macedonian: Собрание), is the country's legislative body. It makes, proposes and adopts laws. The 120 members are elected for a mandate of four years through a general election. Each citizen aged 18 years or older can vote for one of the political parties. The current president of Parliament is Trajko Veljanovski.
In April 2009, presidential and local elections in the country were carried out peacefully, which was crucial for Macedonian aspirations to join the EU.[64] The ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE party won a victory in the local elections and the candidate supported by the party, Gjorgi Ivanov, was elected as the new president.
After the early parliamentary elections held in 2008, VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Union for Integration formed a ruling coalition in Macedonia.[63]
After a troublesome pre-election campaign, Macedonia saw a relatively calm and democratic change of government in the elections held on 5 July 2006. The elections were marked by a decisive victory of the centre-right party VMRO-DPMNE led by Nikola Gruevski. Gruevski's decision to include the Democratic Party of Albanians in the new government, instead of the Democratic Union for Integration – Party for Democratic Prosperity coalition which won the majority of the Albanian votes, triggered protests throughout the parts of the country with a respective number of Albanian population. However, a dialogue was later established between the Democratic Union for Integration and the ruling VMRO-DMPNE party as an effort to talk about the disputes between the two parties and to support European and NATO aspirations of the country.[62]
The country's main political divergence is between the largely ethnically based political parties representing the country's ethnic Macedonian majority and Albanian minority. The issue of the power balance between the two communities led to a brief war in 2001, following which a power-sharing agreement was reached. In August 2004, Macedonia's parliament passed legislation redrawing local boundaries and giving greater local autonomy to ethnic Albanians in areas where they predominate.
With the passage of a new law and elections held in 2005, local government functions are divided between 78 municipalities (општини, opštini; singular: општина, opština). The capital, Skopje, is governed as a group of ten municipalities collectively referred to as the "City of Skopje". Municipalities in Macedonia are units of local self-government. Neighbouring municipalities may establish co-operative arrangements.
[61] Macedonia is a
The shepherd dog of Šar Mountain is known worldwide as Šarplaninec (Yugoslav shepherd). It stands some 60 centimeters tall and is a brave and fierce fighter that may be called upon to fight bears or wolf packs in guarding and defending flocks. The Šarplaninec originates from the shepherd's dog of the ancient Epirotes, the molossus, but the Šarplaninec was recognised as its own breed in 1939 under the name of "Illyrian shepherd" and since 1956 has been known as Šarplaninec.
Domestic animals
The three artificial lakes of the country represent a separate fauna zone, an indication of long-lasting territorial and temporal isolation. The fauna of Lake Ohrid is a relict of an earlier era and the lake is widely known for its letnica trout, lake whitefish, gudgeon, roach, podust, and pior, as well as for certain species of snails of a genus older than 30 million years; similar species can only be found in Lake Baikal. Lake Ohrid is also noted in zoology texts for the European eel and its baffling reproductive cycle: it comes to Lake Ohrid from the distant Sargasso Sea, thousands of kilometres away, and lurks in the depths of the lake for 10 years. When sexually mature, the eel is driven by unexplained instincts in the autumn to set off back to its point of birth. There it spawns and dies, leaving its offspring to seek out Lake Ohrid to begin the cycle anew.
The fauna of Macedonian forests is abundant and includes bears, wild boars, wolves, foxes, squirrels, chamois and deer. The lynx is found, although very rarely, in the mountains of western Macedonia, while deer can be found in the region of Demir Kapija. Forest birds include the blackcap, the grouse, the black grouse, the imperial eagle and the forest owl.
Macedonia's limited forest growth also includes Macedonian Oaks, the sycamore, weeping willows, white willows, alders, poplars, elms, and the common ash. Near the rich pastures on Šar Mountain and Bistra, Mavrovo, is another plant species characteristic of plant life in Macedonia—the poppy. The quality of thick poppy juice is measured worldwide by morphine units; while Chinese opium contains eight such units and is considered to be of high quality, Indian opium contains seven units, and Turkish opium only six, Macedonian opium contains a full 14 morphine units and is one of the best quality opiums in the world.[60]
National Park of Pelister in Bitola is known for the presence of the endemic Macedonian Pine, as well as some 88 species of plants representing almost 30 percent of Macedonian dendroflora. The Macedonian Pine forests on Pelister are divided into two communities: pine forests with ferns and pine forests with junipers. The Macedonian Pine, as a specific conifer species, is a relict of tertiary flora, and the five-needle pine Molika, was first noted on Pelister in 1893.
Phytogeographically, Macedonia belongs to the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency, the territory of the Republic can be subdivided into four ecoregions: the Pindus Mountains mixed forests, Balkan mixed forests, Rhodopes mixed forests and Aegean sclerophyllous and mixed forests.
The flora of Republic of Macedonia is represented by around 210 families, 920 genera, and around 3,700 plant species. The most abundant group are the flowering plants with around 3,200 species, which is followed by mosses (350 species) and ferns (42).
|731 km²
|227 km²
|125 km²
The country has three national parks:
National parks
Macedonia has a transitional climate from Mediterranean to continental. The summers are hot and dry, and the winters are moderately cold. Average annual precipitation varies from 1,700 mm (66.9 in) in the western mountainous area to 500 mm (19.7 in) in the eastern area. There are three main climatic zones in the country: temperate Mediterranean, mountainous, and mildly continental. Along the valleys of the Vardar and Strumica rivers, in the regions of Gevgelija, Valandovo, Dojran, Strumica, and Radoviš, the climate is temperate Mediterranean. The warmest regions are Demir Kapija and Gevgelija, where the temperature in July and August frequently exceeds 40 °C (104 °F). The mountainous climate is present in the mountainous regions of the country, and it is characterised by long and snowy winters and short and cold summers. The spring is colder than the fall. The majority of Macedonia has a moderate continental climate with warm and dry summers and relatively cold and wet winters. There are thirty main and regular weather stations in the country.
The Macedonian word for spa is бања, transliterated as banja. In the country there are nine spa towns and resorts: Banište, Banja Bansko, Istibanja, Katlanovo, Kežovica, Kosovrasti, Banja Kočani, Kumanovski Banji and Negorci.
Macedonia has around fifty ponds and three natural lakes, Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Lake Dojran.
The Black Sea basin is the smallest with only 37 km2 (14 sq mi). It covers the northern side of Mount Skopska Crna Gora. This is the source of the river Binachka Morava, which joins the Morava, and later, the Danube, which flows into the Black Sea.
The river Black Drin forms the Adriatic basin, which covers an area of about 3,320 km2 (1,282 sq mi), i.e., 13% of the territory. It receives water from Lakes Prespa and Ohrid.
The Aegean basin is the largest. It covers 87% of the territory of the Republic, which is 22,075 square kilometres (8,523 sq mi). Vardar, the largest river in this basin, drains 80% of the territory or 20,459 square kilometres (7,899 sq mi). Its valley plays an important part in the economy and the communication system of the country. The project named 'The Vardar Valley' is considered to be crucial for the strategic development of the country.
In the Republic of Macedonia there are 1,100 large sources of water. The rivers flow into three different basins: the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Black Sea.[59]
Macedonia also has scenic mountains. They belong to two different mountain ranges: the first is the Šar Mountains[57][58] that continues to the West Vardar/Pelagonia group of mountains (Baba Mountain, Nidže, Kozuf and Jakupica), also known as the Dinaric range. The second range is the Osogovo–Belasica mountain chain, also known as the Rhodope range. The mountains belonging to the Šar Mountains and the West Vardar/Pelagonia range are younger and higher than the older mountains of the Osogovo-Belasica mountain group. Mount Korab of the Šar Mountains on the Albanian border, at 2,764 m (9,068 ft), is the tallest mountain in Macedonia.
Macedonia is a landlocked country that is geographically clearly defined by a central valley formed by the Vardar river and framed along its borders by mountain ranges. The terrain is mostly rugged, located between the Šar Mountains and Osogovo, which frame the valley of the Vardar river. Three large lakes — Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Dojran Lake — lie on the southern borders, bisected by the frontiers with Albania and Greece. Ohrid is considered to be one of the oldest lakes and biotopes in the world.[56] The region is seismically active and has been the site of destructive earthquakes in the past, most recently in 1963 when Skopje was heavily damaged by a major earthquake, killing over 1,000.
Macedonia has a total area of 25,713 km2 (9,928 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 40° and 43° N, and mostly between longitudes 20° and 23° E (a small area lies east of 23°). Macedonia has some 748 km (465 mi) of boundaries, shared with Serbia (62 km or 39 mi) to the North, Kosovo (159 km or 99 mi) to the northwest, Bulgaria (148 km or 92 mi) to the east, Greece (228 km or 142 mi) to the south, and Albania (151 km or 94 mi) to the west. It is a transit way for shipment of goods from Greece, through the Balkans, towards Eastern, Western and Central Europe and through Bulgaria to the east. It is part of a larger region also known as Macedonia, which also includes a region of northern Greece of the same name and the Blagoevgrad province in southwestern Bulgaria.
A conflict took place between the government and ethnic Albanian insurgents, mostly in the north and west of the country, between February and August 2001. The war ended with the intervention of a NATO ceasefire monitoring force. Under the terms of the Ohrid Agreement, the government agreed to devolve greater political power and cultural recognition to the Albanian minority. The Albanian side agreed to abandon separatist demands and to recognise all Macedonian institutions fully. In addition, according to this accord, the NLA were to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force.[55]
Albanian insurgency
Macedonia remained at peace through the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s. A few very minor changes to its border with Yugoslavia were agreed upon to resolve problems with the demarcation line between the two countries. However, it was seriously destabilised by the Kosovo War in 1999, when an estimated 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo took refuge in the country. Although they departed shortly after the war, soon after, Albanian nationalists on both sides of the border took up arms in pursuit of autonomy or independence for the Albanian-populated areas of Macedonia.
Robert Badinter as the head of the Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia recommended EC recognition in January 1992.[54]
The country officially celebrates 8 September 1991 as Independence day (Macedonian: Ден на независноста, Den na nezavisnosta), with regard to the referendum endorsing independence from Yugoslavia, albeit legalising participation in future union of the former states of Yugoslavia. The anniversary of the start of the Ilinden Uprising (St. Elijah's Day) on 2 August is also widely celebrated on an official level as the Day of the Republic.
Declaration of independence
The new republic became one of the six republics of the Yugoslav federation. Following the federation's renaming as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, the People's Republic of Macedonia was likewise renamed, becoming the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. During the civil war in Greece (1946–1949) Macedonian communist insurgents supported the Greek communists. Many refugees fled to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia from there. The state dropped the "Socialist" from its name in 1991 when it peacefully seceded from Yugoslavia.
In 1944 the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) proclaimed the People's Republic of Macedonia as part of the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. ASNOM remained an acting government until the end of the war. The Macedonian alphabet was codified by linguists of ASNOM, who based their alphabet on the phonetic alphabet of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and the principles of Krste Petkov Misirkov.
Socialist Yugoslavia period
In Vardar Macedonia, after the Niš, Skopje and Pristina with the strategic task of blocking the German forces withdrawing from Greece.[53] Compelled by the Soviet Union with a view towards the creation of a large South Slav Federation, the Bulgarian government once again offered to give Pirin Macedonia to such a United Macedonia in 1945.
As leader of the Vardar Macedonia communists, Shatorov switched from the Yugoslav Communist Party to the Bulgarian Communist Party[47][48] and refused to start military action against the Bulgarian army.[49] The Bulgarian authorities, under German pressure,[50] were responsible for the round-up and deportation of over 7,000 Jews in Skopje and Bitola.[51] Harsh rule by the occupying forces encouraged many Macedonians to support the Communist Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito after 1943,[52] and the National Liberation War ensued, with German forces being driven out of Macedonia by the end of 1944.
During World War II, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis Powers from 1941 to 1945. The Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and Italian-occupied Albania. Bulgarian Action Committees were established to prepare the region for the new Bulgarian administration and army.[46] The Committees were mostly formed by former members of IMRO, but some communists such as Panko Brashnarov, Strahil Gigov and Metodi Shatorov also participated.
Part of a series on the
History of the
Republic of Macedonia
|Republic of Macedonia portal
World War II period
The Macedonist ideas increased during the interbellum, in Yugoslav Vardar Macedonia, and among the left diaspora in Bulgaria, and were supported by the Comintern.[44] In 1934 it issued a special resolution in which for the first time directions were provided for recognizing the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and Macedonian language.[45]


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There is growing concern in the Jewish world of possible effects that the scandal surrounding press mogul Rupert Murdoch's employees will have on Israel. The reason for this is that Murdoch is very pro-Israel in his views, and his press empire has generally treated Israel fairly, unlike other press groups.
"My own perspective is simple: We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews," Murdoch at an Anti-Defamation League dinner held in his honor in 2010. "When Americans think of anti-Semitism, we tend to think of the vulgar caricatures and attacks of the first part of the 20th century. Now it seems that the most virulent strains come from the left. Often this new anti-Semitism dresses itself up as legitimate disagreement with Israel."
A phone hacking scandal in Britain has resulted in high level resignations in Murdoch's News Corp and ten arrests so far. The future of Murdoch's empire is now uncertain.
There is also concern that Fox News will fall into the hands of a Saudi prince.
JTA quoted Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, as saying of Murdoch: "His publications and media have proven to be fairer on the issue of Israel than the rest of the media. I hope that won't be impacted."
Murdoch's News Corp owns, among other news outlets, The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and The Australian, as well as The Sun in Britain and the New York Post, Fox News Channel and a 39 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting.
"Consider for a moment what would remain of media objectivity regarding Israel related matters with News Corporation's assets weakened or sold off," wrote David Efune of the Algemeiner. "Likely it will be reduced to incessant clubbing from such enlightened Middle East 'experts' as Thomas Friedman, Karl Vick, Peter Beinart and others."
Efune's views the current troubles as a challenge to Jewish creativity.
"The Jewish people have rebuilt their homeland, they have drafted a defense force, they have contributed significantly to technology, medicine, science and spirituality, but in the arena of public opinion, in the battleground of ideas, they have yet to make their mark." He called out to "fair-minded entrepreneurs" to "explore this market gap in Jewish communication guided by the legacy of an industry giant."

subset: commoncrawl


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Each year, a small group of high-performing employees spend 9 to 12 months focused on project work with our social impact clients, developing expertise in problem solving and strategic thinking.
Get acquainted with a few BCGers who have participated in the program and learn about their experiences.
With BCG's Social Impact Immersion program, you have access to the firm's resources and top talent to create major impact globally.
For me, it meant being able to work on challenging problems, from designing a large-scale nutritional program in Mozambique to dealing with high-level stakeholders in Rome helping the World Food Programme develop its strategy.
Flying in a UN plane to a refugee camp at the border of Darfur, attending a cyclone early warning training (held in the local dialect) on the coast of Madagascar…these are the types of great experiences I would never have had without participating in the Social Impact Immersion Program.
The program allowed me to get insight into different international NGOs and UN agencies, and it made me realize both how narrow and how broad the difference is between this world and the corporate one.


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Rafael Nadal tells L'Equipe (English translation here) that Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor at the center of the "Operation Puerto" trial, should be allowed to name all athletes he knows have doped.
The judge has so far refused to allow Dr. Fuentes to discuss names outside of cycling, but Fuentes has said that he treated soccer players at his Madrid clinic. Fuentes has not been asked to reveal the code names attached to the 200 blood bags he was found with in 2006.
Fuentes told the court that in 2006, "I worked with all types of athletes. Footballers, athletes, cyclists, boxer and tennis players."
Fuentes is said to be behind one of sports' largest blood doping rackets.
"What's happening right now in Spain in a court of law, is something that I don't understand," said Nadal. "I don't understand why doctor Fuentes doesn't give names. I don't understand why the judge doesn't ask him to name them. That has disappointed me…It would be best if the doctor just tells them and those who are caught, suffer the consequences. I don't know why they don't go right down to the bottom of it all. We need to cleanse it properly. I have heard that this doctor has worked with foreign athletes but because the doctor is Spanish, the prejudice is mainly aimed at Spanish sports people. As a Spanish sports person, this affects me badly. Because of people like [U.S. cyclist Lance] Armstrong, all our reputations are in doubt."
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Replies to This Discussion
I know one of the code names its clay court king the bull............lol
I also Agree with nadal. about how not naming the athletes does greatly effect the athletes of Spain.
Totally, and I think Rafa asking that the names be shared is the best move he can make from a PR position as well. We immediately think, well, Rafa must not be on the list. But, who is?
Rafa is asking the right questions of transparency. Good for him!
Rafa is totally on the list.... but he is probably clean now and if you see him he even looks smaller. he will be hit with a BIG fine.... and Exonerated like Agassi..... Wait and SEE!!!!!!!
I didn't know Agassi used PED's. Crystal meth is no PED. If anything, it will destroy anyone who uses it long enough.
A good offense, is the best defense.
Exactly. Just like on the court. I think Rafa could have used a bit more offense in the final in Chile.
I tend to think that Nadal is just a supremely gifted physical specimen.
I think there's a 50/50 chance that he's not 100% clean. Do I sound like Yogi Berra? Hahaha!
I think Rafa is a combination of talent, revolutionary technique and physicality. But I do think early on, he had an abundance of muscle in the arm. He is now not as big, just as Pacquiao. We will never know I suppose.
Oh, we will know. If we learn anything from Lance, either innocent or guilty, we will know about all these athletes about 5 to 10 years down the road.
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A stray dog becomes a mad dog. A mad dog sees only straight paths, and can't shoot very well either. This we learn from Stray Dog, a 1949 Kurosawa film starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. The two actors would later become world famous as samurai, but in this film, they navigate a decrepit, post-war Tokyo during a heat wave, patiently going through the steps of a police procedural. Shimura has a full head of hair and constantly wipes sweat from his face with rag: in The Seven Samurai, he's bald, and does his signature gesture of absent mindedly scratching his chest.
The film is usually classed as a film noir in style, but it seems more like a straight procedural. Of course, the entire opening credit sequence treats us to the image of a panting dog – that tips us off that things are not the norm. Mifune plays Murakami, a complete greenhorn homicide detective who's gun is stolen from his pocket on a crowded bus. He's mortified, and offers to resign, but the seasoned detectives tell him to cut the crap, "This isn't the army!" and they assign Sato (Shimura) to help him on the case and show him the ropes. Sato is a zhlubby family man who dispenses philosophical wisdom and police tips with world-weary authority.
The action takes us through the seamy precincts of the city, a city without air conditioning – everyone sweats buckets. As Murakami's gun is implicated in one crime after another, he is consumed with anxiety, foreboding, and guilt over his stupid carelessness. Sato tells him, if it wasn't your Colt, it would be another Browning.
Murkami tails a showgirl who knows something and visits her home. He won't leave until she talks. She blames the world for the crimes of Yusa, her boyfriend, it's so unfair. Some people have everything while they have to scrounge for scraps. Yusa had his knapsack stolen on the way home from the army – that's what set him off into crime: who would do such a lousy thing! Murakami tells her that he too had his knapsack stolen the same way: two paths, a crossroads. One became a stray dog and chose crime, one the straight and narrow. That fate thing again.
From here the film takes off into another realm, of brilliant poetry, that only someone like Kurosawa can create. A cleansing rain breaks the heatwave as the climax comes -Sato is shot trying to capture Yusa. Murakami and the girl hear it happen over the phone.
Sato will live, and Murakami catches up with Yusa. Murakami has no gun, he left it with Sato, but Yusa has his! The chase leaves the town, and continues into the woods as they blunder and crash through lush, flowering meadows and undergrowth. Beautiful flowers everywhere!
Murakami catches up with the mad dog who is shaking with fear in this standoff which could be, or will be, right out of Sergio Leone.
Murakami's shot with his own gun, but Yusa is so scared, he just wings him.
It all happens on the lot of a suburban residence where a woman is playing the piano. What was that noise? Who are those men? Nothing going on – she goes back to her piano.
We get an almost hyper-real set of images of Murakami's suffering as the standoff continues
The blood drips slowly from his hand onto the pretty flowers at his feet. Time is standing still…
Yusa is out of bullets: a little more running through the flowers, and he's caught and handcuffed. The hunter and the mad dog lie in the foliage, out of breath, while children walk by in the background, singing. The juxtaposition is marvelous, and we know from earlier scenes that Murakami has developed a sympathy, almost sentimental, for his prey.
Yusa, looks at the sky, the flowers, and like a captured dog, begins to howl horribly. It's all over for him, he's finished. Why did it have to happen this way?
The film is elevated beyond procedural, beyond noir, into the realm of tragic humanism. Sato tells his young protegé that he'll stop sympathizing with the poor creeps who turn to crime after he's arrested a few more of them.


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Cook the Book: Pine Nut Almond Cake
A little bit of salt has been used to enhance sweets for a long time, but it's only recently that we've become accustomed to desserts that are truly salty. This Pine Nut Almond Cake from Italian Easy by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers is almost more salty than it is sweet but in a way that makes it a wonderfully balanced and elegant way to end a meal.
It's a variation on a pound cake recipe that uses ground almonds and flour and a little more than a pound of butter. The nutty cake is studded with chopped pine nuts and refreshingly lemony with a hint of vanilla that can only come from using real vanilla beans. The rich, dense cake is topped with a layer of pine nuts that have been tossed with salt; they toast during baking, releasing some of their natural oil onto the cake and almost caramelizing.
The sweet saltiness of this cake makes it appropriate for any time of day. And, believe me, we have been enjoying this cake at all times of the day—a small slice for breakfast, in the afternoon with a glass of wine, and as a midnight snack.
Win Italian Easy
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Italian Easy to give away this week.
- Yield:8
- Rated:
- 2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 vanilla beans
- 2 lemons
- 6 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1 1/4 cups superfine sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup ground almonds
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat the oven to 350°F.
Grease an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch loaf pan with extra butter and line with baking parchment.
Soften the butter. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla beans. Finely grate the lemon peel. Juice 1 of the lemons. Roughly chop half the pine nuts.
Beat the butter and sugar with the vanilla seeds until light and fluffy, then stir in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour, ground almonds, and chopped pine nuts, and stir in the lemon peel.
Mix the remaining pine nuts with the salt. Spoon the mixture into the pan, sprinkle with the salted pine nuts and bake in the oven for 1 hour. The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pan.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Saturn wrote::shock:
This is the best poem of yours I've ever read, no word of a lie Denise
This is pure, oozing poetry in every syllable.
I can even quote single lines, the whole is too perfect.
So full of yearning, of a sense of longing it hurts.
I really can't even come close enough to lick your boots in competing with stuff like this. My feeble laments are naught in comparison - like seagulls flying in front of the sun they're swamped by the sheer brilliance.
This was most certainly worth waiting for.
I bow to you once again, oh poetess laureate of our little community.
Brave Archer wrote:I have't visit'd in a while and would not have thought i'd be treat'd to something so wonderful. I think Saturn is on to something with his post. Wonderfully written, I really did enjoy. Simply beautiful.
I had to edit my post to say again that I absolutely LOVE what i've just read.
I pray you don't think my post as overly praisefull
dks wrote:How low these days ring;
In a snug chapel of tingling chimes.
I need you
To render them Cathedral bells
Clamoring, pealing, exalted, high—
Boldly usher in this beauty,
Like a single, saffron stroke
Swabbed across a blue and black basalt sky.
Saturn wrote:You're too kind, but Denise is in another ballpark to me, seriously leagues apart.
AsphodelElysium wrote:This poem is quite lovely Denise. I felt peaceful, strange as that sounds, after reading it. Stephen, your poetry is also very good. Neither one of you should sell yourselves short. Cheers!
Saturn wrote:You're too kind, but Denise is in another ballpark to me, seriously leagues apart.
Return to 'Where's the Poet? Show him! Show him!'
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If you went to see "Real Steel" this weekend and it felt as much like an 80s Steven Spielberg movie as "Super 8" did, director Shawn Levy says don't be surprised...even though he was.
"If you're my generation, and you make populist Hollywood movies, you are a descendant of Spielberg," Levy tells PopcornBiz. He admits that, even with Spielberg as "Real Steel" executive producer, the film's nostalgic elements – set in a futuristic world in which boxing matches are fought by robots, where an ex-prizefighter (Hugh Jackman) and his estranged young son (Dakota Goyo) come together in their bid to create a champ out of Atom, a 'bot salvaged from a scrapheap – came together as much happenstance as design.
"I love sports movies, I love underdog stories and I particularly love the 'Rocky' series, so there's no question that as I worked on the script with Gatens, some of those aspects crept in more dominantly," Levy explains. "The Amblin qualities were probably baked into the DNA, because it was always about a boy from a broken domestic situation finding a creature that would be his path to redemption. That's 'E.T.' And that's 'Real Steel.' And yet I did not realize any of what I just said until I was there on this mountain that we built, Metal Valley, in pouring rain, a truck filled with mud and I shoot a shot of Dakota with a flashlight finding Atom. And the way the rain was falling and the way that flashlight bounced off the robot's metal up into Dakota's eyes – I'm like 'Oh my God, this is a Spielberg moment.'"
U.S. & World
After making a name for himself helming big studio, mass appeal comedies ("Cheaper By the Dozen," "The Pink Panther," "Date Night" and the "Night at the Museum" films) that performed admirably at the box office, Levy's move to meld a touching father/son story and the sci-fi genre is part of a big picture plan to expand his filmmaking repertoire. With each film Levy's grown more adept at the technical side of his craft, with "Real Steel" offering the most demanding test of his widening skill set yet. "I wanted to tell bigger and different stories, and I view technology as the thing that I have to master in order to tell those stories," he explains. "I wasn't seeking the technical knowledge in its own right – I only sought it to tell the story."
He's taken that approach even further during his ongoing collaboration with director and special effects master James Cameron, developing a 21st Century take on the script and visuals for the sci-fi classic "Fantastic Voyage." "From my very first meeting with Jim, I was like 'I don't want to do green screen views out of the windows of a sub. I want to build real underwater sets.' It's immersive, it's tactile, it's texture – I don't know if it's where cinema needs to go, but it's where MY cinema needs to go."
Another planned project, a refreshed "Frankenstein," is also built on Levy's desire to mix potent human stories with envelope-pushing effects. "When they told me 'We're sending you "Frankenstein," I was like 'What? I mean, I want to broaden, but are we kidding?' And then I read it," reveals Levy. "This kid Max Landis – 26, son of John, a mad, crazy, brilliant young man – wrote this script. It's about the friendship and betrayals that go on between a young Victor Frankenstein that is just beginning to devise the science that will make him famous and his friend/assistant/minion Igor. It's a period piece, still very much a monster movie, moody as hell and dark as hell, but really delves into these themes of creationism and monstrosity between these two young men in their 20s."
"Hopefully 'Real Steel' kind of marks this pivot point where I can further grow and further expand," he says, as the strong box office seems to have cleared the way for a sequel. "Like 'Night At The Museum,' there won't be a sequel that I don't direct. I love this franchise. It really came from my heart. Hugh loves it, too, and if we've done that in 'Real Steel' and if audiences respond we've got a kick-ass next chapter ready to tell."


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Posted by Editoress on 03/28/99
4:10pm EST - Mens race starts
The men have just completed the 1 km strting loop and the riders have set a blistering pace. As they head out onto the main course the leaders are: Jerome Chiotti, Pavel Tcherkassov, Gregory Vollet, Michael Rasmussen, Miguel Martinez and Thomas Frischknecht
4:30 pm EST - The pace is still fast at the end of lap 1
End of the first lap
There is a group of 15 who are setting the pace. In this group is Christophe Sauser (Volvo/Cannondale), Michael Rasmussen, Bas Van Dooren (BE-ONE), Jerome Chiotti (GT), Cadel Evans (Volvo/Cannondale), Tinker Juarez (Volvo/Cannondale), just to mention a few. The pace is still extremely fast so it is hard to pick out all of the riders.
NOTE: Thomas Frischknecht (Ritchey/YAHOO!) dropped out on the first climb. He said he started throwing up part way up the climb
4:45 pm EST - Chiotti still in the lead half way through lap 2
At the top of the climb lap 2 Chiotti still in the lead
Jerome Chiotti (GT) has a 20 second lead on a group of 4 riders , Martinez, Van Doore, Hoydahl and Evans. Then there is another gap of 10 seconds and it is Jan Ostergaard (IKOCOR),. Then a steady stream of riders.
Chris Sheppard is the first Canadian and is 25th about 1:15 back.
Canadian riders have been entertaining the crowd with some spectacular endos at the stream crossing
Hubert Pallhuber (DiamondBack) has dropped out with a broken rear derailleur.
5:00 pm EST - Martinez has taken over the lead
Martinez has taken over the lead from Chiotti as the riders go through the start finish to begin lap 3
The pace set by the group of 15 has put nearly 2 minutes between them and the main field. The 15 are now settling into a good race pace. Martinez has put 18 seconds between himself and Chiotti. Then it is Van Dooren, Evans, Hoydahl and Dupuis.
5:15pm EST - Martinez extends his lead
Part way up the climb Martinez has extended his lead over a small chase group. He now has 26 seconds on Evans who is leading the chase. The Van Dooren, Chiotti and a new member of the group seems to be Dario Cioni (Mapei/Kona)
Seamus McGrath has overtaken Chris Sheppard and has moved into 19th position 2 minutes back of the leaders. Sheppard is in 23rd at 2:25.
At the top of the climb Evans and Chiotti have closed the gap on Martinez to 20 seconds. Van Dooren and Cioni have dropped to 37 seconds. McGrath and Sheppard maintain their positions, but Sheppard has lost more time on the leaders.
5:25 pm EST - Lap 4 begins and Martinez again extends his lead
As the riders complete lap 3 Martinez has again extended his lead over Evans and Chiotti. He now has 35 seconds on the hard chasing pair. Behind Evans and Chiotti, the riders are well strung out with about 10 to 15 feet between them in this order VanDooren, Filip Meirhaeghe, Cioni, Vollet, Dupuis and Hoydahl
5:40 pm EST - Over the top of the climb on lap 4 Martinez turns up the heat
At the top of the climb Martinez has increased his lead over Evans to 50 seconds. Behind Evans is Vollet at 58 seconds who has overtaken Chiotti now at 1 minute. Juarez is looking strong in 10th and is the first N. American. Seamus McGrath has moved up to 16th (3:15 behind the leaders) and appears to be having a great time. He is getting a lot of crowd support and his huge grin tells everyone he is enjoying the attention. Chris Sheppard is sitting in 25th, but seems to be struggling.
5:50 pm EST - Start of lap 5 Evans has started to reel in Martinez
Through the start/finish Evans had closed the gap to 35 seconds Vollez was just behind him at 40.
then in order: Chiotti, Hoydahl, VanDooren, Cioni, Jose Ramos Hermida, Tinker, Christophe Sauser, Ludovic Dubau,Andres Brenes, Jan Ostergaard, Dominique Arnould and McGrath.
As they started the climb, Evans had taken even more time out of Martinez' lead - it is now down to 24 seconds. Then Vollet at 41 sec.. Chiotti at 50 and Bas Van Dooren at 1:21
6:05 pm EST - Martinez still in the lead, Evans eases off chase
Martinez has increased his lead marginally as they go into the final lap He has back up to 30 seconds over Evans. Then it is Vollet at 45 seconds, Chiotti at 1:04, Hoydahl, VanDooren, Sauser, Tcherkassov. Lennie Kristensen, had a flat back in lap 3, but has made his way back up to the top 10
McGrath has moved up to 14th and Sheppard to 23rd.6:30 pm EST - Martinez wins World Cup #1
Miguel Martinez (FRA) FULLDX, really stepped on it and put nearly a minute between himself and Evans (AUS) Volvo/Cannondale in the last half lap of today's race. Gregory Vollet, (FRA) Bianchi took third.
Official results as they become available.7:00 pm EST - McGrath top North American
Seamus McGrath (Haro) finished 14th today, and was the top North American. Tinker Juarez who had been ahead of him for most of the race, flatted in the last lap and Seamus passed him. Unofficially Chris Sheppard (Catera) finished 21st and Andreas Hestler (PoloSport) 33rd.
Martinez was asked if he was worried about Evans at any point in the race "I was worried for one lap only, but I was feeling strong today"
Evans, when asked if he thought that he could have caught Martinez said " Towards the end of the race I was still feeling good, but he (Martinez) kept upping the pace. In the last lap I realized there was no way I was going to catch him".
Rune Hoydahl, the pre-race favourite and last years winner here, crashed in the second lap, bending his rear derailleur and damaging his shifter. He had to run many of the uphill sections because he was unable to shift into lower gears. "To bad, I was feeling good today".
The Canadian opinion of the course was a unanimous AWESOME! "We need more courses like this" someone said.
We are still awaiting official results.
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to CPD4Lawyers for early information on law lectures, recordings, notes
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with any third party)
See also: Had an Accident - the personal injury web site; free advice; find a solicitor; damages etc
The Gardenlaw website
Your house is more than just bricks and mortar.It is your home,a sanctuary,a source of pride,a comfort. Everyone tells you so: mortgage lenders, banks, estate agents,solicitors,s urveyors, architects, even the government - and they all make a living out of you! This does not finish when you have signed on the dotted line! Then come the removal firms, DIY, garden centres, utilities etc.
If you are paying for all these and more what rights and obligations do you have? Gardenlaw was set up to answer some of these. It is the world's premier site in the field and has a unique Discussion Forum in which questions are posed and views expressed. Each house has its own set of problems; its own history almost an ancestry which makes it what it is today. The deeds can be like a geneology and be just as fascinating as a family's own history.
What kind of topics can you find in Gardenlaw?
They are as varied as you and I but include:
Read on! We hope this site will help you.
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Why not take a look, ask a question or share your own experiences?
do not email Garden Law direct with your legal questions. The discussion forum is for the benefit of everyone. Using it means everyone gains from your experiences and from the generous advice of our expert members.
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