Kiro Gligorov: Macedonia’s First Statesman

Kiro Gligorov | Photo by: president.gov.mk

Like none other in recent Macedonian history, President Gligorov personified the dreams of many Macedonians for their own independent state. Serving two terms as head of state, from January 1991 to November 1999, he led his tiny nation of 2.1 million through the fulfillment of that dream.

Gligorov was an intelligent politician who managed to peacefully deal with radical forces within his country and in surrounding states.

His policies stood in stark contrast to the many nationalist and war mongering Balkan statesmen of the time. Under his lead, Macedonia was the only nation that seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without bloodshed.

“He waged a peaceful policy, and accomplished his goal of an independent Macedonia without war and bloodshed, through initiating talks,” says former Macedonian Parliament Speaker, Tito Petkovski.

Known among his political adversaries and allies as a cunning negotiator that almost always got his way, during his presidency he earned the nickname “the old fox”.

Kiro Gligorov passed away late on Sunday in his house in the capital, Skopje. He was 94. The country declared Tuesday, the day of his funeral, a national day of mourning. At Gligorov’s request, there was no state funeral organised at his family tomb in the Skopje cemetery.

Born in 1917 in the central Macedonian town of Stip, Gligorov graduated with a law degree from the University of Belgrade. He joined the Macedonian anti-fascist underground during World War II.

After liberation he was sent to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, where he held various high-level government positions.

Later he would recall he was sent there to cut him off from his “pronounced” Macedonian nationalist convictions.

“Gligorov was a big patriot; a wise, decisive and calm politician,” says Aco Kabranov, a veteran editor and journalist. “I was present in his cabinet during some very tense moments but he always managed to remain composed.”

Gligorov came back to Macedonia in 1991, as Yugoslavia was falling apart. In January that year all major parties supported his candidacy in parliament and he became president. Macedonia had just become a parliamentary democracy but was still part of the Yugoslav federation, which stood at a brink of what would later become a series of dreadful civil conflicts.

As a last ditch effort to keep the Yugoslav republics from splitting, Gligorov joined forces with the late Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and proposed a platform for a loose Yugoslav federation. When this effort failed, in September 1991 Gligorov led his country through a successful referendum for independence.

In 1992, Gligorov’s presidency was tested when Macedonia found itself in a particularly tense situation as it negotiated the retreat of the Yugoslav army, JNA, which was controlled by the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Many attribute the peaceful retreat of the well-equipped army to Gligorov’s negotiating skills. Gligorov had to balance between JNA leaders and local nationalists who insisted that the army be stripped off its heavy weapons before leaving.

“He had his own way of turning the tide in his favor; he would have mentioned old friendships or told a joke to ease the tension,” Kabranov says.

The early days of Gligorov’s presidency were also marred with a dispute between Skopje and Macedonia’s southern neighbour, Greece, which contested the young nation’s name. This dispute lingers on to this day, hampering Macedonia’s EU and NATO accession.

Greece insists that use of the term "Macedonia" by its neighbour implies a territorial claim to its own northern province of the same name. During Gligorov's presidency, Athens also objected to the ancient sun symbol on the then Macedonian flag and to articles in the Macedonian Constitution that Greece believed implied territorial claims.

As a result, in 1993 Gligorov agreed for his country to be admitted to the United Nations under the provisional reference "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", to avoid a Greek blockade.

As part of the dispute, Greece imposed a devastating 19-month economic embargo on Macedonia. The embargo ended in 1995 when Macedonia signed a UN brokered deal with Greece and agreed to remove the sun from its flag and to revise the disputed constitutional articles.

Both sides then agreed to resume UN talks on the country’s name, an effort that has not yet borne fruit.

These compromises made Gligorov a favourite target of Macedonian right wing nationalists, with some accusing him of treason.

On October 3, 1995, Gligorov was the target of a car bomb assassination attempt in Skopje. He lost an eye in the attack but after four months he recovered and continued his presidency. In a particularly long and eloquent speech in the Parliament, he buried claims that he was unfit to lead the country due to exhaustion from the attack.

At the time, theories about the motive behind the bombing ranged from an assassination ordered by then Serbian President Milosevic, to an attempt by Bulgarian intelligence, and even an organised crime hit, but the attackers were never found and the case remains unsolved.

Gligorov himself never commented who might be responsible for the attack.

In 1997 Gligorov found himself the target of intense media scrutiny because of an alleged love affair, in a first for the country.

The public was stunned by the allegations, made public by the Denes magazine, that he was involved in an affair with an actress who at the time was his cultural policy advisor.

“Of course, he denied such allegations but some Macedonians took pride in the idea that their president was still virile in the ninth decade of his life,” says Kabranov.

In 1999, towards the end of his second term, Gligorov strongly opposed the decision of the then newly elected centre-right government of Ljubco Georgievski to recognise Taiwan. He refused to receive the Taiwanese ambassador’s credentials, insisting that good ties with China were far more important.

The recognition briefly ruined good relations between Skopje and Beijing. Later the same year China’s 'no' vote in the UN Security Council helped lead to the retreat of UN peacekeepers from Macedonia’s northern border. This left the country's borders without a UN presence during the 1999 NATO campaign in Kosovo.

Diplomatic ties with China were re-established in July 2001, after Macedonia dropped the idea of establishing ties with Taiwan.

Gligorov remained active even after his retirement from politics. He published his memoirs, established a foundation bearing his name and supported various cultural events.

In 2005 he was the first to be awarded with the country’s highest honor, the Order of the Republic of Macedonia. It was an honour that reflected the level of popularity Gligorov enjoyed throughout his years as president.

“Macedonia is all we have,” Gligorov said in his inaugural speech as president back in 1991. This credo stuck close to him to the end of his life.

Gligorov is survived by two daughters and a son. His wife, Nada, died in 2009.