The moderator of the panel at today’s Brdo-Brijuni Process Summit in Sarajevo asked President Gjorgi Ivanov an interesting question, “Would Alexander the Macedon do well in business in today’s Macedonia?”, to which the President replied and changed the story a little and said, “even Jesus Christ wouldn’t make it, if he came calling they would kill him”.
“Same goes for Mohammed. If he appeared in Macedonia today, he too would not make it, and be killed. Force is not necessary, but the mind is. The mind is at war. Alexander the Macedon was who he was, because of his mentor who was called Alexander (here Ivanov makes a small mistake and probably meant to say Aristotle) who taught him everything, to be patient, to learn from others, to use every moment and to be prepared to make sacrifices”, Ivanov said to the moderator’s question.
Talking about the EU’s attitude towards Macedonia, Ivanov stated that “we are standing in the same place, not moving forward or backwards because it is our destiny to have a neighbour who can not cope with the whole of the European Union or the world. They’re called Greece”.
“And the EU wants us to somehow make a deal with them, to find a solution to something that is our identity and uniqueness, to change our name, our identity, our language, our toponym. Who will say that “T’ da za jug” is not a Macedonian brand, who will say that music from Macedonia is not Macedonian music, or that ajvar is not a Macedonian product? They want to take all that from us. We are not giving it up”, said Ivanov.
