Skopje, 11 October 2022 (MIA) - With a traditional improvised attack in front of the October 11 Memorial Museum and fireworks on Monday evening, Prilep kicked off the festivities marking National Uprising Day – October 11 and the 81st anniversary of the beginning of the anti-fascist struggle. The central event, held this year under the motto "Always on the Right Side", will take place Tuesday in front of the memorial-ossuary in Kumanovo. Additionally, government delegations will lay wreaths at the monuments of the fallen fighters in Skopje and Prilep and Parliament will host the 2022 state awards ceremony. Neuropsychiatrist Metodi Chepreganov will receive the lifetime achievement award in the field of science and education, while poetess Lindita Ahmeti, writer Tomislav Osmanli and artist Micko Jankulovski are this year's recipients of the lifetime achievement award in the field of culture and art. The central event in Kumanovo will begin with a wreath laying ceremony at the memorial-ossuary. The government delegation will be led by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, and it will consist of Artan Grubi, first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Inter-Community Relations, Jovana Trenchevsa, Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Admirim Aliti, Minister of Information Society and Administration. Afterwards the ceremony will continue with a cultural-artistic program in front of the memorial-ossuary and with an address by Prime Minister Kovachevski. A government delegation will also lay wreaths at the Skopje Liberators monument outside the government. On Tuesday morning, delegations from the government led by Minister of Culture Bisera Kostadinovska Stojchevska, the WWII fighters association, the local self-government and civil associations will lay wreaths at the monument of Metodija Andonov Chento, the first president of the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia, at the monument of Kuzman Josifoski Pitu and at the Mound of the Unbeaten, where the remains of 650 fighters from the People’s Liberation Struggle and the Revolution are laid. On the eve of the National Uprising Day, President Stevo Pendarovski on Monday evening President Stevo Pendarovski awarded a Medal of Merit to artists Anka Gieva and Violeta Tomovska, and posthumously Pece Atanasovski, Nikola Badev, Mirvet Belovska, Ajri Demirovski, Vaska Ilieva, Vanja Lazarova, Kiril Manchevski, Tale Ognenovski, Kocho Petrovski, Aleksandar Sarievski and Jonche Hristovski for significant contributions to nurturing, popularizing and preserving Macedonian folk songs, as well as promoting and affirming Macedonian music and culture internationally. On October 11, 1941, the first Prilep partisan unit attacked the police station and the telephone network in Prilep, and the next day, October 12, the partisans of the Kumanovo unit also organized an attack. October 11 is considered a continuation of the progressive traditions of the Macedonian freedom-loving people, evident in similar revolts in the 19th and 20th century, but also in efforts made for social and national liberation during the Balkan Wars and the First World War. By deciding to join the anti-fascist coalition, Macedonia stood on the side of progressive humanity fighting against fascism. The people won their own freedom. Starting with the first partisan units, the National Liberation Army of Macedonia by the end of the 4-year war was turned into a well-organized, 110,000-strong army with high-ranking military formations. The years of struggle were crowned by decisions reached at the First Session of ASNOM in 1944 under which the centuries-long ideals for a Macedonian state had become a reality. The country in 2022 is marking the National Uprising Day as a member of the United Nations and NATO. Having held the first intergovernmental conference with the EU, North Macedonia has started negotiations to join the EU.