Skopje, 19 June 2024 (MIA) - A commemorative session was held Wednesday in the Parliament over the death of first Speaker Stojan Andov, who passed away yesterday at the age of 89.

President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova said the first speaker in democratic Macedonia seriously contributed to the political, state and societal development over the past three decades.

"The first democratically elected Macedonian official after the country's independence, a statesman, politician, economic expert, high-level diplomat, political scientist, journalist, publicist, author, a person of enormous importance for the cultural identity of Macedonian people, the coexistence of all Macedonian citizens regardless of their religious, ideological and national affiliation, cooperation with neighbors and the world. The country's peaceful detachment from Yugoslavia is owed, among others, to statesmen like Kiro Gligorov, Petar Goshev, Stojan Andov, Abdurahman Aliti and their value is now finally acknowledged," said Siljanovska Davkova.

Born in Kavadarci in 1935, he graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Skopje before earning a master’s degree at the Belgrade University.

Andov also served as vice president of the Republic’s executive council, was a member of the Macedonian delegation in the association of republics and provinces and a member of the federal government for three terms, during which his role as negotiator in the contacts of former Yugoslavia with European Economic Community experts (1971 – 1987) was noted. 

From 1987 until 1991, Andov served as an ambassador of the former Yugoslavia in Iraq. 

He founded the Liberal Party of Macedonia and was elected as vice president of the Liberal International.

Andov won a seat in Parliament in the first multi-party elections in the country, held in 1990 before being elected as president of the Parliament in January 1991.

He ran for president in the 1999 presidential elections.

Photo: President's Office/Screenshot