Mayor Silegov: City of Skopje starting to take action on Skopje 2014 project

The City of Skopje will no longer tolerate illegal and unapproved procedures and has started to take action on the Skopje 2014 project, Skopje Mayor Petre Silegov said Thursday.

All of the unauthorized activities of the former administration in the capital will be adequately dealt with in accordance with the laws, Silegov told a news conference.

“The City of Skopje, at the exact location of the monument of (Andon Lazov Janev) Kjoseto, will plant a tree dedicated to human rights where a plaque will be also installed with the text of Article 10 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights engraved on it,” he said adding the plaque would be a donation of Nuremberg, a sister city of Skopje.

The monument of Andon Kjoseto, a fighter of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization’s (VMRO) and regarded by many as a controversial historical figure, was removed from the plateau in front of the Skopje-based Supreme Court in the early hours of Thursday.

Answering a journalist question, Silegov said that teams of the City of Skopje had removed the monument early in the morning so as to prevent a traffic congestion, because the monument was erected nearby one of the most busiest intersections in downtown Skopje.

The monument was erected in 2014 and was said to be a donation of the association for the spiritual unification of Setinci, Popadinci and Krusoradi.

Centar municipality issued the order for the monument’s removal after it was established there had been no decision for its erection, thus making it an ‘illegal installment.’

The monument was taken to the warehouses of MZT company.

The subject matter of the ongoing investigation, Mayor Silegov said, isn’t the statue itself, it is mainly focused on probing processes, procedures and any possible abuse of such actions.