Корупција, лаги, аудиоснимки

1. CORRUPTION, LIES, AUDIOTAPES

2. The Macedonian Government announced that Skopje 2014
Project will cost 80 million Euros, and up until now this radical
makeover of the capital city costs around 600 million Euros.
2010 - ONGOING
SKOPJE 2014 PROJECT

13. On December 24th
, 2012, the Constitution and the laws in
Macedonia were breached, the fundamental rights and citizens’
sovereignty were violated, the rule of law was revoked and the
political system on parliamentary democracy was attacked. This
was done by the act of violence exerted on opposition MPs
(elected by 370,000 citizens) and their eviction from the plenary
hall in the Parliament during the 2013 state budget adoption, as
a response to opposition demand to cut unproductive
expenditures in amount of 200 million Euros, including funds
earmarked for Skopje 2014 Project. This was preceded by the
security service forcefully expelling the journalists that were on
the gallery of the plenary hall covering the parliamentary session.
Citizens, who protested against the controversial adoption of
2013 state budget in front of the parliament building were
accused of attempting a “coup d’état” and were violently
prevented to enter the Parliament building by fully armed police
forces.
DECEMBER 24TH
, 2012
BLACK MONDAY

21. Series of protests of the opposition against the demolition of
democracy in Macedonia.
DECEMBER 2012 - JANUARY
2013
THE OPPOSITION ON THE STREETS

26. An anti-gay mob of around 30 young people attacked the
LGBTI Support Center by throwing stones, bottles and bricks,
while indoors members of Macedonia’s LGBTI community
celebrated the opening of Skopje Pride Week by watching
series of short films.
MARCH 2ND
, 2013
PHOTO CREDIT: HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE REPUBLIC OF
ATTACK ON THE LGBTI SUPPORT CENTER

30. Protests against the new Draft Law on Abortion that contains
the most intrusive provisions in terms of human rights.
MAY - JUNE 2013
LAW ON ABORTION

36. When the Mayor of Skopje announced that the best bid for a
new bridge fence was 1.7 million Euros, two hundred young
people offered to stay on the bridge for a lifetime as a live fence
for 1 million Euros only.
MAY 3RD
, 2013
LIVE FENCE

42. Protest against the planned ‘baroque’ outlay changes of the
City Trade Center (GTC) during which more than 2,000
people gathered around GTC and symbolically hugged it.
JUNE 14TH
, 2013
I LOVE GTC

49. Criminal Court in Skopje found journalist Tomislav
Kezharovski guilty for revealing the name of an alleged
protected witness in a high-profile murder case from 2005,
and sentenced him to four and a half years in prison.
OCTOBER 23RD
, 2013
GUILTY OF BEING JOURNALIST

58. People who live alongside Radika River protested in Skopje
against Government’s decision to construct Lukovo Pole and
Boshkov Most dams, thereby raising serious concerns of a
possible environmental damage. After the public pressure,
the World Bank commissioned an environmental study in
order to review its decision on funding the construction of the
dams.
FEBRUARY 15TH
, 2014
SAVE RADIKA RIVER

63. Ironic promotion of the so-called Arsena, an arsenic polluted
water from the region of Gevgelija, in the capital city of
Skopje.
FEBRUARY 17TH
, 2014
ARSENA - ARSENIC ENRICHED WATER
DIRECTLY FROM GEVGELIJA’S TAPS

67. People from the most polluted town in Macedonia, Tetovo,
protested in front of the Ministry of Environment and
demanded respecting the law for setting up filters on the
industrial pollutants.
MARCH 20TH
, 2014
TOGETHER AGAINST THE
POLLUTION OF TETOVO

71. Protest against growing poverty in the country, demanding
from the Government to stop with extensive spending and to
reallocate the funds to help the poorest.
MARCH 1ST
, 2014
THE ELEVENTH HOUR: PROTEST
AGAINST POVERTY

76. Protesters clashed with police in Skopje at a rally against the
jailing of alleged extremist ethnic Albanian Muslims for the
five “terroristic” murders of ethnic Macedonians at a lake in
the village of Smiljkovci.
JUNE 6TH
, 2014
PHOTO CREDIT: BORCE POPOVSKI, SLOBODEN PECAT
THE CASE MONSTER

82. A series of performative protests of the National Network
Against Homophobia and Transphobia emphasizing the need
for effective access to justice for all citizens of Republic of
Macedonia and urging the authorities to solve the several
attack cases on the LGBTI community.
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014
UNTIL WHEN?

89. A group of citizens, inspired by the promise of the Mayor of
Skopje to return the missing monument of the ten people
from Skopje shot on November 13th
, 1944, set up an
improvised cardboard monument on the same place from
where the real one disappeared.
NOVEMBER 15TH
, 2015
RETURN OF THE MONUMENT

93. Students marched the streets of Skopje against the proposed
external exams in higher education by the government, a
change that would breach the autonomy of the university and
limit their right to education.
NOVEMBER 17TH
, 2014
FIRST STUDENT MARCH

100. Protesters ask the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy to meet
their demands for opening hotlines, crisis centers and
implementing a range of other active measures for prevention
against domestic violence.
NOVEMBER 25TH
, 2014
POWERLESS AGAINST
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

104. Student Plenum, a self-organized movement as a response
to the proposed harmful reforms of the education system,
organized the 2nd
Student March. Ten thousand students
flooded the streets of Macedonia.
DECEMBER 10TH
, 2014
SECOND STUDENT MARCH

112. Sex workers, their friends and relatives as well as human
rights activists, held red umbrellas aloft and for seventh time
joined the global march for solidarity with sex workers on the
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. The
participants demanded better social treatment of sex workers
in general and ending the violence against sex workers now.
DECEMBER 17TH
, 2014
RED UMBRELLA MARCH

117. More than 3,000 people took to the streets to express their
revolt against the proposed additional taxes on honoraria that
will affect mostly those who earn their living as freelancers by
reducing their income up to 35%.
DECEMBER 22ND
, 2014
STEALING FROM THE FREELANCERS

127. 123 citizens, sitting on chairs across the Parliament of
Republic of Macedonia, in a symbolic way sent a message to
the 123 MPs as well as to the Government, that the citizens
are the source of sovereignty and that democracy is
impossible without active, free and united citizens.
DECEMBER 23RD
, 2014
Promotion of the Platform for Civic Politics
AJDE!

134. Thousand of students protesting against Government’s
proposed higher education reforms.
DECEMBER 26TH
, 2014
THIRD STUDENT MARCH

141. In spite of the streets piled up with snow and the unpleasant
weather, the citizens of Skopje gathered again in large
numbers, this time to warm up their beloved GTC (City Trade
Center) and sent yet another message that you cannot glue
Spanish Steps and baroque scenery wherever you please…
even in a city that already looks like Disneyland.
DECEMBER 28TH
, 2014
WARMING UP GTC

147. Journalists and citizens gathered in front of the Court of
Appeal in Skopje to protest against the verdict for prison
sentence for journalist Tomislav Kezharovski. Kezharovski
spent five months in detention and has been under house
arrest since November 2013.
JANUARY 20TH
, 2015
FREEDOM FOR KEZHO!

154. With backpacks and sleeping bags, the students “occupied”
several faculties at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius
of Skopje, announcing a free autonomous zone and
demanding the University to be returned to them. Debates,
concerts, lectures and other events were organized and held
within the “autonomous zones” during the “occupation
period”.
FEBRUARY 11TH
, 2015
AUTONOMOUS ZONE

160. Platform for Civic Politics Ajde! organized a protest in front of
the Ministry of Health asking resignations from the Minister of
Health, Health Committee members and Health Insurance
Fund managers and board members after the death of the
little girl Tamara from Veles. She had rare and debilitating
spinal disorder that required surgery abroad for what her
family was repeatedly denied by the health authorities and
Health Insurance Fund.
FEBRUARY 19TH
, 2015
RESIGNATION FROM THE MINISTER
OF HEALTH!

164. Marching on the streets of Skopje, a thousand protesters
demanded resignation by the responsible for the death of 9-
year-old Tamara who passed away waiting for a decision by
the Health Insurance Fund to receive a surgery abroad.
FEBRUARY 20TH
, 2015
RED CARD FOR MINISTER TODOROV!

171. Members of the Platform for Civic Politics Ajde! motivated by
the need to publicly send a message to the Macedonian
Radio Television (MRT) that it should be a public service of
the citizens, not government propaganda bullhorn, organized
a performative protest in front of MRT’s building.
FEBRUARY 28TH
, 2015
GIVE BACK MRT TO THE PEOPLE!

177. Several thousand high school students marched three times
the streets of Skopje opposing latest high school education
reforms.
MARCH - APRIL 2015
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT MARCH

185. On the International Roma Day, a larger group of young
Roma people marched from the Roma settlement of Topaana
to the baroque building of the Government to protest that for
many years now the situation of Roma people in Macedonia
has remained unchanged.
APRIL 8TH
, 2015
MARCH FOR PRIDE AND DIGNITY

190. Opposition leader Zoran Zaev accused Nikola Gruevski's
conservative government of wiretapping at least 20,000
people, including politicians, journalists and religious leaders.
He has also released audio tracks of conversations, dubbed
“the bombs,” between high ranking politicians, including
Prime Minister Gruevski, which allude to election rigging,
corruption scandals with illegitimate building plots in Skopje,
including the project Skopje 2014, direct control of the media
by the government, and arrests, threats and humiliation of the
government’s opponents, their families and property.
FEBRUARY 2015 - ONGOING
“BOMBS” AND WIRETAPPING

194. After the release of the recordings of the tapped
conversations by the opposition, the masks of the
government officials fell off! Citizens spontaneously gathered
in front of the Government building to express their anger.
FEBRUARY 2015
SPONTANEOUS PROTESTS AFTER
RELEASING THE “BOMBS”

199. Photos by:
VANCO DZAMBASKI
www.flickr.com/photos/fosim/collections/
Photo Credits:
BORCE POPOVSKI
&
HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA