MACEDONIA RECOVERS [Main Title]

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  • Title: MACEDONIA RECOVERS [Main Title]
  • Film Number: UNT 823
  • Other titles: MACEDONIA - AFTER EMBARGO [Alternative Title] UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Autumn 1995 brought Macedonians the lifting of the trade embargo by Greece as well as an assassination attempt on their president. How are they coping with these contrasts? What impact do they have on the economy?
  • Description: Scrolling text over image of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the UN Secretary General . The text reads: NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 13th 1995. 18 months of economic embargo ends. Greece and Macedonia agree to start normalising relations. Scrolling text over image of a car, with its windows blown out. The text reads: SCOPJE, OCTOBER 3rd 1995. President Kiro Gligorov is severely injured in assassination attempt. Panning shot across the rooftops of Skopje. Detailshot of two Macedonian flags. Footage showing the aftermath of the assassination attempt, cars burnt out on the road with their windows in fragments, police sirens wailing. (A bomb stashed in a roadside car was activated as the President drove by. The blast killed his driver and injured two passers-by, one of which later died. The President was blinded in one eye and incapacitated until November 1995.) Interview with Guner Ismail, Government Spokesman. He says that it is fortunate that the assassination attempt failed but the attempt represents a ‘vindication of the President’s policies’. He says that the government has ensured stability over the last five years that would survive even the loss of the President. Interview with Bala Banovska, an architect, speaking at a book launch in Skopje. She says that Gligorov has made many Macedonians feel secure despite ethnic problems that continue between Macedonians and Albanians. Interview with Ilir Adjini, a journalist, sitting at his typewriter. He says that the assassination attempt was a shock because it destroyed their illusion that they are ‘an oasis of peace’. UNTV takes the camera out onto the crowded streets of Skopje to talk to people. One young man says that if President Gligorov had died they ‘would not have had peace here’. Another man puts it more starkly, ‘we would have had war, civil war’, he says. Footage of a wedding, the bride and groom are outside in a square. Interview with Eran Fraenkel, part of the organisation “Search for Common Ground”, who says that it is remarkable that the country remained at peace. If it had even been suggested that the Albanians were behind the assassination attempt then there would have been a grave risk of the situation exploding into war. Interview with Dime Gjurev, Ministry of Interior, who says that they think an ‘international financial-economic association’ was behind the assassination attempt. Shots of people on the streets of Skopje. The last four years have seen the rise of organised crime and illegal trading. Interview with Henryk Sokalski, UN Chief of Mission, who explains that while Macedonia was locked from the north and the south organised crime thrived but now that legal economic opportunities are growing, people are slowly beginning to legalise their businesses. Shots of the motorway border between Macedonia and Greece. Henryk Sokalski says that the end of the economic boycott between the two countries is a ‘political milestone’ and a ‘victory for common sense’. Guner Ismail, Government Spokesman, says that by signing the New York Agreement they have been admitted to the Council of Europe and the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe). At the border, though, there are still obstacles to traders. Not only do Macedonians require a visa, costing 35 DM but they also need a green insurance card. As a man describes, if Macedonians just want to go for a short visit, they need to pay 160 Marks. Another man says that this amounts to one month’s salary for him. Greece also insists that Macedonia is described in all official documents as the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia because it argues that without this distinction there is a confusion with a northern region of Greece, called Macedonia. Close up shots on document headings and cars without MK stickers. One man explains that he has to take the MK sign off his truck to be let in. Shots of a fish shop in Macedonia that represents the first joint business venture between a Greek and Macedonian company. Interview with Blagoja Kirkovski, Director of Ribomediteran Fish Company, who says that business will bring them closer together. He says that they should ‘make business, not politics’. The opening of the border means that food deliveries can now travel directly from one country to another. Interview with Dimitar Džekov, Director of Exports, Zik Vinojug, who says that they are grateful that transport costs can now decrease. For instance, they no longer have to export Greek cherries through Bulgaria or Romania. Shots of a production line producing cartons of juice. Shots of a casino, where profits have doubled since the embargo with Greece was lifted. Interview with David Bradford, the Casino Manager, who says that Greeks are still afraid to cross the border to visit the casino. As the embargo on Serbia is also in the process of being lifted, there are signs that the region as a whole, as well as Macedonia, is on the road to economic recovery.
  • Alternative Title: MACEDONIA - AFTER EMBARGO [Alternative Title] UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: English (Tape Code A)
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: UNT 823
  • Sound: Bosnian (Tape Code B)
  • Access Conditions:
  • Featured Period: 1990-2000
  • Production Date: 1995-12 1995-12-15
  • Production Country: UN UN
  • Production Details: Hrebickova, Janina (Production individual) Thurnau, Karen (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: Macedonia (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: English (Tape Code A) Sound format: Bosnian (Tape Code B) Soundtrack language: Croatian (Tape Code C) Title language: Serbian (Tape D)
  • Technical Details: Format: Beta-SP Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Running time: 8 mins 10 secs
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    UNT 823

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    UNT 824 (UNTV PROGRAMME NO 145 [Main Title]) UNT 823 X (MACEDONIA RECOVERS (UNEDITED RUSHES) [Allocated Title])
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