Kiro Gligorov

"We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century (AD)... we are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians."

"We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Great and his Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians no longer exist, they had disappeared from history long time ago. Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century (AD)."

"We are all Macedonians. We are all citizens of this country and Albanians have a long-term interest to integrate themselves in this country. This does not mean that they should lose their national, cultural and linguistic characteristics."

"In the ethnically-mixed Balkans, it is impossible to create compact national states in which only members of one nation can live. This is an absurdity which can hardly be realized in Europe... Perhaps one nation can win a victory here and there, but then this would only lead to revanchism on the part of the others, and thus, there would never be an end [to warfare]."

"It’s not possible to implement overnight a maximization program because there are other political entities in the country that have to accept those solutions. Two-thirds of the population in Macedonia are [Slavic] Macedonians, and one-third consists of all the [other] ethnic groups together. Therefore, if you want to improve some of the ethnic rights, then you have to convince the [Slavic] Macedonian population that that is good, and that it is to the benefit of the country and of the [Slavic] Macedonians of the nation. All this requires time, preparation, argumentation, patience."

"In this part of the world it is difficult to find the true path between reason and emotion, myth and reality. This is the burden of the Balkans, which prevents us from becoming truly European."