Macedonians Give Skopje 2014 Thumbs Down A majority of Macedonians do not approve of the government-sponsored revamp of the capital, “Skopje 2014”, a recent poll shows. Most Macedonians do not like the chosen artistic styles of the Skopje makeover, disapprove of the price and would not like it to continue, a survey by the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities Skopje, ISSHS, a local research institution, says. The survey, carried out in September is part of a wider policy analysis called Who owns Alexander the Great?: A Question Upon Which EU Enlargement Relies, which is studying the Skopje revamp plan in the context of the ongoing “name” dispute between Macedonia and Greece. “According to the results of our poll, 73 per cent out of the entire population, and 66.5 percent out of the ethnic Macedonian majority, believe the project should not continue,” the Institute says in its conclusions. It adds that “disapproval is expressly linked with the financial aspect of the Project, seen as overly costly for a state which is at the bottom of economic prosperity in Europe in spite of its positive macroeconomic trends”. The poll shows that only 24 per cent of the respondents like the appearance of the buildings and monuments that form the project, while 22 per cent partially like it. Another 45 per cent of the respondents said they do not like it. “If the Projects aim is to ameliorate the sense of frustration by the indefinitely prolonged [EU and NATO] accession process… it evidently does not succeed in doing so,” the ISSHS says. Drawing inspiration from the architectural styles of Classical Antiquity, the project that was luanched in 2010 envisages the construction of more than 20 buildings, including, museums, theatres, concert halls, hotels and offices. Many more bronze and marble statues are also being erected to adorn the surroundings, including a triumphal arch, some 15 equestrian statues and a memorial complex dedicated to fallen heroes. The piece-de-resistance is a 22-metre-high bronze equestrian statue of the Ancient warrior, Alexander the Great, standing on top of a white marble fountain in Skopje’s central square. A similarly-sized statue of Alexander’s father, Philip of Macedon, is placed opposite the square on the far bank of the Vardar River. Greece has already objected to the erection of monuments dedicated to Alexander and Philip, seeing them as an exclusive part of its own Hellenic heritage. According to the accompanying ISSHS analysis, the focus of the government’s ambitious project is to establish the era of Antiquity as the cultural and historic basis of Macedonias modern identity. But “projects narrative seems to be at odds with the governing perception of the matter measured nationwide through the poll”, the Institute adds. The poll shows that only 5.8 per cent of the entire population, and only 7.6 per cent of ethnic Macedonians attach much importance to the period of Antiquity for the formation of the Macedonian identity. As opposed to this, the Medieval period of Orthodox Slavic Christianity is the defining historic period for 20 per cent of people. The more recent past, since the country gained independence from Yugoslavia in the 1990s, is the defining period for another 20 per cent of the respondents.Another 17 per cent mentioned the period of Socialism in federal Yugoslavia while almost 14 per cent said the key era was at the turn of 20th century struggle, during the time of the Macedonian struggle for liberation from the Ottoman Empire.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 04:46:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015