Dacic Receives Fragment of Parliament Fence Preserved in North Macedonia

Konstantin Georgievski, Ivica Dacic (FOTO/BETA)

North Macedonian official Konstantin Georgievski, the mayor of the city of Ohrid, delivered a fragment of the fence that had enclosed the Serbian National Assembly building from 1936 until 1956, to the Serbian National Assembly Speaker Ivica Dacic on June 10. 

During the official handover ceremony organized in front of the Serbian parliament, Dacic said that the return of the fence fragment was a way of marking the 85th anniversary of that institution. It was during North Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani’s visit to Serbia, Dacic explained, that he had asked if it is true that Serbia’s southern neighbor is holding the fragment of the old fence, which Osmani confirmed. 

“We then agreed to have the Ohrid mayor, Konstantin Georgievski, come for a visit and bring this fragment, and for that to serve as an expression of friendship and a symbol of our relations,’ Dacic added.

The Ohrid mayor said on the occasion that the delivery of the fence fragment is a sign of friendship between the two nations and called on the citizens of Serbia to visit his town. A decision to allow Serbian citizens to park their cars in Ohrid free of charge, Georgievski further said, is to be adopted. 

The fence fragment in question was part of a larger structure made of wrought iron that surrounded the Serbian National Assembly building, then the Parliament of Yugoslavia, from 1936 until 1956. In 1956 the fence, which had been designed by architect Nikolaj Krasnov, was disassembled and moved to Ohrid where it adorned the Vila Biljana mansion, where Josip Broz Tito would occasionally stay.