The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, received by the international organization “Peace and Sport”, during the forum held in Sochi, special recognition for his commitment to the promotion and affirmation of peace through sport. The Prize was awarded to him by the President and Founder of the organization “Peace and Sport”, Joël Bouzou.

“It is an incentive for everyone and confirmation that if we have sincere attitude to all the ideas, at certain time, it will give results and international promotion. Although we are a small country, we have shown that we can work with young people and demonstrated that Macedonia is a country of diversity and that in sports such differences have no impact, but there is motivation to compete”, President Ivanov said.

According to the President, the initiative of Prince Albert II of Monaco through sport to promote peace is a noble idea which encourages athletes to be more involved and to have a greater role in promoting and building peace.

“Sport can greatly help especially in those areas that lack capacity to cope with left legacy individually. In such areas, through sport, people feel the power of peace, i.e., to live in peace and be able to compete and achieve results, which will later enable them to make results within international associations and at competitions”, President Ivanov said.

In Macedonia, in the past year, under the auspices of President Ivanov, the project “Sport as a Factor of Tolerance, Unity and Respect” was implemented. It included more than 300 children of different ethnic and religious background from 6 municipalities. The main objective of the project was through sports children to get to know each other and to learn to respect the differences of others.

President Ivanov, again, this year was one of the key speakers at the Peace and Sport International Forum, which was attended by more than seven hundred delegates from one hundred countries, including political leaders, business elite representatives, international organizations and civil society, representatives of the International Olympic Committee, and a many world famous athletes.

The International Forum Peace and Sport was initiated in 2007 with an aim to contribute to the maintenance and fostering peace in the world through sport, to encourage cooperation and exchange of experience aimed at creating incentives to put sport in function of peace.