For the affirmation of the Macedonian literature and culture in the world in the course of the five decades of its existence and activity, the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, today awarded the recognition “Charter of the Republic of Macedonia” to the Macedonian PEN Centre.

At the award ceremony, attended by academics and writers - members of this association, President Ivanov said that the Macedonian PEN Centre in the past 50 years both created and collaborated with other PEN centers worldwide, members of the International PEN Centre.

Exactly the international PEN Centre, the President stressed, was the first international association which, in general, at the Congress held in 1992 adopted a special resolution that recognizes the right of the Macedonian people to their own name, language and culture.

”Unfortunately, two decades after this Declaration, and after centuries and decades of creating in the Macedonian language, after countless translations, books and magazines, the Macedonian language and all that is created in the Macedonian language is still being denied. Denial of a language is denial of its speakers, artists who create using that language. It is a denial of the fundamental values of human civilization”, President Ivanov said on the occasion of the award of this recognition.

The Macedonian President further added that by their activities and deeds, the members of the Macedonian PEN Centre undoubtedly contributed to make it one of the busiest bridges connecting the Macedonian literature and culture with the European and world culture. 

The President of the Macedonian PEN Centre, Risto Lazarov, thanked President Ivanov for the recognition of what the Macedonian PEN Centre has done all these 50 years in the affirmation of the Macedonian words and literature.

"The recognition goes to all generations of the Macedonian PEN, since its establishment to the newly recruited members of only one month ago", Lazarov said.

The Macedonian PEN Centre was established on December 20, 1962, and ever since then a number of prominent Macedonian writers and authors were members of this Centre and left their own mark. In its five decades of history, the Macedonian PEN Centre published several anthologies of Macedonian poetry and prose in English and French.