Macedonia's President Gjorge Ivanov was awarded Thursday at Istanbul University with Honorary Doctorate title. This high recognition was handed over by the Istanbul University Rector Yunus Soylet who used this solemn occasion to refer to President Ivanov as a man who employs all his efforts to promote democracy and peace, highlighting the importance of inter-ethnic tolerance and dialogue. 

Acknowledging the successful cooperation between the Istanbul University and the universities in Macedonia, Rector Soylet announced to work on future strengthening of the relations between the academic institutions, as well as continuation of the cooperation in the fields of education, culture and science.

Istanbul University is the oldest and best-established university of Turkey and ranks among the first 10 founded in Europe. The higher education institution is a successor of Constantinople school, where St Cyril, who along with his brother Methodius devised the Glagolitic alphabet, was both student and teacher in the IX century.

"As a professor at the University 'Ss. Cyril and Methodius' in Skopje I consider my presence here as a kind of an academic pilgrimage, as I am visiting the historic center of knowledge, science and art, the city where the scholars of my people and patrons of my university got their education and created their works," Ivanov said during the lecture he gave on the topic “The megalopolis as a model for society management in the 21 century”

President Ivanov dedicated this lecture to Istanbul, one of the 25 largest cities in the world.

“Istanbul connects two continents as a crossroad of cultures and civilizations. This large city has been connecting Europe with Asia, the Balkans with Anadolia for centuries. It is an important trade center merging Turkish economical, social and cultural life,” said President Ivanov adding that Istanbul is a city both old and modern, peaceful and dynamic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious, multilingual and multicultural, is more than Turkey, Istanbul is the world.

With this ceremony President Ivanov wrapped up the working part of the visit to Turkey, where he attended the 14th Eurasian Economic Forum which has been organized by the Marmara Foundation since 1998.