11th October - Macedonian national holiday - WW2 Veterans

11.10.07 Macedonia celebrates the 66th anniversary since the start of the National-Liberation War against the fascist occupation: On 11th of October, 1941 the Macedonian People rose against the fascist occupation in Macedonia. This liberation uprising evolved later in the Macedonian State of 1944. During World War II (1941-1945), ethnic Macedonians took part in the anti-fascist coalition for creating their own state Macedonia, respecting the promise from the Atlantic charter that all nations who take part in the struggle against fascism shall choose their own form of government and shall be afforded "the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want". As a result, on 11 October 1941 in the Vardar part of Macedonia there was simultaneous uprising against the fascist occupation in Prilep and Kumanovo, where as in 1942 there were uprisings in the Aegean part of Macedonia (in Lerin and Kostur) headed by Lazo Trpovski and in the Pirin part of Macedonia (in Dupnica) headed by Nikola Parapunov. In spite of the lack of coordination, the intention was clear - liberation of the entire territory of Macedonia. However, only the people in the Vardar part managed to create a state in the face of the People's Republic of Macedonia within the framework of then Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The ethnic Macedonians in the Pirin part of Macedonia were granted autonomy and certain cultural and ethnic rights in 1946, but these rights were revoked at the end of the decade at the height of the cold war. In the Aegean part of Macedonia there was a civil war in which the ethnic Macedonians took part hoping to acquire certain ethnic and cultural right, however at the end of the civil war hundreds of thousands of ethnic Macedonians were exiled and any show of ethnic Macedonian identity was banned.