ASNOM

The Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia (Macedonian: Антифашистичко Собрание на Народното Ослободување на Македонија, Latinic: Antifašističko Sobranie na Narodnoto Osloboduvanje na Makedonija, abbr. ASNOM) was the supreme legislative and executive people's representative body of the Macedonian state from 1944 until the end of World War II.

The first plenary session of ASNOM was convened on the symbolic date of August 2 (Ilinden uprising day) 1944 in the St. Prohor Pčinjski Monastery in modern Serbia, near the Macedonian town of Kumanovo. The most important assembly decisions are the proclaiming Macedonia nation-state of ethnic Macedonians, proclamation of the Macedonian language as the official language of the Macedonian state. The citizens of Macedonia, regardless of their ethnic affiliation, were guaranteed all civil rights, as well as the right to their mother tongue and confession of faith.

ASNOM, as the supreme institution of government, also meant a de jure commencement of the constitutional law existence of Macedonia as a federate state within the framework of the Yugoslav federation. The Assembly issued a Manifesto which described the position of a Macedonia state after the National Liberation War of Macedonia under the old Yugoslavia as that of the colony, before declaring the "brotherhood and unity" with the other peoples of Yugoslavia. The Tito-Stalin split of 1948 and the defeat of the communists in the Greek Civil War ended Tito’s dream of uniting whole of region of Macedonia under his rule. Dejan Djokić claims that with Bulgaria once more reverting to denial of Macedonians as separate nation from Bulgarians and the victorious anti-communist Greek forces adamant in their own denial, the new Yugoslavia remained the only concrete medium for Macedonian aspirations to nationhood and quasi-statehood.^[1]

The president of the Assembly was Metodija Andonov-Čento. Čento's goal was to create fully independent "United Macedonian" state, or as a constituent republic within the new communist SFR Yugoslavia. The latter became a reality with the formation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, however, Čento as its first president wanted a greater independence for the republic from the federal Yugoslav authorities. He clashed with Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo, Josip Broz Tito’s envoy to Macedonia and Lazar Koliševski, the leader of the ruling Communist Party of Macedonia and later president of Yugoslavia.

One of the contributors in the Assembly was Kiro Gligorov, later the first President of the Republic of Macedonia.

References

See also

• AVNOJ
• Sobranie
• Military history of the Republic of Macedonia
• Independent State of Macedonia