In Skopje: three memorials in Žena Borec Park

Žena Borec Park (Women Fighter Park) in Skopje city center houses the "ASNOM memorial", the monument "Defenders of Macedonia" and the monument "Fallen Heroes of Macedonia". The "ASNOM memorial"  commemorates the first plenary session of the partisan organization ASNOM in World War II. The Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM / ACHOM) was the supreme legislative and executive people's representative body of the Macedonian state  from 1944 until the end of World War II. The body was set up by the communist partisans  during the final stages of the National Liberation War of Macedonia  in the summer of 1944, in the Bulgarian occupation zone of Yugoslavia. In September 1944, Nazi Germany  briefly sought to establish an Independent State of Macedonia a puppet state  in the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia  that had been occupied by the Kingdom of Bulgaria  following the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. The monument “Defenders of Macedonia” is dedicated to members of the armed forces of Macedonia who lost their lives in the conflict of 2001. The 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army  (NLA) militant group - closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)- attacked the security forces  of the Republic of Macedonia  at the beginning of February 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement. There were also claims that the NLA ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking members of the group have denied this. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen individuals on either side, according to sources from both sides of the conflict. With it, the Yugoslav Wars  had reached previously peaceful Macedonia.The Ohrid agreement ended the armed conflict  and set the groundwork for improving the rights of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. The names of all members of the armed forces of Macedonia killed in the bloodshed of 2001 are written on a bronze plaque beneath it. The monument “Fallen Heroes of Macedonia” was unveiled on Independence Day on 8th September  2012. According to the author of this memorial, Tome Adzievski, "each individual segment is symbolic". This memorial became the most criticized one of the entire project of “Skopje 2014”. This is due to several reasons. Primarily as a result of its similarity to the Brandenburg Gate, but also because the sculpture of Prometheus was “dressed” after an anonymous female non-governmental organization filed a complaint. Moreover, the eternal flame was switched off at times thus defying the entire notion of eternity. These photos were taken in August 2018.