Skopje remembers 1963 earthquake

Skopje marks Friday the 50. anniversary from the 1963 catastrophic earthquake, in which 1,070 people lost their lives, while 3,000 were injured.

Numerous delegations and citizens laid flowers at the monument of the perished in the earthquake at the Skopje city cemetery, including Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, Skopje Mayor Koce Trajanovski, PM's Cabinet representatives, political parties, city's municipalities, Red Cross, Macedonian Army, as well as foreign delegations, UNICEF etc.

The Red Cross of the City of Skopje organized the traditional humanitarian blood donation campaign, whereas a religious service was held in church "St.Kliment Ohridski".

This evening's official programme includes poetry reading "To Skopje with Love" in front of the Museum of the City of Skopje, while exhibition titled "26 July 1963" will open in museum's premises.

Multimedia project "Skopje Remembers" will be held at Macedonia Square, whereas the Macedonian Cultural Centre will screen a 24-hour film marathon, along with exhibition "Show Your Hope".

A broken clock marking the time of the earthquake, 5:17 a.m., remains at the scene. The severe earthquake left some 80 percent of Skopje in ruins, with 1.070 dead persons and more than 200.000 homeless.

Relief in money and kind, including medical, engineering, and building teams with supplies, came from 78 countries. From this, Skopje was called the 'City of International Solidarity.'

In the days after the earthquake, 35 nations asked the United Nations General Assembly to put relief for Skopje on its agenda, and a campaign directed at national governments and international agencies began to identify resources to assist in recovery efforts. As the General Assembly stated in resolution 1882 of 14 October 1963, the spirit of international solidarity demonstrated in the aftermath of the Skopje earthquake transformed the reconstruction effort into a symbol of friendship and brotherhood among peoples.

Prior to 1900, the seismic history of Skopje, as part of the Vardar seismic zone, is practically reduced to a rather brief description of the earthquake catastrophes of Scupi in 518 A.D. and that of Skopje in 1555. The old Scupi was situated about 4-5 km northwest of the center of the present Skopje. As ground fissure extending over 45 km in length and up to 4 meters in width is reported for this earthquake, it seems that it is the strongest shock that has ever occurred in Macedonia. The earthquake of 1555 is said to have demolished a part of Skopje. Both earthquakes are estimated to be of strong intensity.

Skopje marks 49th anniversary of disastrous Earthquake

Delegations of parliament, government, president's cabinet, ARM, City of Skopje as well as officials of the diplomatic corps, political parties and Red Cross laid Thursday fresh flowers on the monument of the earthquake's victims in Butel cemetery marking the 49th anniversary Skopje earthquake.

The Red Cross of the City of Skopje will organise traditional humanitarian blood donation action in Army House.

Literary reading "Poetesses for this city" will be held and an exhibition "First journalist report from destroyed Skopje" will open Thursday evening in the Museum of the City of Skopje.

A broken clock marking the time of the earthquake, 5:17am, remains at the scene. The severe earthquake left some 80 percent of Skopje in ruins, with 1.070 dead persons and more than 200.000 homeless. Relief in money including medical, engineering, and building teams with supplies, came from 78 countries. From this day onward, Skopje was called the 'City of International Solidarity.'

In the days after the earthquake, 35 nations asked the United Nations General Assembly to put relief for Skopje on its agenda, and a campaign directed at national governments and international agencies began to identify resources to assist in recovery efforts. As the General Assembly stated in resolution 1882 of 14 October 1963, the spirit of international solidarity demonstrated in the aftermath of the Skopje earthquake transformed the reconstruction effort into a symbol of friendship and brotherhood among peoples.

Prior to 1900, the seismic history of Skopje, as part of the Vardar seismic zone, is practically reduced to a rather brief description of the earthquake catastrophes of Scupi in 518 A.D. and that of Skopje in 1555. The old Scupi was situated about 4-5 km northwest of the center of the present Skopje. As ground fissure extending over 45 km in length and up to 4 meters in width is reported for this earthquake, it seems that it is the strongest shock that has ever occurred in Macedonia. The earthquake of 1555 is said to have demolished a part of Skopje. Both earthquakes are estimated to be of strong intensity.

Quake jolts Debar

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3 degrees on the Richter scale jolted the western part of Macedonia on Friday morning. According to Seismology Observatory at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the quake's epicenter was 110 kilometers off Skopje, near Debar. Local residents in Debar and Struga said they felt the tremor.

STRING OF EARTHQUAKES IN DEBAR REGION

An earthquake measuring 7-8 degrees according to European Macroseismic Scale was felt late Sunday in western and central Macedonia. Epicentre of the quake, which happened at 23:49h, was 110 km southwest of Skopje.
Seismological observatory within Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Skopje reported that epicentre was on the territory of the neighbouring Albania, 15 km southwest of Debar.