Skopje, July 25 (MIA) - City authorities Friday will start the realisation of the programme marking the 45th anniversary of Skopje catastrophic earthquake, which killed 1.070 and injured 3.000 persons.
Programme under the motto "Skopje - 45 years city of solidarity and international friendship" begins in the Museum of the City of Skopje by opening of exhibitions "Skopje - Solidarity and Friendship," Donation Jurgen Piplov, Germany and Paintings by Kurt Neubauer, Germany.
Afterwards an event will begin in front of the plateau of the old railway station including the interactive exhibition "Solidarity" and children will make watercolour paintings.
On Friday morning fresh flowers will be laid at City Cemetery for the quake victims and formal academy will take place in the evening at Skopje Fortress. Decorations will be presented to Lawrence Igleberg and Christopher Hill from the US, Thorvald Stoltenberg from Norway and Werner Trini from Germany, four new honorary citizens of the City of Skopje.
Traditional blood donation campaign will take place at the Army House on July 26.
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 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 Skupi in 518 A.D. and that of Skopje in 1555. The old Skupi was situated about 4-5 km northwest of the centre 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.