Flood response shows citizens want co-operation, not violence

Flood response shows citizens want co-operation, not violence

Efforts to assist victims of recent flooding demonstrated the region's commitment to peaceful co-existence.

The recent flooding in Macedonia drew assistance from around the region. [Miki Trajkovski/SETimes]

As shown through the solidarity and co-operation exhibited during the recent floods in Macedonia, citizens living in the Balkans want to cultivate ties of friendship.

Citizens from all ethnic communities collected aid for the affected regions, and help arrived from the neighbouring countries and Turkey. Through this solidarity, people from the Balkans have shown the world that they are against wars, violence and divisions, and are for co-operation between states.

"States and people who send help to their neighbours in Macedonia show that solidarity is still here, although the region has gone through years of war and conflicts. In this way we show that violence is in the past for our region," Petar Avramov, a resident of Bitola, told SETimes.

Zoran Stevoski, president of the Bank of Youth NGO in Ohrid, told SETimes that co-operation and assistance is better than any kind of violence.

"We saw violence in this area. It just bears misfortune and the destruction of our common future. Therefore we should cherish friendship and co-operation, solidarity and trust," said Stevoski. "The recent floods in Macedonia were ? a call to our friends from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia to show their humanity." During the floods last year in Serbia, Croatia and BiH, members of Stevoski's association and other similar groups from Slovenia and Serbia helped repair flood damage in the Serbian town of Kraljevo.

"Humanity exists, and...