The first President of independent Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, has died in his home in Skopje at the age of 94, Macedonian media said on Monday.
Gligorov was born on 3 May 1917 in Stip, and earned a law degree. He fought in the National Liberation War in 1941-45, and became the first President of Macedonia after this southernmost Yugoslav republic declared independence in 1991, serving two consecutive terms until 1999.
After the initial unrest in former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Gligorov agreed with General Blagoje Adzic on a peaceful withdrawal of Yugoslav People's Army units from Macedonia.
He was the target of a failed assassination attempt in Skopje in October 1995.
