UPDATE - Turkey congratulates North Macedonia for 30 years of independence

ADDS PRESIDENT ERDOGAN'S MESSAGE, CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK

By Emin Avundukluoglu, Iclal Turan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated North Macedonia for 30 years of independence on Wednesday.

"I congratulate the independence anniversary of the Republic of North Macedonia, with which we have historic fraternal ties. I wish peace and prosperity to all the people of North Macedonia," he wrote on Twitter.

Turkey's parliament speaker also congratulated North Macedonia on its independence day.

In a letter to his North Macedonian counterpart Talat Xhaferi, Mustafa Sentop said: “I sincerely believe that relations between Turkey and North Macedonia, rooted from the ties of brotherhood and love that come from history, and the close cooperation between our parliaments will develop further in the future in line with the common interests of our peoples and will continue to contribute to the stability of the region.”

Sentop wished health, happiness, peace and prosperity to the friendly and brotherly people of North Macedonia and the esteemed members of the North Macedonian Assembly, the letter said.

Formerly known as Macedonia, the country declared its independence as a result of a series of political uprisings and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

In an independence referendum held on Sep. 8, 1991, an overwhelming 95.3% of the population voted for an independent Macedonia.

After this declaration of independence, Turkey, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Russia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina recognized North Macedonia as an independent state.​​​​​​​