Macedonia’s neighbours are Bulgaria, Serbia – Montenegro (including Kosovo), Greece and Albania. The country borders on Albania (151 km), Bulgaria (148 km), Greece (246 km), and Serbia and Montenegro (221 km). The country has 85 municipalities (opština). Municipalities are: Aerodrom (Skopje), Aračinovo, Berovo, Bitola, Bogdanci, Bogovinje, Bosilovo, Brvenica, Butel (Skopje), Čair (Skopje), Časka, Centar (Skopje), Centar Zupa, Česinovo, Čučer-Sandevo, Debar, Debartsa, Delčevo, Demir Hisar, Demir Kapija, Dojran, Dolneni, Drugovo, Gazi Baba (Skopje), Gevgelija, Gjorce Petrov (Skopje), Gostivar, Gradsko, Ilinden, Jegunovce, Karbinci, Karpos (Skopje), Kavadarci, Kičevo, Kisela Voda (Skopje), Kocani, Konce, Kratovo, Kriva Palanka, Krivogastani, Krusevo, Kumanovo, Lipkovo, Lozovo, Makedonska Kamenica, Makedonski Brod, Mavrovo i Rastusa, Mogila, Negotino, Novaci, Novo Selo, Ohrid, Oslomej, Pehčevo, Petrovec, Plasnica, Prilep, Probištip, Radoviš, Rankovce, Resen, Rosoman, Saraj (Skopje), Skopje, Sopiste, Staro Nagoričane, Štip, Struga, Strumica, Studenicani, Šuto Orizari (Skopje), Sveti Nikole, Tearče, Tetovo, Valandovo, Vasilevo, Veles, Vevčani, Vinica, Vranestica, Vrapciste, Zajas, Zelenikovo, Zelino, and Zrnovci. Ten of these municipalities are part of the capital, Skopje. The ancient territory of Macedon included, in addition to the areas of present-day Macedonia, large parts of present-day northern Greece and south-western Bulgaria. This ancient kingdom reached its height during Alexander the Great. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the territory of Macedonia came under the control of the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. In the late 14th century, Ottoman Turks conquered the territory; it remained under Turkish rule until 1912. However during the Ilinden Uprising of 2 August 1903, Macedonian revolutionaries liberated the town of Kruševo and established the short-lived Republic of Kruševo, which was put down by Ottoman forces after 10 days. After World War I, Macedonia was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, Yugoslavia was ruled by Josip Broz Tito, who died in 1980. Conflicts within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) became stronger and stronger. Macedonia was one of the most undeveloped of the Yugoslav republics. Macedonia has been independent since 8 September 1991. The country was admitted to the UN in 1993 under the provisional name the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In February 1994, the country was recognised by Russia and the U.S., and it signed a normalisation agreement with Greece in 1995. Former President Kiro Gligorov was seriously injured after an assassination attempt on 3 October 1995. For a lot of international observers, Gligorov is one of the leading politicians in the region, because he managed in his role as president to save his country from a war. Conflicts in Macedonia between Macedonians and Albanians started in February 2001 and ended in August 2001 with the signing of the Ohrid framework agreement. The year 2003 was marked by political events, such as the implementation of the framework agreement and constitutional changes. Macedonian citizens received bilingual passports and identification cards in both the Macedonian and Albanian languages. Albanian was introduced by the Parliament as the country’s second official language. In November 2003, the State Statistical Bureau published data from the 2002 census, according to which the number of ethnic Macedonians decreased (to 1,297,981 or 64.18%) and the number of Albanians in Macedonia increased to 25.17% (the official number of Albanians is 509,083). The census results will continue to stimulate debate in the coming years, because Macedonian opposition parties claim the number is impossible, while ethnic Albanian opposition parties in Macedonia claim the number of ethnic Albanians living in Macedonia is even higher. Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski (president since 2000) died on 26 February 2004 in an aircraft crash near the city of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, after which Branko Crvenkovski took the position. On 4 November 2004, the US recognised the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name. In 2005 Poland rendered a decision to use the Macedonian constitutional name in official communication between the countries, thus adopting the practice of several European countries, including France, Germany, Great Britain and Romania. Conflict with Greece over the country’s name remained unresolved in 2005. Greek officials claim Macedonia is the name of Greece’s northern province (the capital of which is Thessaloniki), and thus cannot be the name of a neighbouring country. Former Macedonian Interior Minister of the previous VMRO-DPMNE-led government, Ljube Boškovski, was transferred in March 2005 to The Hague from Croatia, where he had been incarcerated on charges unrelated to the ICTY. Earlier, Boškovski had been charged in but managed to flee to Croatia. However, Croatian authorities subsequently arrested Boškovski and charged him with murder. Since years there is a conflict between Macedonian and Serbian Orthodox Church. In the beginning of July 2005 a Macedonian court convicted Bishop Jovan Vraniskovski  of inciting religious hatred by holding services for Serbian Orthodox Church worshippers in Macedonia, and sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison. He began serving his prison term on 26 July 2005. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and different NGOs, religions groups and religion representatives world-wide demanded the release of the priest. The first Church-and-People Assembly was held in Skopje in March 1945, when 300 delegates,  clergyman and laymen from the whole of Macedonia declared themselves in favour of the realisation of the aims expressed at Izdeglavje for the formation of an autocephalous Macedonian Orthodox Church with its own church leaders. On 8th May 1946 a new Assembly of the Clergy took place in Skopje in reaction to the fact that decisions passed at the first Church-and-People Assembly had met with no understanding at the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Since representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church were attempting to postpone a solution on the Macedonian Church question, delegates to the second Church-and-People Assembly met in Ohrid on the 4th and 5th October 1958, and passed a decision in favour of the revival of the Archbishopric of Ohrid and of the Constitution of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The Macedonian Orthodox Church is not recognised by other Orthodox churches. The case of Bishop Jovan, as well as conflict between the Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox Churches has strained relations between Serbia-Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. A pre-criminal investigation, conducted by the Vukovar-Srijem County’s Prosecution Office in Croatia against Chief of General Staff of the Macedonian Army Miroslav Stojanovski was launched on 25 November 2005, after the Croatian media ran stories suggesting Stojanovski took part in the attack on Vukovar as a member of the former Yugoslav People Army in 1991. The accusing articles were published during his visit to Croatia in November 2005, during the 14th anniversary marking of the fall of Vukovar.  Prime Minister Vlado Bučkovski voiced optimism that the country would get a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) invitation in 2006, and that it would acquire European Union (EU) candidate-country status, which happened in December 2005. After the Republic of Macedonia received a positive answer from the EU regarding a November questionnaire, the Republic of Macedonia on 15 December 2005 officially become a country with candidate status to join EU. The Republic of Macedonia has an unicameral Assembly (Parliament) or Sobranje with 120 seats. Members are elected for four years by popular vote from party lists based on the percentage of the overall vote the parties gain in each of six electoral districts. A Council of Ministers is elected by the majority vote of all the deputies in the assembly and it has a prime minister as a chief. The President of the Republic Macedonia represents the republic. The president of the republic is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Macedonia. The president of the republic exercises his/her rights and duties on the basis and within the framework of the constitution and laws. The president of the republic is elected in general and direct elections, by secret ballot, for a term of five years. A person may be elected president of the republic two times at most. The president must be a citizen of the Republic of Macedonia, and must be over the minimum age of 40 on the day of election. A person may not be elected president if, on the day of election, he/she has not been a resident of the Republic of Macedonia for at least 10 of the previous 15 years. Political parties are: the Democratic Alternative (DA), the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI, also BDI), the Democratic Party of Albanians (PDSH), the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-True Macedonian Reform Option (VMRO-VMRO), the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Macedonian, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Folk Party (VMRO-NP), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Liberal Party (LP), the National Democratic Party (PDK), the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PPD), the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM), the Socialist Party of Macedonia (SPM), the Together for Macedonia coalition (including the SDSM and LDP), and the Union of Roma of Macedonia (SRM). In 2005 three new parties were established by high-ranking and experienced politicians: Tito Petkovski, Member of the Parliament and member for many years of the highest bodies of SDSM, established his party under the name “New Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia”. Another Member of the Parliament, Ljiljana Popovska, left the Liberal Democratic Party and founded a new political option “DOM - Democratic Renewal (Obnova) of Macedonia”. The third new subject in the Macedonian political landscape is the “Party for Economic Renewal (Obnova)” – for the time being there are no big political names behind this option, but the party has intensive media presence on the biggest national private television