June 27, 2020 – The “Mother Teresa” University in Skopje started with the realization of the Scientific Project “The Return of the European Eel”. The first session of the Conference on: “Our Diaspora, Its Potential and Its Role in the Processes of Development and Democratization in the Republic of Northern Macedonia” was held online with the participation of a group of members of our diaspora who achieved a lot of success in the academic and public life in the US and professors from the “Mother Teresa” University in Skopje. The participants from both sides of the ocean exchanged their experiences on the path of development and academic and professional achievements and gave concrete suggestions on the manner and form of the future mutual cooperation.

Sharing experiences and enabling the contribution of our diaspora generation, which now carries in its bosom a respected constellation of public and scientific figures, is welcoming for the development and academic consolidation of our higher education institutions and social life. Both sides concluded that this will be the right form of communication of our diaspora with the homeland at this stage of development in a globalized environment and full of new challenges. In this way, an appropriate environment will be created for the new generations with a new vision to maintain contact with the homeland and to enrich their valued tradition with the traditional cooperation of the previous generations of the diaspora.

The conference was moderated by the Rector of MTU, Lecturer Aziz Pollozhani, Ph.D., and by Mr. Vullnet Dervishi, a diaspora activist in the United States and a strong supporter of the “The Return of the European Eel” project. After the online session, a planned Conference was agreed upon, which, due to the conditions imposed by the pandemic, will be held in Skopje next spring.