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On March 1 (Monday) beginning at 11:00 hours, in the “Ilinden” barracks in Skopje a ceremony will be held on the occasion of the Day of the Special Operations Regiment (SOR). The ceremony will be attended by: The Minister of Defence Mr. Zoran Konjanovski, the Chief of GS of the ARM, Lieutenant General Miroslav Stojanovski, and the Commanders of the subordinate commands and units of the GS of the ARM, senior representatives from the MOD, representatives from the local self-government from the municipalities and the city of Skopje and other high guests.

On March 1 1994 the Special Task Battalion was formed, which represented the basic core for forming the Special Task Squad, and later to be transformed into the SOR. The forming of this unit marked the process of ARM professionalization, if we can take into account the fact that there have only been professional soldiers in the composition of the SOR from the beginning until now. Since the forming of the Special Task Battalion until now, the candidates for admission into this unit go through extremely rigorous selection criteria, where a high degree of psychophysical preparedness is required from them, regardless whether they are officers or professional soldiers. Otherwise, a large number of soldiers and officers went through the SOR in the previous period, who formed its recognizable image, for which this unit enjoys a high rating, in the Republic of Macedonia, and in the framework of NATO and PfP. This is due primarily to achieving top results in the field of expert-specialist training in the loner period, as well as the application of NATO standard operational procedures, which the SOR members showed in practice through the five year participation in the “Iraqi Freedom” mission in Iraq.

Today, the basic mission of the SOR is carrying out specialist operations in peacetime and conflict, fight against terrorism and other additional activities. Apart from this, one of the tasks of the SOR as part of the declared forces of the ARM is the participation in international peace support operations, as well as prevention and dealing with regional conflicts and crisis in operations led by NATO, the UN and EU.

The members of this unit marked the Day of the SOR by participating in the donate blood campaign, planting of seedlings in the premises of the “Ilinden” barracks, as well as with the organization of a tournament in several sports. On Monday, in accordance with the protocol for the ceremony, the SOR Commander and the Commanders of the Special Task Battalion and the Ranger Battalion will lay a wreath in front of the monument of the five fallen members of the unit, and after the ceremony a demonstration exercise is foreseen with content from the training of the units.

Journalists, cameramen and photographers are invited to follow and report on the event. In order to respect the procedure for entering the “Ilinden” barracks, the arrival in front of the check-in of the barracks should be at 10:30 the latest.