The Republic of Macedonia has gotten its own national Cyrillic domain .мкд, with which it will be presented in the international Internet space. It has been chosen by the citizens via an online poll conducted by the Macedonian Academic Research Network (MARNET) and later approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Minister of Information Society and Administration Ivo Ivanovski said Thursday the Cyrillic domain would create fresh opportunities for promotion of the Republic of Macedonia. More Macedonian contents written in Cyrillic would be created - a factor monitored by many global institutions on the development of the information society. Web-sites in Cyrillic alphabet will be registered as well as domains including typical Cyrillic letters, such as љ, њ, ѓ, ж, џ, ч, ш.

"By establishing a national Cyrillic domain in the Internet space, we have made another step toward enhancing our language and alphabet, which is a continuation of the momentous deeds made by Macedonians throughout the years," Minister Ivanovski told a press conference at the Krste Misirkov Macedonian Language Institute.

The fact that we've obtained a national domain, he added, is a big step in the struggle of Macedonia and the Macedonian people to triumph over the injustice imposed by some of our neighbors that have been ignoring and refusing to recognize the existence of the Macedonian language.

"It is a big achievement for us that we have won another legal and political struggle on an international level, which required a lot of patience, lobbying and hard work by all the factors involved in the process," he stressed.

The Macedonian Cyrillic domain is the fifth one registered internationally. In addition to Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia also have Cyrillic Internet domains.