Anti - fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia The Anti - fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia ( , " Antifašističko Sobranie za Narodno Osloboduvanje na Makedonija " ; " ; " abbr . ASNOM ) was the supreme legislative and executive people ' s representative body of the Macedonian state from 1944 until the end of World War II . The body was set up by the communist partisans during the final stages of the National Liberation War of Macedonia in the summer of 1944 , in the Bulgarian occupation zone of Yugoslavia . Significance . The first plenary session of ASNOM was convened underground on the symbolic date of August 2 ( Ilinden uprising day ) 1944 in the St . Prohor Pčinjski Monastery in modern Serbia , near the border with the Republic of Macedonia . The most important assembly decisions are the proclaiming of a Macedonian nation - state of ethnic Macedonians , proclamation of the Macedonian language as the official language of the Macedonian state . The citizens of Macedonia , regardless of their ethnic affiliation , were guaranteed all civil rights , as well as the right to their mother tongue and confession of faith . The first session was opened with the anthem of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization ( IMRO ) " Rise up , dayspring of the Freedom " , which became also the anthem of the newly proclaimed republic . However in the next year it was banned by the authorities as bulgarophile sentiment . ASNOM , as the supreme institution of government , also meant de jure commencement of the constitutional law existence of Macedonia as a constituent country within the framework of the future Communist Yugoslav federation . The Assembly issued a " Manifesto " which described the position of the Macedonian state after the National Liberation War of Macedonia under the old Yugoslavia as that of the colony , before declaring the " brotherhood and unity " with the other peoples of Yugoslavia . The manifesto issued by ASNOM ' s first session also explicitly stated its hope for the " unification of the whole Macedonian people " , i . e . , in the whole of the geographical region of Macedonia . The presiding committee of ASNOM was dominated by elements that were not known for their pro - Yugoslav sentiments . Metodija Andonov - Čento was elected president and Panko Brashnarov ( a former member of IMRO ) as speaker . Both wanted a greater independence for the future republic . They saw joining Yugoslavia as a form of second Serbian dominance over Macedonia , and preferred membership in a Balkan Federation or else complete independence . Čento and partly Brashnarov clashed with Svetozar Vukmanović - Tempo , Josip Broz Tito ’ s envoy to Macedonia and Lazar Koliševski , the leader of the Communist Party of Macedonia . One of the contributors in the Assembly was Kiro Gligorov , later the first President of the Republic of Macedonia . According to some researchers , the first session was heavily manipulated by the pro - Yugoslav representatives , and the absence of more than 50 % of the elected delegates made it illegitimate . In early September , Nazi Germany briefly sought to establish an puppet state called independent Macedonia . However , the state was de facto not established due to the lack of any military support . Despite this it was declared by Macedonian right nationalists on 8 September . After Bulgaria have switched sides in the war on September 9 , the Bulgarian 5th . Army stationed in Macedonia , moved back to the old borders of Bulgaria . In the early October the newly formed Bulgarian People ' s Army together with the Red Army reentered occupied Yugoslavia . Vardar Macedonia was liberated in November by Yugoslav Partisan units of the Macedonian National Liberation Army , with the help of the Bulgarian Army . The ASNOM became operational in December , shortly after the German retreat . The first step to eliminate Čento was the installation of Lazar Koliševski as his first deputy in the ASNOM presidency during the second session of this assembly on 28 – 31 December . At the same session was taken a decision a tribunal to be created , that will judge " the collaborators of the occupiers who have panned the Macedonian name and the Macedonian national honor " . On the third session held in April 1945 , the body transformed itself into republican Parliament . Čento was replaced at last by Kolishevski , who started fully implementing the pro - Yugoslav line . Controversy . From the start of the new Yugoslavia , accusations surfaced that new authorities in Macedonia were involved in retribution against people who did not support the formation of the new Yugoslav Macedonian republic . The numbers of dead " counter - revolutionaries " and " collaborators " due to organized killings during the Bloody Christmas and afterwards , however is unclear . Besides , many people went throughout the labor camp of Goli Otok in the middle 1940s . This chapter of the Macedonia ' s history was a taboo subject for conversation in the SFRY until the late 1980s , and as a result , decades of official silence created a reaction in the form of numerous data manipulations for nationalist , communist propaganda purposes . In the last years the number of the victims was put forward to 50 000 , including those killed , imprisoned , deported , sent to forced labor , tortured , etc . At that time , the ASNOM ' s first leaders Čento and Brashnarov were purged from their positions , then isolated , arrested and imprisoned on fabricated charges , as foreign agents , having pro - Bulgarian leanings , demanding greater independence , collaborating with the Cominform , forming of conspirative political groups , demanding greater democracy and the like .