The compound where the Foundation’s main office is, consists of two buildings built at the time of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876–1909) i.e. in 1892. The small building used to be a post office, while the bigger building was the main office of the Kosova Vilayet Administration during the Ottoman rule. As part of this compound, behind those two buildings there used to be a third building that was part of the compound.
With the withdrawal of the Ottomans, when the Ottomans no longer ruled with the southeastern part of the Balkans in 1912 the entire compound fell into the hands of the post‐ Ottoman authorities of the Kingdom of Serbia. With God’s will these two buildings were not destroyed while the third building was completely demolished during the Balkan Wars and no trace was left of it with the exception of some archive pictures.
According to some stories these buildings until the Second World War were used as military facilities, and afterwards as a place for army recruiting. During the Communist regime the buildings were used by the goldsmith company Rubin Karmin. This company at the time of the privatisation and after the fall of Communism bought the buildings from the state and they stayed there until 2011 when they sold them to the Foundation "Centre of Islamic Civilization”.
THE FOUNDATION TAKES OWNERSHIP OF THE BUILDINGS
THE FIRST PHASE:
After the registration of the Foundation negotiations were initiated with the Company "Rubin Karmin” that at the time owned these buildings and at the same time the Foundation was looking for donations in order to acquire the facility. After the exhaustive search for a donation, the Foundation managed to get a donation from the state of Qatar. The Qatar Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ahmed bin Abdullah Al‐Mahmud on 4 February 2010 informed the Foundation’s founders that the Qatar Emir, HE Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al‐Tani decided to fund the purchase of the facility, pointing out that the Emir expressed significant interest in protecting the cultural heritage in this region. Hence, we would like to point out that significant support for the realisation of this donation was also provided by state senior officials of the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Turkey.
The purchase of the facility was finalised on 4 January 2011 with the signing of the contract between the Foundation and the company "Rubin”. Afterwards the Foundation initiated the purchasing of a real estate of 312 m2 that was inside the facility, owned by the Republic of Macedonia. The purchase of this state‐owned real‐estate, where the Directorate for Personal Data Protection was accommodated, was finalised on 24 August 2012 with the signing of the purchase contract between the Foundation and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. Since 16 October 2012 the Foundation is the sole owner of the entire property located at the address of Samoilova 10. With the purchase of the entire real estate from the previous owners the Foundation managed to realise its short‐term objective and to successfully finish the first phase of its planned activities.
BUILDINGS‘ RECONSTRUCTION
THE SECOND PHASE:
In 2013, after the Foundation took ownership of the entire property at Samoilova 10, it entered the second phase of activities that consists of:
1. Reconstruction of the buildings, and
2. Presentation of the programme’s principle, founding institutions and their operation.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDINGS
When they were owned by the Company "Rubin”, it had only renovated the smaller building in an amateur way, while the bigger building was completely neglected. FOCIC is planning to renovate and reconstruct the two buildings and to build the third one.
The FOCIC’s compound of buildings consists of:
1. Building A (which at the moment accommodates the main office of the Foundation, but there is a need of partial reconstruction and restoration)
2. Building B (that requires complete reconstruction and restoration)
3. Building C (that needs to be built from scratch)
FOCIC is trying to reconstruct these three buildings and to turn them into:
1. Building A:
‐ FOCIC Foundation’s administration building
2. Building B:
3. Building C:
The planning of the reconstruction of the entire compound (without the construction) was undertaken by the City of Bursa in the Republic of Turkey in cooperation with the Municipality of Cair in Skopje. FOCIC is planning in 2014 to start with the construction activities related to the reconstruction of the two existing buildings and construction of the third one – if we manage to get all the necessary donations.
FOCIC is trying to reconstruct these three buildings and to turn them into:
1. Building A:
‐ FOCIC Foundation’s administration building
2. Building B:
‐ Main offices of the three institutes and of the Centre for Social Development and
Human Resources
‐ A library
‐ A scientific archive
‐ A Museum of the Ottoman‐Islamic heritage in Macedonia
‐ A conference hall
‐ A room for seminars
‐ Offices for the scientific institutes and researchers
3. Building C:
‐ Inn and gastronomy (this building should provide income to the Foundation that
would cover the expenses for its operation and activities)
Please find more details on this in the enclosed project proposal prepared and financed by the City of Bursa in cooperation with the Municipality of Çair in Skopje. The visionary planning of the reconstruction is in its final phase.
