Todor Petrov was born on 19 March 1960 in
Gevgelija. He finished his primary and high school in Gevgelija, then he attended the
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje where he earned a
bachelor's degree in economics. In 1990, Petrov founded the
World Macedonian Congress (WMC), a
Macedonian diaspora organisation, and became its president. In 1990, during the
first democratic elections Todor Petrov was elected as the
Member of Parliament from
Gevgelija. He was one of three members of the Assembly elected as
independent candidates. In the same year, the country displayed the symbol on its new flag. This lasted until 1995, when the Republic of Macedonia changed its flag as part of the
Interim Accord with Greece. Petrov used to be chairman of the weekly newspaper
Makedonsko Sonce, where he promoted the Macedonian cause. In 2004, Todor Petrov and
World Macedonian Congress initiated
2004 Macedonian autonomy referendum, against a government plan to change some administrative divisions which was a consequence of the
Ohrid Agreement ending the
2001 insurgency. The government proposal planned to reduce the number of municipalities from 123 to 84, giving greater representation to
ethnic Albanians and turning the capital city of Skopje into a bilingual city. Four days before the vote, the United States announced they would start referring to the country as the
Republic of Macedonia rather than
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in a move said to strengthen the government position.{{cite web |url=http://www.balkanalysis.com/?p=451 |title=America Recognizes Macedonia by its Constitutional Name |date=2004-04-11 |publisher=balkananalysis.com |access-date=2023-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029014514/http://www.balkanalysis.com/?p=451 In 2009, Todor Petrov applied to be a candidate of
VMRO-DPMNE in the
presidential election. He was not able to secure his candidacy at the party's convention, and VMRO-DPMNE appointed
Gjorge Ivanov as the party's presidential candidate, who later became
President of the Republic of Macedonia. ==See also==