Ajvar and aijvar (Cyrillic: ajвар/aивар; pronounced [ajʋar]) is relish, made principally from red bell peppers, with eggplant, garlic and chili pepper. Ajvar originates in the Serbian cuisine, and was therefore long known as "Serbian salad" or "Serbian vegetable caviar". It becаme a popular salad (side dish) throughout Yugoslavia after World War II and is nowadays popular in the Balkans. Original homemade ajvar is made of roasted peppers, while some industrial producers use cooked peppers, which leads to a lower quality. Depending on the capsaicin content in bell peppers and the amount of added chili peppers, it can be sweet, piquant (the most common), or very hot.

Ajvar can be consumed as a bread spread, a side dish, or as a salad.

The name ajvar comes from the Turkish word havyar, which means "salted roe, caviar" and shares an etymology with caviar. The word was initially used in Serbia for homemade caviar on the middle and lower Danube bank (Smederevo, Đerdap and Kladovo) district. Domestic ajvar, meaning caviar, used to be a very popular dish in Belgrade homes and restaurants. However, the domestic production of ajvar/caviar was continuously striked since the 1890s, and eventually a special pepper salad was, with the sense for irony and an eye for production and serving and optical similarities between the two dishes, offered as a substitute in Belgrade restarurants under the name "red ajvar" or "Serbian ajvar" (crveni ajvar, srpski ajvar).

Vaska Ilieva (Macedonian: Васка Илиева) (February 21, 1923 – May 4, 2001) was a Macedonian leading folk singer from Yugoslavia and the Republic of Macedonia. She started her career as a dancer and singer in the State Ensemble Tanec in the early 1950s. Her style of singing and the songs she sang brought her wide popularity throughout Macedonia, the rest of the former Yugoslavia, the Balkans and throughout the worldwide Macedonian diaspora. She was referred to as the "Queen" of traditional Macedonian music.

Ilieva was awarded various honours from many European countries and toured Europe the Americas and Australia, where there is a large Macedonian community. Her repertoire of over 800 songs earned her a reputation as one of the most versatile and popular Macedonian female artists. Since the mid-1980s, Ilieva focused on interpreting patriotic songs, reflecting popular opinion and preceding the independence of the Republic of Macedonia.