TIME's Person of the Year 2015 announced

Baku. 9 December. REPORT.AZ/ German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named TIME's Person of the Year, Report informs referring to AFP.

TIME Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs revealed that the woman who courted controversy in 2015 by opening her nation's border to hundreds of thousands of refugees and managed Europe's debt crisis as the choice in a TODAY show exclusive Wednesday morning.

The magazine bestowed the title on the 61-year-old world leader "for asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply."

Merkel is the first individual woman to receive the "Person of the Year" recognition since TIME changed its title from "Man of the Year" in 1999. Women, however, have been recognized as part of a group, such as last year's winner, "Ebola Fighters."

"Merkel started the year by standing up to the Vladimir Putin, slowing down the Russian president's attempt to seize Ukraine. Then came Greece's financial meltdown that threatened the entire European euro zone, but which Merkel handled with the firm, no-nonsense hand of a school headmaster.

More recently, Merkel's management of the epic migrant crisis that has swept her continent has lead people to call her "Europe's conscience." She opened Germany's doors when other nations slammed theirs shut, facing intense pressure and criticism from both her own citizens and conservative allies", TIME writes.