[ad_1]
“The Macedonians are a ‘fictitious nation’, unlike the Bulgarian, which in Sofia is clearly considered a gift from God, fallen from heaven or arisen as a result of osmosis.” Several comments from the German press on the dispute between Sofia and Skopje:
“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) reported on the conference dedicated to the European integration of the Western Balkans: it is scheduled for December if Skopje does not accept as “only historically correct” the Bulgarian view on the central issues affecting the two neighboring countries closely related from the linguistic and ethnic point of view. Under the presidency of the European Council, Germany intends to push for the start of European negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania from December and has therefore been trying for weeks to mediate the dispute at the highest level. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have joined forces to find a compromise and persuade Bulgaria to withdraw the veto threat.
“And get along!”
The newspaper’s correspondent, Michael Martens, also wrote about German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech yesterday at the conference: “It ended with a mother-teacher warning to the two heads of government:” If these warnings will bear fruit, no it was clear on Tuesday. Skopje says the odds are bad.
Nuremberg Blatt also quotes Merkel, delves into the tensions between Sofia and Skopje and writes about the main reservations of the Bulgarian government:
“In particular, it is about the fact that North Macedonia refers to the presence of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. The government of Sofia, and especially the small nationalist party IMRO, which is the junior partner of Prime Minister Borissov, deny this. Bulgarian nationalists believe that the entire Slavic-speaking population of North Macedonia is in fact ethnically Bulgarian. In this context, Sofia, among other things, insists on changing the name of the language in North Macedonia: since it was a dialect Bulgarian, it should be called “the official language of North Macedonia,” explains Nuremberg Blatt.
In the FAC article we also read: “In fact, neither Zaev nor the members of his cabinet have officially ruled on the existence of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria. North Macedonia also says that in the 21st century it is not the task of states to decide which minorities are there and which are not. The unofficial compromise proposal provides for Skopje to acknowledge in writing that the Macedonian language spoken in North Macedonia was codified only after the end of World War II. And while that fact is in itself indisputable, it was unclear Tuesday whether it would lead to a rapprochement.
“Gifted by God”
This is how the Balkan correspondent for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” Michael Martens commented on the Bulgarian claims:
“The Bulgarian government will abandon its veto only if the Macedonians are willing to accept the dominant historical view on the issue in Bulgaria. According to him, the Macedonians are a” fictitious nation “, unlike the Bulgarian nation, which in Sofia is clearly considered a gift from God, fallen from heaven or arising as a result of osmosis. “
Martens, who is an excellent connoisseur of the Balkans, recalls: “History is a powerful power in the Balkans. And whoever denies this cliché is the victim of another cliché. Because no one can deny that by the power of history a politics, that because of it elections continue to be won or lost ”.
Michael Martens also wrote about the Open Letter, in which 40 Bulgarian historians, linguists, literary critics and university professors harshly criticized the historical policy of the Bulgarian government. He quotes the signatories, according to whom the attempt on the part of Bulgarian historical science to present historical identities as scientifically measurable quantities is naive.
The author sums up: “This letter is important beyond the specific occasion, because it openly attacks the alliance between national historians and the government. Such alliances exist in different variants in all the Balkan countries, where two camps clash in historical science: one seeks international recognition and the other serves established national stereotypes and receives state resources, whose distribution it controls. That is why the historians with institutional power in the Balkan states are not always the brightest minds in their discipline. They do not consider that they have a duty to carry out an independent investigation, but rather define their role in serving the people and the State. These views of history are often found in national academies of science, especially in the highest echelons. Wrapped in a cocoon of “national” historiography, with clear images of the enemy and no halftones, this research is increasingly losing touch with international standards. As a result, there are limited conversations nationwide with yourself. However, in all the countries of the region there are many excellent historians who do not want to serve nationalism, but want to work and publish according to the highest standards. They were the ones who spoke out loud also in Bulgaria. “
And some in Western Europe will even rejoice
At the end of one of his two articles at FAC, Michael Martens wrote:
“The conflict is significant for all of Southeast Europe. In this part of the continent, they tend to overload historical disputes with particular importance, so if a consensus on contentious bilateral historical issues becomes a precondition for the initiation of In the EU accession negotiations, all prospects for EU enlargement will be quickly erased, because all the EU member states of the region in their enlarged version (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Croatia) are in different conflicts on one or another historical issue with the candidate countries. We talk about territories, the course and end of wars, the assessment of historical figures, the presence or absence of various minorities. If agreement on such controversial issues is established as a criterion for accession to the EU, the EU’s enlargement policy in the Balkans will fail. This, of course, will not bother everyone in Western Europe. such, “said Michael Martens at the end of his article.
Deutsche says
