[ad_1]
Tsar Samuel and the use of the adjective “Macedonian” are one of the points of misunderstanding in the Joint Historical Commission between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia. Achieving tangible results in understanding our common history is one of Sofia’s conditions to say “yes” to Skopje’s negotiating framework with the EU. Bulgaria has insisted on changing the history curricula, which is not happening yet.
Tsar Samuel was the historical figure on whose work and significance the Joint Historical Commission between Sofia and Skopje had reached a fragile agreement. After a hiatus of almost a year and the coming to power of the second government of Zoran Zaev, the historians of Skopje withdrew from the consensus already reached.
In Skopje, they continue to insist that Samuel is the Macedonian king of the Macedonian kingdom. Without the support of any historical source, these abound in fourth, sixth and seventh grade textbooks in our southwest neighbor, BNT reported.
Here’s an example with the map below: On the left is the map of the First Bulgarian Kingdom during the reign of Tsar Samuel years before the fall of the First Bulgarian Kingdom under Byzantine slavery. And on the right the same map, but, according to the textbooks of Skopje, the so-called “Kingdom of Macedonia”, which, again according to historians there, I quote, “completes the process of final formation of the state and the people of Macedonia”.
Photo: BNT
And how do these textbooks present King Samuel, the country he ruled, the Glagolithic alphabet, and the origin of the Bulgarians?
History textbooks taught to children in the Republic of North Macedonia state that King Samuel was the founder of a Macedonian royal dynasty that, along with his three brothers David, Aaron, and Moses, rebelled against the government. Bulgarian in 969 and rejected it. and created the kingdom of Macedonia.
When they claimed that Samuel was a Macedonian king, we repeatedly said, “Okay, we’ll present it in our textbooks, give us a source to write it down.” And they didn’t respond once. They said Samuel was We said: “Yes, we don’t care. Give a source to write it in.” There are no such sources, “said the corresponding member. Prof. Ivan Ilchev, member of the Joint Commission of Experts on Historical and Educational Issues .
Photo: BNT
Samuel is actually a comitopol. He is the son of the Nikola committee, regional governor of part of Western Bulgaria, recalls Professor Ivan Ilchev. He accepted royal dignity in 997, only after the Bulgarian prince Roman died in captivity in Byzantium. The historians of Skopje are silent on these facts.
“They cannot explain some things. For example, they cannot explain how the Byzantine chroniclers of the late 12th and early 13th centuries called Emperor Basil II a” Bulgarian assassin. “By the way, it is not mentioned in any Macedonian textbook with this nickname. ” says the historian.
In the Skopje textbooks we read that in Samuel’s country it was written in “Slavic Macedonian language”.
Photo: BNT
“For them, since the Middle Ages, from Geshevo, it has been Bulgaria, from Geshevo onwards, it has been Macedonia. We know very well that such a border never existed until it was drawn with the Berlin Congress,” explains the corresponding member. Prof. Ivan Ilchev.
According to the textbooks in Skopje, the Glagolitic alphabet was the work of the Saints Brothers Cyril and Methodius to “more easily Christianize the Slavic Macedonians around Thessaloniki”, and then the Slavic script spread to other neighboring lands, first in Bulgaria.
Photo: BNT
“The Glagolitic alphabet was created by the Holy Brothers to win the status of Great Moravia for the Byzantine cause and they go with this alphabet to Great Moravia. They never appear in Macedonia. Their students come to Macedonia, and years later,” says the professor Ivan Ilchev. .
St. Clement, the first bishop to preach in Bulgarian and founder of the Ohrid Literary School, is featured in Skopje textbooks as “Old Slav” and founder of the “Macedonian Church”.
“But in the life of Kliment Ohridski it is written that Boris sent him to Macedonia to preach the Word of God and spread the script, and he was ordained a bishop by the Bulgarian church,” said the historian.
The Archbishopric of Ohrid, which is the name of the Bulgarian autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Bulgarian lands conquered by Byzantium, according to the Skopje textbooks, is an independent Macedonian church.
Photo: BNT
“I don’t want to argue here, I just advise you to read Basil II’s chrysostome on the rights granted to the archbishopric of Ohrid and it says, ‘that he was appointed bishop of all Bulgaria,'” says Professor Ilchev.
According to the Skopje textbooks, Bulgarians are “Mongolian Tatar tribe of the group of Turkic peoples”.
Photo: BNT
The inhabitants of the present Republic of North Macedonia, according to its historians, are descendants of the “ancient Macedonians” and the mythical hero “Macedonia”, melted by Slavic tribes in the V-VIII centuries.
Photo: BNT
“For example, they do not mention anywhere that in the lands between Thessaloniki and Bitola live the Kuber Protobulgarians,” explains Professor Ivan Ilchev.
We understand that Gotse Delchev was born into a “large family in Kukush”. The adjective “Bulgarian” is omitted.
Photo: BNT
“In North Macedonian textbooks, the authors respond to a Winston Churchill maxim: ‘It has always been easy for me to believe in what is beneficial to me,'” said the historian.
Finally: the Ilinden-Preobrazhensko uprising became only “Ilinden” in an attempt to “untie” itself from its Bulgarian origin.
Photo: BNT
Six generations of the Republic of North Macedonia study these textbooks. Until World War II, they were taught to be Serbs. In the composition of Yugoslavia, they are Macedonians. The only thing that has not changed over the decades, says Professor Ilchev, is the thesis that the main enemy of Skopje in the Balkans is Bulgaria.
PEU ambassadors accept a “misinterpretation of history”
Meanwhile, the ambassadors of the EU member states today confirmed the conclusions on the enlargement of the Union in the Western Balkans, including a mention of the “misinterpretation of history” and the full name of the Republic of North Macedonia. , as Bulgaria insists, and not its shortened version. Brussels, cited by BTA.
The conclusions were frozen due to the blocking of the negotiating framework of the Republic of North Macedonia by Bulgaria. The ambassadors accepted the Bulgarian requirements regarding “misinterpretation of history” and the full form of the name of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Conclusions must be adopted by written procedure within one or two days.
Yesterday, the German Presidency of the Council of the EU proposed a new text of the conclusions, which includes the request from Bulgaria.
The Council recalls the Prespa Treaty between the Republic of North Macedonia and Greece and the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbor and Cooperation between the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria and stresses the importance of their continued implementation. These two main steps should put an end to all claims based on a misinterpretation of history, says the latest draft of the conclusions.
According to some diplomats, the compromise remains in favor of the Republic of North Macedonia, because the sentence in question is not in the paragraph on the country, but in the preamble and, in particular, in the paragraph on regional reconciliation. However, it applies directly to the Republic of North Macedonia.
Furthermore, pressure from Bulgaria to use the full form of the country’s name was accepted. In the draft, the full “Republic of North Macedonia” is used everywhere, while in previous drafts “North Macedonia” was used.
The conclusions do not unlock the negotiating framework, as long as Bulgaria continues to block their adoption, MIA commented.
The council will formally publish its findings probably at the end of the week.
