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North Macedonia’s largest opposition party, the pro-Russian VMRO-DPMNE, managed to drive hundreds of people through the streets of Skopje to defend the historical figure of Gotse Delchev from Bulgaria.
The party is using historic disputes with Sofia and Deputy Prime Minister Krassimir Karakachanov’s threat that he could stop Skopje on his way to the European Union to organize a large-scale operation against the Social Democratic government Zoran Zaev.
With patriotic iconography, T-shirts with the image of Gotse Delchev and slogans in defense of the “Macedonian”, the VMRO-DPMNE came out in the second of the announced protests to overthrow the government, which was formed just two weeks ago, reports Nezavisen Vesnik.
The protesters chanted the famous song “We have a name”, chanted “Never the North, only Macedonia”, “Renunciation”, “Mafia”, as the protesters passed in front of the Ministry of Justice, over the Gotse Delchev Bridge and arrived at the Ministry of Justice. External relationships.
“Today we are here for Macedonia and the European Union. Gotse Delchev is the pillar of this people. Our historians have the support of the people, but not the government. The people are more important because the people are the state, we should not become a territory. We protest for Gotse, because he is a European figure “, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristian Mickoski was quoted by Sloboden Pechat.
“Zaev and SDSM are against the EU. They increased electricity and made the people a debtor. They want to sell Gotse to share marijuana company licenses and dictate lawsuits. That’s why we are here, because apart from the mafia, there are in East Macedonia people love Delchev and we will not abandon him “, he added, cited by BNR.
Previously, VMRO-DPMNE did not provoke protests about the price of electricity, but now it is taking advantage of the controversy over Gotse Delchev, which has been going on for years.
Despite the Neighborhood Agreement between the two countries and the joint commission, historical problems continue to determine the relations between the two countries.
Zoran Zaev has shown that he is willing to make concessions to move Skopje to the EU, but the Sofia government cannot take advantage of the situation and elevate bilateral relations to another level. Threats come from Sofia periodically, which do not achieve significant results, except that they are used by anti-Bulgarian circles in Skopje.
How will Sofía act?
Following Karakachanov’s threat that Bulgaria would block North Macedonia’s first intergovernmental conference with the EU if no agreement is reached in talks within the Joint Committee of Experts on Historical Affairs, Macedonian media reported that Sofia did. he would carry out his threat.
Skopje expects the conference to take place by the end of the year. A few days ago, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that he hoped that controversial issues would be resolved and such a scenario would not be reached.
His Bulgarian counterpart has yet to officially confirm the threat from Karakachanov.
The dispute over Gotse Delchev
The Macedonian co-chair of the Joint Commission with Bulgaria, Professor Dragi Georgiev, said in an interview with Sitel TV that the commission’s job is not to clarify the identity of Gotse Delchev, but to reach an agreement so that both parties respect him. .
The professor hopes that the commission, whose work was suspended at the end of last year, will soon resume its work.
“There is archival documentation about Gotse Delchev. There are documents in which he declares himself Bulgarian. But there are also documents in which Gotse Delchev speaks about the Macedonians, about the state of Macedonia. This dispute will be resolved only if the final and firm positions should to be abandoned. We must honor it together and take into account both points of view. ” said Professor Georgiev, quoted by BGNES.
According to Prof. Georgiev, the work of the Commission was interrupted by the tension that arose after the statements of the Bulgarian Parliament and BAS, which deny the Macedonian language. Georgiev noted that the Macedonian language issue is a “closed page” and should not be discussed by the Commission.
Two days ago, the vice president of the Joint Commission for Historical Affairs with North Macedonia, Assistant Professor Naum Kaichev, pointed out the wording acceptable to Bulgaria: “Gotse Delchev is Macedonian in the regional sense and Bulgarian in the national sense.”
The Commission
The Commission was created under the 2017 Neighborhood Agreement, but its work has stalled and has so far not served its purpose.
Representatives of North Macedonia on the commission have also begun to challenge the earlier compromise reached with Tsar Samuel as the Bulgarian ruler.
At the moment, the commission cannot reach an agreement on the historical figure of Gotse Delchev.
The period of the Second World War is yet to come, which is shaping up to be the most controversial.
Regarding the period after 1941 and whether Macedonia existed, Dragi Georgiev said that a lot had been written about these periods in the historiographies of the two countries and that this topic was not on the agenda.
Bulgaria says it will not be a brake on Macedonia’s path to the European Union, but a few weeks ago the government reaffirmed its willingness to react during the negotiation process if controversial historical issues are not clarified and hate speech against Sofia continues.
Thus, for more than three years after signing the contract, Bulgaria has not fulfilled it content.
The Bulgarian government has not taken advantage of the situation in North Macedonia to achieve the desired result in the progress of bilateral relations.
Instead, government officials periodically fueled senseless media wars in Skopje, which have been used successfully by opponents of rapprochement and dispute resolution between the two countries.
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