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© Press Center of the Chancellery
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ekaterina Zaharieva, with the special envoy of North Macedonia for Bulgaria, Vlado Buckovski.
Bulgaria has accused North Macedonia of politicizing the work of the joint historical and educational commission, creating obstacles for Bulgarian business, unofficially pushing for the recognition of the Macedonian minority and not doing enough to build Corridor №8.
This was part of the words of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ekaterina Zaharieva, in a press conference after her meeting with the Special Envoy of North Macedonia for Bulgaria, Vlado Buckovski. These accusations have been made before, but with more attention to history, less to economic cooperation, and rarely to the fact that support for recognition of the Macedonian minority is unofficial.
Skopje categorically denies any state support for the recognition of a minority, but the Sofia authorities see a sign to the contrary in a European Parliament resolution in October, which speaks of a series of cases against Bulgaria in the European Court of Human Rights for refusing. to register associations. who defend this cause. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov also weighed in on the resolution.
“We recognize that trust has been violated”
At the event, from which Buchkovski left before Zaharieva, without being asked questions, the guest described the talks as “constructive” and emphasized the possibility of resolving the conflict with tools such as a “roadmap” to the contract to ensure their implementation. “We recognize that trust has been broken,” Buckovski said, but welcomed the fact that Bulgaria viewed his appointment as an attempt to overcome trust. “We cannot change the common history”, but we can work on infrastructure, common projects, better cooperation in education and science for “the rapprochement of the two peoples.”
Zaharieva called for an end to attempts to “explain what cannot be done” and “do what remains together”. Sofia spoke about the hostility of Skopje and the breach of the Neighborhood Agreement, and the first diplomat insisted today that no problems could arise for a member state of the union, which North Macedonia wants to join.
He also spoke about the politicization of the work of the joint historical commission, whose next meeting may be called in an extraordinary way. The information came after a dispute arose between the two countries last week over the use of the word “Macedonian”; according to the Bulgarian language, this also occurs in the names of the institutions (inadmissible both according to the rules of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Skopje and according to the Prespa agreement with Greece), and according to Macedonian, the two countries do not understand the use of the adjective “Macedonian” when it comes to history and culture (and this is not prohibited).
The tension remains
Buckovski will visit Bulgaria today and tomorrow, a week after becoming a special envoy from North Macedonia to Bulgaria for a period of one year. He said yesterday that he was coming as a friend of Bulgaria in an attempt to find a compromise between the two countries days after Bulgaria effectively blocked the start of its southwestern neighbor’s negotiations with the European Union. Due to disapproval of the proposed negotiating framework, the issue was removed from the agenda of the General Affairs Council, which took place yesterday. Zaharieva denied that it was a “veto”, as the issue was not discussed at all yesterday.
“There is nothing different than what happened yesterday” as Bulgaria has not changed its terms since the last council months ago and does not accept the negotiating framework as it does not include a roadmap for the treaty, a waiver of claims minority and use. in “Macedonian language” at the time of accession, Zaharieva explained.
Read more about the requests made before the previous formal veto of the General Affairs Council on November 17 here.
What Sofia wants from identity
In the last 24 hours, Sofia and Skopje have exchanged strong attacks: the Macedonian government called Bulgaria’s decision an “irresponsible geostrategic mistake” and heard accusations of “manipulation” from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry this morning, as it said that no identity claims were made in North Macedonia. Soon after, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev repeated the definition of “irresponsible mistake”, but he did not use it directly for Bulgaria, but for the failure of the EU to start negotiations.
The question whether Bulgaria expects an “identity change” from North Macedonia with the desire not to use the term “Macedonian language” in the negotiation framework and to recognize the Bulgarian root of the language and the nation remains unresolved between Sofia and Skopje. For the Bulgarian side, this is false news, but for the similar revision of Macedonian history, as well as the rejection of the term “Macedonian language” are concessions that strike the essence of the Macedonians.
When asked by Dnevnik how this difference of interpretation could be overcome and if the issue had been discussed with Buckovski, as North Macedonia and Bulgaria understand “identity” differently, Zaharieva said: “The implementation of the agreement can overcome the claim. that Bulgaria disputes its identity is absolutely false. States do not recognize languages and peoples, they recognize States. Our problem is that they build their identity completely on an anti-Bulgarian basis. I tried to explain our position in one sentence, unfortunately they win the elections only with anti-Bulgarian rhetoric. ”
According to her, while generation after generation builds its identity on the basis of the current attitude towards the Bulgarian state, there can be no change. He welcomed the fact that Buckovski was using the term “common history” again, from which it deviated somewhat, but called for the work of the historical commission not to be politicized and for the right to self-determination of all citizens to be respected. , including those with Bulgarian identity. “We cannot wait for a management to react” to groups on the Internet where personal data of these people have been published, he said.
