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Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Krassimir Karakachanov said Bulgaria was under diplomatic pressure to unconditionally support North Macedonia in joining the EU.
“Some Macedonians believe that the Germans and other European countries will pressure us and we will unconditionally agree to support them. They push us, a fact. But I’m sorry, Bulgaria has its dignity and its politics. It is a sovereign state. And no one can tell us that we have to turn our backs on 1000 years of our history. “Karakachanov said on the “Drive straight” program on “Nova TV”, which will air on Saturday night, but a short excerpt was broadcast in advance in the morning.
He noted that we are under diplomatic pressure:
“First of all, the country that currently holds the presidency of the European Union. German diplomacy is very active at the moment in this direction with the argument: then you can stop them again. “
According to him, however, there must be principles and he gives an example that the Greeks, who were much more intolerant, set conditions for 18 years.
“They established conditions to change their flag, they changed it. The name was later changed. They established conditions to renounce all ancient history; here they were right, they gave up. We made a cultural agreement between two sister states. Tolerant. We have given the opportunity for everything to happen in perspective, but we see that for more than three years Skopje has no desire. “, he said.
“If my memory serves, it was not Bulgaria that declared war on Yugoslavia in 1941, but Germany defeated Yugoslavia. Have you seen a plaque somewhere in Skopje that says about the German occupiers? maybe they worry that it is “It is a bit indecent to talk to Mrs Merkel about the German occupiers. However, they believe that it is possible and normal to write about the Bulgarian occupiers. “Karakachanov commented.
“I am the Minister of Defense, not the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but I know a rule of diplomacy: when negotiations are conducted, not much is said. For this reason, my colleague Ekaterina Zaharieva does not speak on the subject. The fact is that Skopje wants Bulgaria to agree to schedule the first intergovernmental conference to start negotiations on North Macedonia’s membership in the European Union. The fact is that Bulgaria has its reservations because it has its framework position as of 2019. It has a contract between Bulgaria and North Macedonia since August 2017. More than three years. A treaty that Skopje does not comply with. Not only does it not comply, it believes it has no obligation to comply. “, he said.
The Bulgarian-Macedonian commission did not agree with Gotse Delchev
Earlier, Macedonian media reported that the Bulgarian-Macedonian Commission for Historical Affairs had not agreed on Gotse Delchev.
After the talks in Skopje a day ago, Macedonian co-chair Dragi Georgiev said that Gotse Delchev’s identity remained a major issue in making progress, and Bulgarian co-chair Angel Dimitrov said we had not defined the identity. by Gotse Delchev and Gotse Delchev himself.
“Gotse Delchev’s wishes are not always fulfilled as planned. We have made significant progress for textbooks, we have made a recommendation that Bulgarian colleagues should consider further. We talk about Gotse Delchev, there are many new proposals, ideas and they will continue. It will be a topic of discussion at the next meeting. This text is on the table, it is a working version and it will be under discussion, I would not like to talk about it. “Said Georgiev after the Tenth Meeting of the Bilateral Multidisciplinary Commission on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, quoted by BTA.
The Bulgarian authorities have made a specific request for progress on the historical figure of Gotse Delchev, but so far they have not been successful. This was the commission’s first meeting in almost a year.
Lyubcho Georgievski on explanatory mission in Sofia
On Saturday, it became clear that former North Macedonia Prime Minister Lyubcho Georgievski will arrive in Sofia on an explanatory mission in the coming days. He announced the news on Alsat-M TV from Skopje.
His visit comes after talks with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to clarify Skopje’s position on bilateral issues.
According to the founder of VMRO-DPMNE, Skopje has done very little for rapprochement with Bulgaria over the past 30 years, and Macedonian diplomacy fell asleep last year when the Bulgarian parliament adopted the Framework Position on North Macedonia’s European integration. .
Sofia has threatened Skopje that it could block the first intergovernmental conference between North Macedonia and the European Union, scheduled for December if no progress is made on historical issues. Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is also expected to visit Sofia in the coming weeks and discuss the issue with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov.
The Bulgarian position does not enjoy support at the European level, but Skopje already allows a stage for our country to stop it on its way to the EU. Until recently, Macedonian rulers publicly commented that Sofia had always helped North Macedonia and did not expect any problems now.
Austrian historian: Bulgarians make an elephant out of a fly
“In recent years, the Republic of North Macedonia has had to make a very painful commitment to its name so that Greece can make its way to NATO and the European Union. And now these demands from Bulgaria are appearing, which are really very strange. What it wants “The Bulgarian government is very vague and strange, and in fact it has nothing to do with the EU accession negotiations. No point in this memorandum is a criterion for EU membership. “Austrian professor Wolf Brunbauer of the University of Regensburg, one of the few historians in Europe who monitors the work of the bilateral commission, told BNR on Saturday. So who explains why Skopje reacted nervously to Bulgaria’s explanatory memorandum to the European Union, which in practice contains the framework position for the enlargement of the Union, adopted by the government last year and confirmed by all political forces in the National Assembly?
According to him, Bulgaria is trying to invent a dispute and turn the “fly into an elephant”. “Essentially, there is nothing that can be called moot between the two countries. In this case, it is about different perceptions and interpretations of the story. But this is not the work of governments, but of historians. Communist historiography of the years when it was thought that the state, the government, could tell how to write history, both in Bulgaria and in the Republic of North Macedonia, and in other parts of the world, historians should have the freedom to write history like this, Otherwise the EU really does not want to introduce bilateral conflicts, mostly due to bad experience, let me mention the conflict between Slovenia and Croatia over the maritime border, or the even bigger and still unresolved conflict of divisions . Cyprus “he says.
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