Poet and literary critic, academic Katica Kulavkova, is at the center of controversy after she was awarded the Goce Delcev prize. The Zaev regime did not award the prize since 2018, as it was engaged in negotiations with Greece and Bulgaria about rewriting Macedonian history. Bulgaria claims Goce Delcev as a Bulgarian hero and Zaev is toning down celebrations honoring him as a Macedonian hero.

Finally, for this year, it was announced that Kulavkova will be the recipient of the renewed prize for achievements in the area of science, which was first given in 1949 to linguist Blaze Koneski. But awarding committee announced that the usual ceremony held in the Parliament will not take place, citing the coronavirus as reason. the ceremony was supposed to take place on May 4th, the 118th anniversary of Delcev’s death, in a battle with Ottoman forces in the village of Banica.

This prompted a reaction from the President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts Ljupco Kocarev, who publicly asked whether the risk of the virus is the real reason why Kulavkova will not be honored at a proper ceremony. Kulavkova was initially a supporter of Zoran Zaev’s 2015 Colored Revolution. But once Zaev was in power and began to parcel out portions of Macedonian identity and history to neighboring countries, she became a loud critic of his policies. She did not back down even now, as she is in the center of controversy – in comments for Nova Makedonija she raised the issue of why Zaev even accepts negotiating about Goce Delcev’s legacy with Bulgaria.

The more Delcev’s Macedonian identity and spirituality are denied, the stronger his place at the pedestal of our national symbols becomes. Giving up its history, Macedonia risks giving up on itself. We are approaching an irreparable schism. Our undermined identity undermines our nation, at first formally, and later in reality. It is not the reality we want for ourselves, is it?, Kulavkova asked.