Taki Fiti, economics professor who was head of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in an interview insisted that the period under Bulgarian rule during the Second World War amounted to an occupation and not mere administration, as Prime Minister Zoran Zaev insists. The issue is one of the historic disputes that are developing as Bulgaria uses the 2017 Zaev – Borisov treaty to demand that Macedonia rewrites its history.

Bulgarians were occupiers. Their very act of entering into Macedonia is occupation. It is a historic truth that Bulgaria was on the wrong side of the war, joining with Hitler. Bulgarians should not feel frustrated about this, nobody claims that Bulgaria is a fascist country, Fiti said.

The treaty Zaev signed calls for Government action against officials, institutions and even public citizens who spread unfriendly comments between the two countries. Several commentators close to Zaev already unilaterally scrubbed posts similar to the one now stated by Fiti.