The Institute of Macedonian Literature reacted strongly in a statement on the position of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) that the Macedonian language “does not exist”, that it is a “literary-regional norm of the Bulgarian language”.

Such a statement denies the existence of the Macedonian language, literature, history and culture and thus denies the Macedonian national identity. Hundreds of thousands of monographs, studies, positions and arguments in Macedonian and other world languages ​​by renowned domestic and foreign Slavists, philologists, historians, sociologists, ethnologists, political scientists, cultural experts have been published to prove the Macedonian language, literature, history and culture and the historical continuity of the Macedonian nation that exists with the Macedonian language, reads the reaction of the Institute of Macedonian Literature.

The Institute points out that BAS as the highest scientific institution in the Republic of Bulgaria instead of affirming the established scientific and cultural interactions between the Macedonian and Bulgarian people for building friendship and mutual understanding and respect through science, it indirectly activates political involvement in direct denial of the Macedonian people and language, which is a violation of the international law on self-identification.