Anyone who wants and considers himself a Bulgarian can get Bulgarian citizenship, there is no problem with that, but he should not abuse it against Bulgaria when he declared himself a Bulgarian, Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev told the Tribuna.mk news portal.

We want transparency on this issue. You may know that according to the procedure for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship by origin, it includes a Declaration in which the candidate declares that he has Bulgarian self-awareness, Bulgarian identity, and according to that Declaration he is criminally liable under Article 313 of the Penal Code of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Here, of course, is the declaration that his parents, ancestors were Bulgarians. They were part of the Bulgarian community in Bulgarian villages and towns in Aegean and Vardar Macedonia. Each candidate who obtained Bulgarian citizenship proved his Bulgarian origin by mother, father or both. He himself declared in a special Declaration that he himself felt like a Bulgarian. Here we are talking about more than 120,000 Macedonian citizens, who have dual citizenship from which they obtained Bulgarian by origin. It is very uncomfortable for us when such people who declared that they are Bulgarians and proved to the Bulgarian state that they are Bulgarians, then work against Bulgaria and do not work for good neighborliness. I have said before that there should be transparency, especially for those who abuse, because they have declared that they have Bulgarian origin and Bulgarian identity. If they committed serious offenses, of course, there should be revocation of Bulgarian citizenship, says Kovatchev.