Goce Delcev declared himself a Bulgarian and at the same time fought for an independent Macedonian state, President Stevo Pendarovski said in an interview with “360 Degrees” in 2019.

Pendarovski added that these are two indisputable historical facts and offered this as a compromise approach to the character and work of the revolutionary, whose definition brought tensions between Sofia and Skopje in the past period and strained relations between the two countries.

And here I may be go beyond my mandate, because in the past few weeks I had intense communication with people who are well versed in the matter, because I am sure that it is gradually becoming a political problem. I claim that this is yet to become a political problem if the approach from the Bulgarian side continues to be like this. So, it is an indisputable historical truth, for all those who have little knowledge from that historical period, that Goce Delcev declared himself a Bulgarian. But, is not it a historical truth, one hundred percent, that Goce Delcev fought for a Macedonian state? Autonomy, an independent state, and even in the end he left a will for his bones to rest in independent Macedonia, Pendarovski said in an interview back then.

And here, the bill for this view of President Pendarovski three years later came to be charged. And from the Bulgarian side.

The Bulgarian experts, who announced their address to the members of the European Parliament next week, state exactly this in their declaration:

In 1903 a mass uprising broke out, which affected all Bulgarians in the territory of the empire. Its leaders are the leaders of a large illegal organization, among which is the leader Goce Delcev – today a national hero in both Bulgaria and Macedonia. He clearly defines himself as an ethnic Bulgarian, which is recognized by many politicians in Macedonia today. In 2019 the President of the country Mr. Stevo Pendarovski in one of his interviews was categorical: “It is an indisputable historical truth that he (Goce Delcev) declared himself as a Bulgarian”!

Pendarovski withdrew from this position a little later and Goce Delcev became our Macedonian red line for him, but the Bulgarian experts do not mention that now.