The Ss. Cyril and Methodius University (UKIM) issued a statement condemning the negotiations with Bulgaria and the expected concessions of the Zaev regime. Macedonia’s largest university states that it supports the efforts to join the European Union, but demands respect for the Macedonian nation, it’s identity and language. In this regard, UKIM said that it stands by the recent statement from the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The University calls on the Government and all participants in the EU integration process to respect the achievements of the Macedonian scientists, in the humanities, societal and cultural studies, as well as the works of international scholars of Slavistics, according to whom the Macedonian language and its dialects have their own spatial and temporal continuity. That the Macedonian language is a separate language, part of the South-Slavic languages, studied in universities across the world. The Macedonian identity is built on the collective memories and the awareness of the tradition, entho-cultural, political and linguistic distinctness of the Macedonian people. The nation building process of the Macedonian people and nation is no different from the processes in other Balkan nations. The founding of a people can’t be a consequence of an administrative act, the University states in a statement clearly aimed to counter the positions of the Bulgarian Government, which wants Macedonia to declare that its nation and language are derived from the Bulgarian.

In the statement, the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University states that the “creation of the Macedonian state is a common achievement of the Macedonian people and all other ethnic communities and this historic struggle culminated with the anti-fascist war, meaning that Macedonian statehood is based on anti-fascist principles. Therefore, devaluing the ideals and the victims for a separate Macedonian state means undermining the foundations of the state”.