The statement from President Stevo Pendarovski that Bulgaria has full right as Macedonia to celebrate Goce Delcev is a major problem for Macedonia, writes journalist Predrag Dimitrovski. In his comments on the 150th anniversary of Delcev’s birth, that was celebrated yesterday, Pendarovski said that “Regardless of whether there is a formal decision by the Historic Commission for the joint honoring of Goce Delcev, I see no problem in that. I have no problem in some of our neighbors expressing their respect to one of the foundational stones of our statehood”.

There is a problem, President Pendarovski, and a serious one, but you don’t want to see it. The Bulgarian side honors Goce Delcev as a Bulgarian, and not as one of the foundational stones of Macedonian statehood. This means that Bulgarian revolutionaries fought for Macedonian statehood. And what kind of statehood could it be? Independent and sovereign, with Macedonians in it, or inhabited with Bulgarians and waiting to eventually join with Bulgaria?, Dimitrievski writes.