The Bulgarian request that Macedonia must designate legendary VMRO leader Goce Delcev as a Bulgarian, not a Macedonian, sparked outrage yesterday. Bulgarian politicians are using the 2017 Zaev – Borisov treaty to demand that Macedonian historians rewrite history books to acknowledge the Bulgarian roots of a number of historic figures, and by extension, to say that ethnic Macedonians are in fact Bulgarians.
Each side has its own truth. The Bulgarian truth can’t be considered the absolute truth. We all have our own truths and we base our history on them. Once politics enter the realm of history, then nothing will come easy. They you have politics driven history. Leave history to the historians. This is a rape of history, said professor Todor Cepreganov in an interview with PressingTV.
Bulgaria says it will block Macedonia from joining NATO or opening EU accession talks unless significantly more progress is made in the negotiations over Goce Delcev. Bulgarian Ministers Ekaterina Zaharieva and Krasimir Karakacanov reacted particularly badly to the Macedonian proposal to jointly celebrate the date in 1946 when Delcev’s body was brought from Sofia to Skopje, so he can rest in the Macedonian capital. Zaharieva declared the move a betrayal of national interests by the then Communist Government of Bulgaria, providing her a useful talking point against the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party as the issue of relations with Macedonia is raised.
The Zaev Government was praised by its international supporters when he signed the treaty with Borisov, and the move was declared an end to a historic dispute, but critics of the deal warned that it will simply raise more issues that it resolves and will give Bulgaria the incentive to block Macedonian integration as a tool to be used in its own domestic political disputes.
What did you expect would happen?, asked activist and former political prisoner Bogdan Ilievski. “All of you who are now disturbed and surprised that the Bulgaria CONDITIONS that talks will end if we don’t accept that Goce Delcev is a Bulgarian – WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? Did you think that after the name change our neighbors will say, look at how pitiful they are, let them keep Goce? Bulgaria is an EU member state, is negotiating for what it called the most romantic period of its history, and you thought it will back down? As a country which is erasing itself, in the name of your promised “glorious future”, we are now the easiest pray for the neighborhood vultures, Ilievski writes.
Other commentators on the social media are preparing a list of other historic figures Macedonia should give Bulgaria next. “Imagine they ask for Kiro Gligorov, or Branko Crvenkovski, or Ljubco Georgievski. Ok, the last one volunteered”, writes actor Rubens Muratovski, naming the post-independence leaders, including Georgievski who took a Bulgarian citizenship after he was ousted in 2002 and as his associates were being arrested. Muratovski also morphed one of Delcev’s most famous statements – “I now understand the world as a field for haggling over my identity and person”, Muratovski wrote. The original statement is “I understand the world as a field for cultural competition between the peoples”.
And TV host Dimitar Atanasovski asked, tongue in cheek, that Macedonia returns the bones of Delcev to Bulgaria, “since he is turning in the grave anyway”.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov was in Sofia as Zaharieva and Karakacanov issued their requests. He pleaded with the hosts that the two countries should not present ultimatums during these talks, but Karakacanov reminded him of the treaty he himself signed, which contains mechanisms and acknowledges that Bulgaria has the right to block Macedonian EU and NATO accession unless it is satisfied with the “progress” that is made.
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