Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva accused Macedonia of mistreating its citizens who identify as Bulgarians. Her comment was likely meant to be a response in the controversy over Vasil Garvanliev, who was named to represent Macedonia at the Eurovision song contest. The little known singer and dancer did not click with the public and is now facing calls to be removed after he said that he has a dual citizenship of Macedonia and Bulgaria and had an image of the Bulgarian flag in the official video.
Bulgarian nationalist Defense Minister Krasimir Karakacanov announced that if Macedonia removes Garvanliev from the competition, he will be tapped to represent Bulgaria next year.
In an interview with The European, Zaharieva also accused Macedonia of falsifying Bulgarian songs and novels and rewriting or presenting them as Macedonian.
I hope that the Republic of (North) Macedonia will open the EU accession talks soon. But for this to happen we must over come the bilateral issues. The colleagues in Skopje must show that they have long term dedication to their European future and accept European values, like Bulgaria did 14 years ago, Zaharieva said.
Meanwhile, a memorandum Bulgaria prepared last year for use in the European Union was leaked today. It shows the extent of Bulgarian demands from Macedonia which amount to acknowledgement that the Macedonian nation and language are actually Bulgarian.
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