Why macedonians are bulgarians

The Bulgarian-Macedonian commission only just started functioning a year ago, and this year it had to suspend its activities due to the COVID pandemic. It is also important to point out that the binational commission departs from the premise that the nation-state of North Macedonia was born within socialist Yugoslavia. Of course, there are domestic political reasons for the veto; the current Bulgarian government, a coalition of centrist and far-right powers, faced large protests calling for its resignation over the summer and is now struggling to deal with the COVID pandemic.

But there also seems to be persistent Bulgarian frustration with North Macedonia. An uncritical and exclusive equation of the Macedonian identity with antifascism and partisan heroism has been so normalised that those pointing out that not all Macedonians were antifascist and not all Bulgarians were fascist during the war, let alone nowadays, is perceived as an unspeakable heresy. If the Bulgarian and Macedonian societies wish to combat their respective nationalisms and move forward and away from their ossified notions of national historiography, the Bulgarian veto must fall.

It is the official position of the Bulgarian state since the s and, as a result, the historical misunderstandings between the two neighbors often boiled over in the political arena.

As a member of the European Union, Bulgaria sees an advantage and aims to use it. Ulf Brunnbauer, chair of history of Southeast and Eastern Europe at the University of Regensburg, said the memorandum is Bulgaria's way of "pressing its own nationalistic view on the history and culture of another country and its people.

The memorandum caused consternation in North Macedonia and condemnation in parts of the Bulgarian academia as well. Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov said, "Language is not subject to recognition or nonrecognition because in the 21st century, especially in Europe, the right to self-determination and self-expression cannot be denied. Bulgarian sociologist Ivaylo Ditchev wrote for DW that the primary "accusation" made in the Bulgarian memo is the fact that "North Macedonia exists at all.

Macedonian history considers this period "Bulgarian fascist occupation. In a declaration adopted by the parliament last year, Sofia told Skopje to stop using the term "fascist occupation" in reference to Bulgaria in its history books and to remove all such mention on the World War II monuments in the country.

Disagreements like this were supposed to be solved by a commission formed after the signing of a bilateral friendship agreement in A group of historians and education experts from both countries started working on the long list of divisive issues but stopped last year.

The official reason was because of the elections in North Macedonia and later the coronavirus pandemic, unofficially, there were insurmountable disagreements. Skopje has repeated that it cannot compromise over sensitive issues such as national identity.

The second took place immediately after 9am, on the initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and with the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron. After the meetings with Zaev, Radev maintained a stern tone towards Skopje but also said that both countries are working on a bilateral protocol with six areas of cooperation, which could see Sofia lifting its veto in early November.

The cooperation protocol must be finalised in early November before the next parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, Radev said, when theorietically it can be greenlighted by the current caretaker government. But for that to happen, Radev presented three key conditions, which Skopje has to guarantee it will do as Sofia demands.

For Pendarovski, Russia was more of an export market and an energy supplier than a threat, however. It was also his "firm belief" that "conflicts in the Balkans are over, there's no enthusiasm for that". But if people in North Macedonia were to ever have a decent standard of living and if their children were to stop going abroad for jobs, France and Germany had to keep pushing for reform, he added. And if the whole Western Balkans was to have a "bright future", then the EU would also have to join forces with the US to solve its worst problems, he said.

Germany and EU institutions have voiced dismay over Bulgaria's ongoing veto on North Macedonia accession talks. Starting EU accession talks with Skopje was meant to be a technicality, but it is turning into a new fiasco on EU enlargement, dragging in Hitler, Stalin, and Tito. It is high time Europe makes cultural and historical dialogue part of its enlargement process in the Balkans, following the debacle on Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

EU national politics and leaders' personal ambitions have become its real enlargement criteria, in sad times for the European dream. Today 15 December I come to Brussels with a simple purpose: to present the credentials of my country, Montenegro, to become the next member state of the European Union, writes prime minister Zdravko Krivokapic.

Its language and history give North Macedonia its identity for president Stevo Pendarovski, but, for Bulgaria, neither of them are real, in a dispute holding up EU enlargement. Interview Does North Macedonia really exist? North Macedonia's president Stevo Pendarovski: "The mainstay of our identity is our language, after that, history".