Tribune Excerpts
The following article appeared in the November 2006 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
New tensions arise between Sofi a and Skopie over identity and history
by Nikoleta Popkostadinova, Transitions on Line (TOL)
Sofia, Aug. 15 -- Nikola has little patience for what appears to be a diplomatic conflict between Bulgaria and Macedonia. “One history, one land, but too many dullards on both sides of the stupid border,” he says as he contemplates the latest escalation in tension.
The 72-year-old man is quiet for a while as he stares at the green crowns of the trees below his balcony in downtown Sofia.
The pensioner was born in a village in Pirin, Macedonia, in the province of Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria, where he has lived most of his life. But Nikola says he is a Bitolan since his ancestors came from the town that today lies in the independent state of Macedonia. He admits that he has never visited Bitola, which lies about 200 kilometers from the border between the two countries. But he claims to be a Macedonian, as well as a patriotic Bulgarian citizen.
To Nikola, Macedonia is simply an unfortunate land split among four countries.
“No one will ever let her go, right?” Nikola asks, not really seeking an answer. “The great powers, the Balkan countries, the EU, and who knows what other acronyms will always mess with her, I know.”
A diplomatic tussle
The latest tensions arose when Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin said on July 25 that Bulgaria supported the Macedonian bid to enter the EU “but not unconditionally,” insisting that the southwestern neighbor refrain from what he termed the “aggressiveness” of Macedonia’s authorities toward the Bulgarian nation and history.
Macedonian officials took the statement as blackmail, and the Macedonian ambassador to Bulgaria, Abdurahman Aliti, asked for a meeting with the Foreign Ministry, which he subsequently canceled because he was unhappy that he wouldn’t meet, in his opinion, senior-enough officials.
A few days later Kalfin said that the deputy director of the Macedonian Cultural Center in Sofia, Stefan Vlahov Micov, was a member of the OMO Ilinden party, which is “intolerable for a member of a diplomatic delegation.” (OMO Ilinden represents the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.) Another note from the Macedonian Foreign Ministry followed, rejecting Kalfin’s statement.
So far, the Bulgarian officials have not sufficiently explained what prompted their demand that Skopie refrain from aggression or why Sofia went public with it. For a while, it seemed that the two governments communicated mainly through their media, exchanging claims, reproaches, and ultimatums.
The Macedonian weekly Forum accused Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov and Krasimir Karakachanov, leader of a moderately nationalist Bulgarian party, of having for years questioned everything connected to the idea of a Macedonian nation.
Meanwhile, the Sofia press wrote on the thousands of Macedonians who have applied for Bulgarian citizenship, attributing it to the Macedonians’ desire to return to their Bulgarian roots or to their self-interest since Bulgaria is expected to enter the EU in 2007. Among the Macedonians who have applied for Bulgarian citizenship are former Macedonian Prime Minister Lubco Georgievski and his wife, whose application was approved on Feb. 23.
Some Macedonian media outlets see the citizenship issue as a plot to allow Bulgaria eventually to claim parts of Macedonia by pointing to large numbers of Bulgarian nationals living there.
President Parvanov, a professional historian, took part in a Saturday morning show on Bulgarian national TV on July 29, in which he announced the relaxation of the procedure of acquiring Bulgarian citizenship. He connected the wish of so many Macedonians to become Bulgarian citizens with their impulse to be faithful to history and to their grandparents of Bulgarian origin.
In response, Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski declared that Macedonians respected Bulgarian history and had no claims on it but that at the same time they respected even more what belonged to them.
To Bulgaria’s public opinion, it appears reasonable that Bulgaria is simply reacting to the ill will coming from Macedonia, ill will arising from Skopie’s concerns about its ethnic Albanians, a pro-Serbian mood in the country, and the influence of domestic Bulgarophiles.
