Bulgarian professor and historian Aleksandar Grebenarov has criticized the approach of the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, towards the Bulgarian community in the RMV, as well as the stagnation he is experiencing in the process of including Bulgarians in the Constitution of North Macedonia.
“We are seeing negative attacks against Bulgaria, against Bulgarian foreign policy from Mickoski. The same person said a few months ago that he wants the EU to make Bulgarians part of the constitution of North Macedonia, after the country joins the EU, he finds excuses, but he should know that the EU is not a Scientific Academy that deals with scientific issues as are being mentioned in this case. He is using threatening rhetoric towards Bulgaria, but this could also be because there are elections and on the eve of these elections he wants to keep his party’s electorate united,” Grebenarov told LajmTv.
He explained that the RMV must respect the French Proposal, because as such a package, it has been approved by North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
“North Macedonia is obliged to respect the French Proposal, that document was accepted as such, it was signed by the former foreign ministers at the time, Ms. Genčovska and Mr. Osmani. I don’t want to go into historical details, but Macedonia in the Middle Ages was called “Lower Bulgaria” and the enlighteners known to history spoke and wrote in Bulgarian, because there was neither Macedonia nor Macedonians at that time. Until the First World War, the terms “Macedonia” or “Macedonians” are absent from history,” Grebenarov explained.
The Bulgarian historian added that there are 250 citizens with Bulgarian passports in North Macedonia.
“Today it is happening that for a period of 10 years in the RMV, 216 thousand Macedonian citizens have received Bulgarian passports, where they have admitted that they have Bulgarian consciousness. I think there are 250 thousand Macedonian citizens with Bulgarian passports. If this trend continues, then Macedonians will fight for their place in the constitution “in the sea” filled with Albanians and Bulgarians,” said Grebenarov.