Tough confrontation at the level of rhetoric and forcing tensions in relations Bulgaria And North Macedonia sparked Saturday celebrations in Skopje, hailed by both sides as a national hero, a 19th-century revolutionary. Gotse Delchev.
In addition to official statements and statements at the highest level, the mood in the “field” also escalated, with the arrests of Bulgarian pilgrims and vandalism in clubs adjacent to North Macedonia, on the territory of Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry in a statement accused the North Macedonian authorities of using violence and arrests at the border to prevent Bulgarian pilgrims, including three MEPs, from traveling to Skopje for the pilgrimage.
He even described the attitude of the North Macedonian authorities as “humiliating and unacceptable for the Bulgarian people and the Republic of Bulgaria” and stated that they “caused serious damage to the confidence-building process”.
As a result of the escalation of rhetoric and in retaliation for the beating of the president of the pro-Bulgarian union in Akhrid a few weeks ago in Blagoevgrad, in southern Bulgaria, unidentified persons destroyed the offices of the newly formed cultural association on Saturday. “Nikola Ventsarov”, the hero of the Slavic-Macedonians, caused a strong reaction in Skopje. President Stevo Pendarovski said that “vandalism and crimes of this kind are not in line with European values and therefore must be condemned and, of course, the perpetrators must be duly punished,” while Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski made similar statements.
However, accusations and threats from both sides over the contentious celebration extended to a more general dispute between Sofia and Skopje about ethnic relations between them, with the Bulgarian side not recognizing the “Macedonian identity” of the Slavic element. . For this reason, and with a claim for constitutional recognition of the Bulgarian minority, he blocked the start of negotiations for the accession of North Macedonia. In Skopje, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement on the events, accuses Sofia of “tolerating and supporting territorial claims against the Republic of North Macedonia.”
As temperatures rise, Europeans and Americans are exerting diplomatic pressure behind the scenes in an attempt to alleviate the situation.
Source: Kathimerini
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