BULGARIAN POLICIES ON THEREPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA Today, 9 years after signing of the JOINT DECLARATION, 17 years after elections in the Republic of Macedonia, and 62 years after the Bulgarian Communist Party forced patriotic Bulgarians to declare themselves "ethnic" Macedonians, Bulgaria has issued an official policy document on Macedonia.
The English section is presented here as a HTML documentThe document is even more remarkable when viewed in the context of Bozhidar Dimitrov's 2002 article, which not only completely predicted this very same 2008 document, but also correctly judged the national irresponsibility of Bulgarian bureaucrats on the "Macedonia" issue. It was obvious to all that after the departure of Georgievski's government the intent of the "Joint Declaration" was finished. Although Ivanov et al are correct to claim that RM had reneged on its prior commitment, did it really require SIX years to acknowledge something known almost immediately? As expected the "policy" was received by the standard rabid response from the Skopie 'nomenklutura', but so hysterical that even an EU minister felt compelled to comment. Reading the "policy" we are immediately cognisant of the convoluted, and basically flawed rational of concepts relating to nationalism, ethnicity and regionalism as applied to Bulgarians, Bulgarian Macedonians, Macedonists and Macedonianists. The so-called "action plan", although impressive regarding the depth of possible initiatives, still leaves a distinct impression that all this remains a "hypothetical" strategy, rather than an unequivocal patriotic commitment to Bulgarian Macedonians. Naturally our negativism stems directly from the fact that Lyubomir Ivanov et al's "policy" completely disregards the complicity of Bulgarian actions in the 1940s, 1950s, and still evident today, in the greatest ever betrayal of Bulgarian Macedonians. Remind me, was it not BULGARIA that delivered the remains of Gotse Delchev, and the MSI archives to the Serbo-Titoists in Skopie? Viewed in light of Dimitrov's prediction, can this "policy" document be seen as no more than "tokenism" or political expediency? Ivanov et al should have first addressed the fundamental need for national reconciliation that screams for an unconditional apology to the Bulgarian Macedonians for their past treatment by the Bulgarian state! Then Ivanov et al should have provided Bulgarian Macedonians an unequivocal assurance that the national nihilism, conducted by serbophile and communist aligned Bulgarian elements, that pervade sections of officialdom is meticulously eradicated. Do we have to remind Ivanov et al how Bulgarian Prime Minister Alexander Stambolisky travelled to Belgrade in 1923 and stated
.. he would pile up all the Macedonians on freight cars and dispatch them to Belgrade for the Serbs to do with them as they pleased.All in the name of "good neighbourly relations". This cancer of national betrayal which infected the Bulgarian national psyche and still persists in various parasitic manifestations requires urgent excision.
To Ivanov et al we simply say, prove us wrong through your actions not dialogue.
HOME |