Svetoslav TodorovSofiaBIRNFebruary 6, 202317:10North Macedonian authorities accused of deliberately delaying Bulgarians who wanted to cross the border and travel to Skopje on Saturday to attend the commemorations of a famous Ottoman-era rebel.
Bulgarian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev (L) talks after the ceremony marking the 151st birthday of Goce Delcev in Skopje, North Macedonia, 4 February 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI
Bulgaria’s interim Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev on Monday accused North Macedonia of blocking the border and wilfully delaying Bulgarians who wanted to travel to Skopje on Saturday to commemorate Goce Delchev, an Ottoman-era revolutionary celebrated in and claimed by both countries.
“North Macedonia must understand that the path to Europe and to healthy neighbourly relations goes through actions, not just words,” Demerdzhiev said on Monday.
“Many Bulgarian citizens had trouble going through the border with North Macedonia, while the police forces accompanying me were searched by the border controls for over 40 minutes,” he said.
Demerdzhiev expressed suspicions over the official explanation that issues with the electricity supply caused the delays on the border.
“We’re now transferring three electric generators to the three border points so that won’t be an issue anymore,” he said, with obvious irony.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry warned that there were black lists provided for the border controls and some Bulgarians might be denied entry.
“Blocking the border, making secret lists of who can enter – that isn’t an attitude that can exist in the European community,” said on Sunday former PM Ivan Kostov.
In 1999, along with then-North Macedonian PM Ljubčo Georgievski, he signed a joint declaration on good neighbourly relations between the two countries, later reaffirmed by a memorandum in 2008 and followed by a treaty in 2017.
On Sunday, Bulgaria’s pro-Kremlin far-right Revival party, which is are against North Macedonia’s accession to the EU, claimed that Bulgarian MEP Angel Georgiev, along with two other men, was detained by North Macedonian border controls, beaten and only freed after providing cash as a form of guarantee. Bulgarian authorities have not addressed these allegations.
Celebrations in Bulgaria itself passed off with minimal media attention.
On Monday, Hristian Pendikov, a pro-Bulgarian North Macedonian citizen and a member of a controversial Bulgarian cultural club in Ohrid named after Bulgarian Tsar Boris III, was discharged from a hospital in Sofia.
Pendikov was assaulted in Ohrid on January 19, allegedly over his Bulgarian ethnicity, and then transferred to Bulgaria by state plane. The beating drew critical reactions in Sofia, including a declaration by the country’s parliament denouncing an allaged “anti-Bulgarian” campaign in North Macedonia.
Although the two countries have long had tense relations, a new chapter in the conflict was opened in 2020 when the then GERB and United Patriots-led government imposed a veto on the EU accession of North Macedonia, citing historical disputes, alleged repression of the Bulgarian minority and Skopje allegedly not observing the 2017 treaty.
In 2022, historical commissions in both countries started working on improving the relations under Kiril Petkov’s cabinet.
Under the EU’s French presidency, both governments accepted a so-called French proposal under which Bulgaria lifted its EU blockade on condition that North Macedonia change its constitution by listing Bulgarians as a constituent minority.
The proposal remains controversial in North Macedonia where the government is struggling to muster the necessary votes in parliament to pass the change. Many Macedonians say Bulgaria is pressuring their country to give up its identity and accept that Macedonians are de facto Bulgarians.
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