BULGARIA'S MACEDONIANS CRITICIZES AMBASSADOR'S ATTITUDE ON MINORITY

Views on BG | December 7, 2001, Friday // 00:00

Makedonija Denes, Skopje

The ethnic Macedonian party in Bulgaria has criticized the Macedonian ambassador to Sofia for his "hands-off" attitude towards this minority. Emphasizing the historical haritage of this ethnic group, OMO asked for the recognition of ethnic Macedonians' existence by both, the Bulgarian authorities and Macedonia, because they should be "interested in the price that these people have paid over the years to be able to call themselves Macedonians". The following is a report by Maja Mancevska, "The dirty gloves of salon diplomacy", published by the Macedonian newspaper Makedonija Denes on 5 December
Ever since the United Macedonian Organization [OMO] Ilinden had obtained the support of the European Committee for Human Rights for their efforts to find a place in the sun in Bulgarian society and to denounce Sofia's discrimination against ethnic Macedonians in that country, the Macedonians in Bulgaria have also had to strive to prove their existence to His Excellency Director Ljubisa Georgievski, the Macedonian ambassador to Sofia.

Accusing him of extremely undiplomatic manners, which an ambassador to a foreign country should not have and at the same time defending our national interests, yesterday the OMO Ilinden members sent an open letter to Ambassador Georgievski.

Embittered by Ambassador Georgievski's hands-off attitude towards the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, because, as himself said in a recent interview with Utrinski Vesnik [newspaper], Macedonia had signed a declaration that commits it not to meddle in Bulgaria's internal affairs regarding minorities, they reminded him that, nevertheless, the Macedonian minority in that country does exist.

The letter to Ljubisa Georgievski says: "Macedonia will survive, but not thanks to its present rulers whom you serve. Rather, thanks to the people who live there and to those hundreds of thousands who regard it as their mother and their hope, even though they live in her Greek or Pirin [Bulgarian] part. It has them today, whether or not they are recognized that they exist, however unwilling governments, including yours, are to admit this."

In the same interview with this newspaper, ambassador Georgievski claims that "the OMO people" in Bulgaria are involved in hopeless wrangling and that there are "five people running seven parties".

This is what has angered the OMO people so much: After knocking on the doors of various international institutions to obtain recognition, they have had to continue doing this where people have the administrative duty to recognize that they are Macedonians and should also do so based on their own convictions.

"Unlike the love between people that was given to us by God as His testament, nations were not invented by Him, were they? They are created and cultivated like God's creature - man - slowly, gradually and over a very, very long time. That is what the Macedonian nation is. That is what we are, the Macedonians from the region of Pirin, whom you have never wanted to meet. Not because the laws of diplomacy dictate so, but because that is what your own conscience dictates. You are not interested in who is who in Pirin Macedonia. You are not interested in the price that these people have paid over the years to be able to call themselves Macedonians." These are some of the accusations that the OMO people address to Ambassador Georgievski.

They have also written the following to Georgievski: "You are interested in the benefits of being an intellectual and diplomat, are you not? The fact that in Pirin Macedonia there is systematic pressure on the Macedonians in order to obtain specific results does not interest you, does it? The fact that the OMO Ilinden party was banned, unconstitutionally and in violation of European law, does not interest you either, does it? This, even though it won a number of mayors' and councillors' seats in elections before it was banned. Or perhaps you are not aware of this. The fact that the differences among the Macedonian organizations in Bulgaria, no matter how many they are (and they are not as many as you claim), do not have a national or ideological basis, but are solely a question of the strategy for the rebirth of the national consciousness of the Macedonians in the Pirin region, does not interest you either, does it?"

Just to remind the reader of something that is not mentioned in the letter, but is a fact that the Macedonian ambassador in Sofia must absolutely be aware of: According to the population census immediately after World War II, there were nearly 200,000 Macedonians in the Pirin part of Macedonia alone. Despite the well known pressure of the Bulgarian authorities, a significant number are currently members of OMO Ilinden and OMO Ilinden in Pirin.

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