site.btaVMRO Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Karakachanov Warns His Party Will Not Allow Compromises with History

109 POLITICS-DEPUTY PM-MACEDONIA-POSITION

VMRO Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Karakachanov
Warns His Party Will Not Allow Compromises with
History


Sofia, December 8 (BTA) - Deputy Prime Minister in charge of public order and securuty and Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov, who is also the leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Bulgarian National Movement (VMRO-BND, part of the power-sharing United Patriots coalition) issued a sharp position, quoted by VMRO's press office, reacting to a statement in the Parliament of the Republic of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia of the country's Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, who said that the agreement with Greece known as the Prespa Agreement gives identification of the presence of Macedonian language "and no one has the right to oppose this". In the position Karakachanov advises Zaev "not to misuse the topic of the Macedonian language" and thus jeopardize Macedonia's prospect for joining the EU and NATO.

Karakachanov says in the position that the reading of a treaty between two states may be done solely and only on the basis of the rights and obligations the treaty gives rise to. "In the case at hand the document does not give rise to the rights artificially invoked by Zaev, namely whereby the Macedonian language, which is not recognized as an official language, be considered a legal language on the territory of the entire Northern Macedonia," the position goes.

Karakachanov says in the position that "tomorrow, Zaev may demand whereby the fully identical Bulgarian dialect that is used be studied as an official foreign language in Bulgaria, which is inadmissible and is a provocation". The VMRO-BND leader says that the work of the Bulgarian-Macedonian commission on historical issues goes in a direction "that does not benefit the historical truth, and that the Macedonian representatives on the commission want to validate a false version of history".

Karakachanov expresses indignation that for 18 months after the signing of the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness between Bulgaria and Macedonia, "there are encroachments in the Macedonian textbooks about the parable about Han Koubrat and the bundle of sticks, King Samouil, and other figures [of the Bulgarian history] towards whom claims for historical belonging are being made".

"The Macedonian lands are Bulgarian lands and this is a historical fact. Since the Liberation [from the Ottoman Rule in 1878] to 1944, incessant battles have been waged for them on all fronts: diplomatic and military, precisely because these have been proven to be Bulgarian territories. The conspiracies of the Comintern finally separated these lands from Bulgaria's land thus leaving one people on the territory of two states. The careful reading of the Balkan history indicates this," Karakachanov says.

The VMRO-BND leader says that he will not accept "people with unclear views and with an inverted reading of the history to slip into NATO and the EU, on the back and at the expense of Bulgaria and historical justice, least of all by pushing the Macedonian language behind the scenes". Karakachanov threatens that "even if a single untrue historical fact is allowed and even a single historical fact is replaced, he will demand that Bulgaria does not support Macedonia's bid to join NATO and the EU".

Karakachanov says that if the Bulgarian-Macedonian commission on historical issues fails to come up with a clear and categorical position that the history of present-day Macedonia is common with that of the Republic of Bulgaria until 1944, in his capacity of VMRO-BND Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister in charge of public order and security, he will demand the preparation of an annex to the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness wherein the official powers of the other party recognize this. "If they refuse, they will not get Bulgaria's support for NATO and the EU. I will allow no compromises with history," Karakachanov says in conclusion. LY/ZH

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