site.btaBulgarians in North Macedonia Argue Their Human Rights Don’t Stand in Country’s Way to EU

Bulgarian associations in North Macedonia said in a declaration on Monday that their human rights should not be made “hostage to political or administrative processes.” “We cannot accept our [expected] inclusion in the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia to be referred to as ‘blackmail’, ‘dictation’ or ‘a hurdle’ to the country’s European future,” reads the declaration, signed by Bulgarian associations in Kavadarci, Struga, Prilep, Bitola, Ohrid and Skopje.

They said a deferred-effect inscription of the Bulgarians in North Macedonia into the country’s Constitution is equally unacceptable. “We have had enough delays in our struggle for equal rights,” the declaration reads.

It notes that North Macedonia has assumed clearly defined commitments as part of the framework for its accession negotiations with the EU, which is why it needs to inscribe the Bulgarians in its Constitution before starting real negotiations “in the best interests of all citizens.”

“Bulgaria’s competent institutions and political representatives have stated on more than one occasion that Bulgaria has no new conditions for the Republic of North Macedonia in addition to those already incorporated in the negotiating framework. We believe that the issue of the rights of Bulgarians here [in North Macedonia] is used in a new social stigma attached to our community as we are portrayed as the hurdle to the country’s European future. This is not true and has never been. We Bulgarians in the Republic of North Macedonia have a clear position that our country should become a part of the EU as it became a part of NATO, and should be a mother of all its citizens regardless of their ethnicity. We are firmly against any compromise about our human rights.”

The declaration is addressed to the president, parliament speaker and prime minister of North Macedonia, the president and prime minister of Bulgaria, the presidents of the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission, the EU ambassador to North Macedonia, the ambassadors of the EU member states, the United States and the United Kingdom in Skopje, and the OSCE country mission leader.