site.btaDocumentary "Only Because They Were Bulgarians" Recounts Events of So-Called Bloody Christmas in Macedonia

A screening of journalist Milena Milotinova's documentary "Only Because They Were Bulgarians" took place Thursday evening in the capital and highlighted the events of the so-called Bloody Christmas in Macedonia in 1945.

The screening at the Macedonian Scientific Institute was attended by historians, public figures and citizens, some of whom were: the National Assembly Chair Nataliya Kiselova, Kostadin Filipov from the Macedonian Scientific Institute, the President of the Institute Prof. Dr. Georgi Nikolov. Among the participants in the discussion were MEPs Andrey Kovatchev, Alexander Yordanov and Angel Dimitrov, former ambassadors of Bulgaria in the Republic of North Macedonia, Blagoy Shatorov from the Bitola Cultural Club "Ivan Mihaylov" and Goran Serafimovski-Chane from the New Political Emigration from Macedonia in Bulgaria.

The film raises the issue of mass graves of executed Bulgarians on the territory of today's Republic of North Macedonia, who did not renounce their Bulgarian identity after the establishment of communist rule in Tito's Yugoslavia. The event is organized within the framework of Macedonia Lecture by Kostadin Filipov and the Macedonian Scientific Institute.

"This week marks the 80th anniversary since the beginning of the so-called Bloody Christmas in Macedonia, a topic, which is not spoken of [in Bulgaria], and not spoken of at all in the Republic of North Macedonia", Milotinova said at the screening. "We will see what has changed in the quarter of a century since we made the film with cameraman Lyubomir Stanoev", she added, stressing that the archives of the communist State Security need to be opened at last so that the truth about the fate of the Macedonian Bulgarians can be known.

According to Milotinova, what happened in 1945 during the so-called Bloody Christmas, which has been going on for years afterwards, should be revealed and included in the curricula of children in Bulgaria and in the Republic of North Macedonia, so that the truth is known. In Milotinova's words, North Macedonia's history books inculcate hostility towards Bulgaria. "The result is that we will have another generation in which children will learn nonsense, manipulations and will be educated in hostility towards Bulgaria", Milotinova stressed, adding that Bulgaria should ease the difficult process of granting citizenship to Macedonian Bulgarians. "Let Bulgaria bring them into the EU and give them passports, to those who deserve it, so that it can then be able to protect them if they need protection," she noted.

During the discussion after the screening MEP Andrey Kovatchev said that Bulgaria has a duty to the Macedonian Bulgarians to explain what the current situation in North Macedonia is at international level. "North Macedonia devotes a serious budget to communication policy in the US and Europe and has a serious strategy", he said. "The Bulgarian state in the face of the administration and government has not identified this problem as existential for us", Kovatchev added, stressing that over the years Bulgaria has not devoted resources to explaining what the background history is.

Aleksandar Yordanov said that the Bulgarian Parliament has a big responsibility regarding the issue and called on the National Assembly to initiate a big national conference with MPs, historians, public figures, diplomats to put the issue of the Bulgarians in North Macedonia on the agenda, to create this narrative, which, due to the different policies over the years back, has been missing.