site.btaOur Grandchildren Will Laugh That What Was Supposed to Unite Us, Divides Us, Bulgarian Ambassador in Skopje Says

Diplomats from the Bulgarian Embassy in the Republic of North Macedonia, the Consulate General of Bulgaria in Bitola, the Bulgarian Cultural Information Centre in Skopje, Bulgarians living in the Republic of North Macedonia and representatives of the Bulgarian community in the country commemorated the 153rd anniversary of the birth of Gotse Delchev and laid wreaths and flowers at his sarcophagus in the courtyard of the Church of St. Spas in Skopje.

"We have gathered to mark a particularly significant date in the history of both Bulgaria and North Macedonia", said Bulgarian Ambassador Zhelyazko Radoukov in front of Gotse Delchev's sarcophagus in the yard of the St. Spas Church. "In somewhat strange conditions, separated and with tension, we pay tribute to a man whose name - Georgi Nikolov Delchev - not even everyone knows, using the nickname Gotse. In this situation, it is worth recalling Gotse Delchev's words from his letter to Nikola Maleshevski in 1899 that these divisions and these splits should not frighten us, "it is a pity, but what can we do, as we are all Bulgarians and suffer from the same disease". In 20-30 years our grandchildren will laugh at this generation that the things that were supposed to unite us have actually divided us. And I believe that they will live in a world of more trust and more understanding". 

Individual representatives of the Macedonian Bulgarians and their compatriots, who arrived from Bulgaria in Skopje, also laid flowers before the monument to Gotse Delchev in front of the city stadium in Skopje, made by the architect Lyubomir Dalchev, brother of the poet Atanas Dalchev (both natives of Thessaloniki, then in the Ottoman Empire, and both part of the Kukush Bulgarian colony there).

February 4 marks 153 years since the birth of prominent Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization Georgi /Gotse/ Nikolov Delchev, born in 1872 in the then-ethnically Bulgarian town of Kukush, Salonika Vilayet, Ottoman empire (now Kilkis in Greece). Thanks to his efforts, the IMARO attracted brave men to its ranks and became active in Macedonia and Thrace. Gotse Delchev died in battle against Ottoman troops in 1903 near the village of Banitsa, Serres district, after the Salonika terror attacks and on the eve of the Ilinden Uprising. Nowadays he is part of the heritage of both Bulgaria and North Macedonia.