site.btaBSP for Bulgaria MP Ivan Ivanov Describes Language Used by North Macedonia's Transport Minister as "Extremely Unacceptable"

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, BSP for Bulgaria MP Ivan Ivanov described the language used by North Macedonia's Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski during a TV interview as "extremely unacceptable, especially in the context of the Republic of North Macedonia's EU membership bid". Earlier in the day the latter criticized the absence of his country's national flag in a photo of Presidents Rumen Radev and Gordana Siljanovska during Siljanovska's visit to Sofia on September 13, stating that "both the [Bulgarian] political parties and the President are trying to gain advantages at the expense of [North] Macedonia."

According to the MP, such talk in no way contributes to improving good neighbourly relations. On the contrary, such a statement "can totally blow them up because Bulgaria did everything possible to find the right way for North Macedonia to become a member of the EU, including the good neighbourly relations agreement between the two countries which it is not being implemented by their side", Ivanov said.

"I think the Foreign Ministry should summon North Macedonia's Ambassador in Sofia for an explanation because such a statement insults more than our common history," Ivanov said, adding: "As a historian, I can say that any claim of no common history is a falsification."

Ignorance of the international protocol is not an explanation, an excuse for such actions because the unofficial visit has its attributes, he stressed. "Such speculations on this topic are not productive," Ivanov noted.