Bulgarians from the Republic of North Macedonia: The red lines will take us away from Europe

As citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia with a Bulgarian self-identification, we would like to share with you our concerns about the rapid deterioration of the democratic environment in our country. In the last two weeks, some of our political leaders have been running a campaign for the adoption in our parliament of a certain amount of "red lines", which the Republic of North Macedonia should present as an anti-Bulgarian ultimatum to Brussels even before she has started membership negotiations.

This is written in a letter to the US Ambassador in the Republic of North Macedonia by Cultural Center "Ivan Mihailov" in Bitola.

BGNES News Agency published the full text of the letter:

It is clear to everyone that this anti-Bulgarian ultimatum will slam the door on our chances to start negotiations next year. These "red lines" are proof of our oligarchy's enduring commitment to the ethnic doctrinc of the totalitarian Yugoslav state.

But today we would like to raise before you the question of the integrity of Europe, which seems to ignore the human rights situation in our country. The issue this time is about the European "red lines", in other words - about the Copenhagen membership criteria. Only two weeks ago, VMRO-DPMNE activist Mr. Dragan Gyurovski publicly and in front of cameras openly attacked Bulgarians with racist insults, calling us "Tatar fascists" and accusing the "disgusting Bulgarian hand" for events from a period when all of us in the Republic of North Macedonia self-identified only as Bulgarians. Even more scandalous is the statement that, regardless of the Treaty with Bulgaria, the only Common history that our people on both sides of the border have would be the "two red banknotes" used to pay Bulgarian women for sexual services.

Your Excellency,

Today we wonder whether this hate speech is the real content of the nationalist "red lines" of a nation actually created only after 1945 !?! If hate speech against us - the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia from the Bulgarian community - continues, we know that we will not obtain support for our rights and freedoms and our country will not face a European future in the years to come. Without profound changes and without reforming the state's ethnic ideology in the Republic of North Macedonia, Europe will remain just a mirage for us. That is why we respectfully ask that in your conversations with our rulers you would bother to remind them that without justice for the Macedonian Bulgarians there is no prospect for stability of the democratic process in our homeland. /BGNES