We received information, and can confirm, that in early March of 2021, the national security service of North Macedonia held "informative conversations" with at least 36 individuals, questioning them as to how they will ethnically identify themselves in the upcoming census. Amongst the individuals questioned were Goran Serafimov, resident of Kochani, Esat Amedovski, resident of Bitola, M. Angeloski, resident of Resen, and Bekir Kadrieski, resident of Struga. When the above mentioned disclosed that they identify as Bulgarian and that they are planning on declaring themselves as such in the census, they were warned not to do so by the national security service authorities. They were told that “Bulgarians are beasts and murderers of the Macedonian people and have raped their wives" and they will therefore be seen as traitors if they identify as Bulgarians and may have problems.
As another example of the fear instilled by the authorities, one can point to the more than 20,000 individuals that live in North Macedonia, that were born in or are descendants of individuals from the Western Outlands region of former Yugoslavia, a region officially recognized as being inhabited by ethnic Bulgarians. Even these individuals do not dare declare themselves as Bulgarians, which is why during the last official census on the territory of North Macedonia in 2002 only 1 417 Bulgarians were allowed to be registered as such!