The term "Bulgarian minority", referenced by Zaev, is an inadmissible provocation

The term "Bulgarian minority", referenced by the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, is an inadmissible provocation which once more confirms that Skopje has not yet cut ties with its Yugo-totalitarian past.

This is stated in the letter of Assoc. Prof. Spas Tashev, Chairman of the Bulgarian National Platform. The letter was sent to President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Stefan Yanev and Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev.

“Dear Mr. Radev,
Dear Mr. Yanev
Dear Mr. Stoev
We are writing you in light of recent comments by the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, dated September 3rd, 2021, in which he was quoted as stating the following: “Our goal is to take care of all ethnic communities, of all minorities we have in the country, including the Bulgarian minority.”
We would like to point your attention to the important fact that the term "minority" does not exist within the Statute of North Macedonia. The Statute references only “people” or “share of people” who live within its territory. In no way is the quantity of people or whether a group is a minority or majority considered or defined within the Statute. When referring to the citizens of North Macedonia who ethnically identify as Bulgarian, the only acceptable way to address this group of people is "the share of the Bulgarian people living on the territory of North Macedonia".
The term "Bulgarian minority", referenced by the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, is an inadmissible provocation which once more confirms that Skopje has not yet cut ties with its Yugo-totalitarian past. This provocation was made on the eve of the commencement of the second phase of the North Macedonian census. The first phase took place online in March of 2021 and focused on those living abroad. During this initial census, some declared their ethnicity as Bulgarian and their spoken language as Bulgarian. Many of these Bulgarians shared “screenshots” of their completed online forms with us. Around this same period, many citizens living within North Macedonia itself began posting on social media that they would declare themselves as Bulgarian and identify their spoken language as Bulgarian in the census. Perhaps these factual events played a role in motivating the North Macedonian government and its opposition to unanimously decide to postpone the second stage of the census.

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!

These facts categorically show that on the part of the unreformed government in Skopje there is pressure on the citizens of North Macedonia with a preserved Bulgarian self-consciousness to not declare themselves as Bulgarians. This, however, cannot hide the fact that in the not so distant past several foreign censuses carried out on the territory of the geographical region of Macedonia have found the presence of Bulgarians. For example, according to the last censuses in the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Macedonian region until 1912, Bulgarians formed 52% of the population. On the territory of present-day North Macedonia this percentage is significantly more. In 1918, France and Austria-Hungary conducted a census of the population in the territories they administered around Korçë (City in present-day eastern Albania) and Debar (City in present-day North Macedonia). They found the presence of Bulgarians, but no ethnic Macedonians. In October 1942, Italy conducted a census of the population of present-day western North Macedonia and registered the presence of 72 745 Bulgarians and not a single ethnic Macedonian.
Considering the above stated, we believe the Bulgarian government needs to formally reach out to the authorities in Skopje and object to Zoran Zaev's comments. Furthermore, Bulgaria needs to launch an adequate awareness campaign among our Euro-Atlantic partners to effectively guarantee the rights of North Macedonia citizens with preserved Bulgarian identity and to help North Macedonia overcome its ongoing totalitarian dependencies.
With respect,
Chairman: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Spas Tashev
Secretary: Eng. Georgi Mundev /BGNES