The Albanian-Bulgarian Protocol was a bilateral document signed in Sofia on January 9, 1932, between the Albanian Kingdom and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, concerning mutual protection for each other's minority populations. [1] However the protocol was never ratified by Albania, and tensions over the minority issue had returned by 1933. [2] [3]
After the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries in 1922, the major problem in their relations, was that Albanian authorities did not recognize the status of the Bulgarian minority in Albania. This recognition would involve Albania deeper in the conflict between Sofia and Belgrade on the Macedonian Slavs. In Albanian Macedonia, due to the bulgarophile sentiments of the locals, the pro-Bulgarian, paramilitary Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization had its bases, from where it launched a terrorist attacks into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. [4] Belgrade was suspicious of the recognition of a Bulgarian minority there and was annoyed this would hinder its policy of forced “Serbianisation” in Serbian Macedonia. It had already blocked the ratification of similar protocol with Greece. [5] However, in 1930 during the First Balkan Conference in Athens and especially on the Second Balkan Conference in Istanbul in 1931, the two delegations raised the problem of the Bulgarian minority, but were opposed by the Yugoslav side.
Nevertheless, on 9 January 1932, a Protocol on the reciprocal protection of minorities in Albania and Bulgaria was signed in Sofia by Andrey Toshev and Yanko Sakazov from Bulgarian side and by Mehmed Konica from Albanian. [6] Both countries agreed to open schools for the teaching of the languages of the minorities and agreed to sign the so-called Balkan Pact. The protocol caused a severe reaction in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As result Albanian side was convinced that opposing to Belgrade over this problem was not in its interest. For this reason, the Albanian side did not support the Bulgarian side's demands for ratification of the protocol. Albanian-Bulgarian relations deteriorated completely during 1933 because in March 150 Bulgarian families were deported from the villages of Gorna and Dolna Gorica. The Bulgarian chargé d'affaires in Tirana informed his government that the plan of the Albanian government was to see all Bulgarians out of the country. [3]
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time; however, it came to be defined as the modern geographical region by the mid 19th century. Today the region is considered to include parts of six Balkan countries: larger parts in Greece, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, and smaller parts in Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo. It covers approximately 67,000 square kilometres (25,869 sq mi) and has a population of 4.76 million.
The history of North Macedonia encompasses the history of the territory of the modern state of North Macedonia.
The foreign relations of North Macedonia since its independence in 1991 have been characterized by the country's efforts to gain membership in international organizations such as NATO and the European Union and to gain international recognition under its constitutional name, overshadowed by a long-standing, dead-locked dispute with neighboring Greece. Greek objections to the country's name have led to it being admitted to the United Nations and several other international fora only under the provisional designation Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Alexander I, also known as Alexander the Unifier, was the prince regent of the Kingdom of Serbia from 1914 and later the King of Yugoslavia from 1921 to 1934. He was assassinated by the Bulgarian Vlado Chernozemski of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, during a 1934 state visit to France. Having sat on the throne for 13 years, he is the longest-reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 (O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania and the bulk of Bulgarian forces engaged in the south, the prospect of an easy victory incited Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece and Romania. In the Treaty of Constantinople, it lost Adrianople to the Ottomans.
The Western (Bulgarian) Outlands is a term used by Bulgarians to describe several regions located in southeastern Serbia.
Bulgarians are a recognized national minority in Serbia. According to the 2011 census, there are 18,543 ethnic Bulgarians composing 0.3% of the population of Serbia. The vast majority of them live in the southeastern part of the country, bordering Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
The Tsardom of Bulgaria, also referred to as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom, sometimes translated in English as Kingdom of Bulgaria, was a constitutional monarchy in Southeastern Europe, which was established on 5 October 1908, when the Bulgarian state was raised from a principality to a Tsardom.
Serbianisation or Serbianization, also known as Serbification, and Serbisation or Serbization is the spread of Serbian culture, people, and language, either by social integration or by cultural or forced assimilation.
The history of Macedonians has been shaped by population shifts and political developments in the southern Balkans, especially within the region of Macedonia. The ideas of separate Macedonian identity grew in significance after the First World War, both in Vardar and among the left-leaning diaspora in Bulgaria, and were endorsed by the Comintern. During the Second World War these ideas were supported by the Communist Partisans, but the decisive point in the ethnogenesis of this South Slavic people was the creation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia after the World War II, as a new state in the framework of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Ethnic Bulgarians in present-day Albania live mostly in the areas of Mala Prespa, Gollobordë and Gora. According to the Bulgarian State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, 40,000 to 50,000 persons of Bulgarian origin are living in Albania. Ethnic identity can be fluid among the Albania's Slavophonic population, who might identify as Albanian, Bulgarian or Macedonian, depending on the circumstances. Between 2001 and 2016, around 4,470 Albanian nationals applied for a Bulgarian citizenship and over 2,600 of them were granted one. The Bulgarian minority was recognized by the Albanian government in October 2017.
The accession of North Macedonia to the European Union has been on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU since 2005, when it became a candidate for accession. The Republic of Macedonia submitted its membership application in 2004, thirteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is one of eight current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It is a landlocked country bordering Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's 1.83 million people. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities.
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Bulgaria–North Macedonia relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia. Both countries are members of the Council of Europe, and NATO. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union. Bulgaria was the first country to recognize the independence of its neighbour in 1992. Both states signed a friendship treaty in 2017. North Macedonia has been attempting to join the EU since 2004, while EU governments officially gave their permissions to enter accession talks in March 2020. Nevertheless, North Macedonia and Bulgaria have complicated neighborly relations, thus the Bulgarian factor is known in Macedonian politics as "B-complex".
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