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Bilateral relations exist 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". [1]
In 2020, Bulgaria offered a compromise and agreed to recognize the Macedonian language and national identity if North Macedonia would recognize both nations and languages have common historical roots. This proposal was rejected by North Macedonia as threatening. The acknowledgement of Bulgarian influence on the Macedonian history is highly problematic for many Macedonians, because it clashes with the post-WWII Yugoslav Macedonian nation-building narrative, which was based on a deeply anti-Bulgarian stance. Another revisionist strand of the Macedonian historiography is that their national history had already been taken earlier by the Bulgarian national historiography. [2] The resurgence of Bulgarian irredentism due to the deepening of chauvinism and national historical myths in post-Communist Bulgaria has awarded Macedonia a place in Bulgarian nationalism akin to that of Kosovo in Serbian ideology, as Bulgarians are frustrated with the existence of a Macedonian nation, which they consider "artificial", and of a Macedonian language, which they consider a dialect of Bulgarian. [3]
On January 15, 1992, Bulgaria was the first country to recognize the independence of the then-Republic of Macedonia. [4] Bulgaria has however refused to recognize the existence of a separate ethnic Macedonian nation [5] [6] [7] and a separate Macedonian language. It argues that the ethnic Macedonians are a subgroup of the Bulgarian nation, [8] [9] [10] and that the Macedonian language is a Bulgarian dialect. [11] [12] [13] This leads to some complications when signing treaties between the two countries. Such treaties are signed with this long phrase at the end: "done in the official languages of the two states—the Bulgarian language, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, and the Macedonian language, according to the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia". [14] On the other hand, Skopje insists on the presence of a Macedonian community in Bulgaria, with some circles stating 750,000 'ethnic Macedonians' there [15] and treats as "ethnic Macedonians" a number of figures from Bulgarian history from the region during the period from the 9th century to the end of the Second World War. North Macedonia has developed its relations with Bulgaria in the political, economic, and military spheres. The governments of the two countries have worked to improve business relations. Bulgaria has also donated tanks, artillery, and other military technology to the Army of North Macedonia. The rules governing good neighbourly relations agreed between Bulgaria and North Macedonia were set in the Joint Declaration of February 22, 1999 reaffirmed by a joint memorandum signed on January 22, 2008, in Sofia. [16]
Reacting to the publication of a controversial encyclopedia by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) in 2009, Bulgaria warned that "it is unacceptable for a country aspirant for NATO and EU membership to resort to terminology typical for the ideology of the Cold War era," and that the encyclopedia "gives no contribution to the strengthening of the neighborly relations and curbing down of 'hate speech'." [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] In connection with the administrative, police and other types of pressure allegedly being exercised on citizens of Bulgaria and citizens of North Macedonia with Bulgarian self-identification in North Macedonia, on August 4, 2009, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declared that "Bulgaria will examine the approach of the Macedonian side in such cases as one of the criteria on the basis of which to assess the country's readiness to make the changes that would allow the European integration of the Republic of North Macedonia." [22] Bulgaria has proposed to sign a treaty (based on that 1999 Joint Declaration) guaranteeing the good neighbourly relations between the two countries, in order to enable Bulgarian support for the accession of North Macedonia to the European Union. [23] [24] During the last few years, thousands of citizens of North Macedonia have applied for Bulgarian citizenship (amongst them North Macedonia's former PM Ljubco Georgievski [25] ), with more than 90,000 having already received Bulgarian passports. In order to obtain the passport, the citizens of North Macedonia who apply for Bulgarian citizenship must prove that they have Bulgarian origins and a Bulgarian national consciousness. Between January 1 to November 18, 2011, the Bulgarian Council for citizenship considered 22,241 applications for citizenship, of which 13,607 were approved. [26] [27] [28]
The Governments of Bulgaria and North Macedonia signed a friendship treaty to bolster the relations between the two Balkan states on 1 August, 2017. [29] The so-called Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation was ratified by the Parliaments of the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria on 15 and 18 January 2018, respectively. [30] A joint commission on historical and educational issues was formed in 2018 to serve as a forum where controversial, historical and educational issues could be raised and discussed. According to the reports, this commission has made little progress in its work for a period of one year. [31]
In October 2019, Bulgaria set out a "framework position", warning that it would block the EU accession process unless North Macedonia fulfilled a number of demands regarding what Bulgaria perceived as "anti-Bulgarian ideology" in the country. [32] In October 2020, Bulgaria offered a compromise and agreed to recognize the Macedonian language and Macedonian identity if North Macedonia recognizes that they historically had Bulgarian roots. Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said that "just as we are ready to acknowledge the reality, so they must acknowledge the past." [33] 30 Bulgarian historians, scholars and professors published a letter opposing the memorandum sent by the Bulgarian government to EU member states, in which they argued that Macedonian ethnogenesis is similar to that of other nations and rejected its presentation as a product of "Yugoslav propaganda" along with the official Bulgarian interpretation of a common Bulgaro-Macedonian history as unilaterally Bulgarian. [34] The Bulgarian proposal was rejected by North Macedonia. Macedonian President Pendarovski and Prime Minister Zaev announced that they were neither negotiating nor would ever negotiate whether the Macedonian language and identity were related historically to Bulgaria. [35] As a result, on November 17, 2020, Bulgaria refused to approve the European Union's negotiation framework for North Macedonia, effectively blocking the official start of accession talks with this country. [36] Germany and the EU institutions criticized Sofia's unconstructive behavior. [37] According to Polish political scientist Tomasz Kamusella, Bulgaria's EU membership should not be weaponized as an instrument of pressure on EU candidate states to spread Bulgarian ethnopolitical influence across the region, from Moldova to North Macedonia and Albania. [38]
In an interview with Bulgarian media in November 2020, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev acknowledged many historical facts about the common history of both peoples that have been altered and concealed for decades in North Macedonia. [39] The interview sparked controversy and was followed by a wave of nationalism in Skopje, [40] as well by protests demanding Zaev's resignation. [41] According to the opinion of the former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, who insists on the Bulgarian roots of the Macedonians, these reactions were the result of ignorance, hypocrisy or politicking. [42] He noted that the “deep state” in North Macedonia disrupted the normal relations between the two countries. It built hatred and enmity towards Bulgaria. On the other hand, another former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski, who was appointed as Zaev's envoy to Bulgaria, also had strong pro-Bulgarian positions and claims Macedonians and Bulgarians were a single people, separated intentionally by the Yugoslav policy during the 20th century. Expressions of anti-Bulgarian sentiment remain a serious concern with the repeated burning of Bulgarian flags. [43] [44] These actions have been condemned strongly by Stevo Pendarovski, President of North Macedonia, and by Ekaterina Zakharieva, Foreign Minister of Bulgaria. [45] In late March 2021, a scandal erupted in Bulgaria after it was discovered that the Macedonian government under Zoran Zaev had been funding an institute called the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) between 2017 and 2020. [46] [47] IFIMES published a number of articles that described Bulgaria and Germany as “mafia states interested in Nazism”. [46] [47] This was perceived in Bulgaria as a defamation campaign funded by North Macedonia in order to discredit Bulgaria in front of its EU partners. [48] [49] The government of North Macedonia has denied these claims by the Bulgarian side. [50] On 24 January, 2022, the two new prime ministers, Kiril Petkov of Bulgaria and Dimitar Kovačevski of North Macedonia, met in Skopje, seeking to improve relations talks and discussing EU negotiations and other issues to resolve. [51] On 24 June 2022, under heavy EU pressure, Bulgaria's parliament approved the lifting of the country's veto on opening EU accession talks with North Macedonia. [52]
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 previous constitutional name, overshadowed by a long-standing, dead-locked dispute with neighboring Greece. Greek objections to the country's name had led to it being admitted to the United Nations and several other international fora only under the provisional designation Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia until its official and erga omnes renaming to North Macedonia, a name under which it is now universally recognised.
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity, abbreviated as VMRO-DPMNE, is a conservative and the main centre-right to right-wing political party in North Macedonia.
Nikola Gruevski is a former Macedonian politician who served as Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 until his resignation, which was caused by the 2016 Macedonian protests, and led the VMRO-DPMNE party from 2004 to 2017. He is the longest serving post-independence Macedonian prime minister, serving more than nine years in office.
Ljubčo Georgievski is a Macedonian politician and writer who served as the only Vice President of Macedonia from January to October 1991 and as the Prime Minister of Macedonia from 1998 to 2002. He advocated for the country's independence.
The South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) was launched on Bulgaria's initiative in 1996. At the Bulgaria-chaired meeting in Sofia, the Southeast Europe (SEE) countries laid the foundations for regional co-operation for the purposes of creating an atmosphere of trust, good neighbourly relations and stability.
The use of the country name "Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Western Balkans for 25 years. It was resolved through negotiations between the two countries, mediated by the United Nations, resulting in the Prespa Agreement, which was signed on 17 June 2018. Pertinent to its background is an early 20th-century multifaceted dispute and armed conflict that formed part of the background to the Balkan Wars. The specific naming dispute, although an existing issue in Yugoslav–Greek relations since World War II, was reignited after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the newly-gained independence of the former Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1991. Since then, it was an ongoing issue in bilateral and international relations until it was settled with the Prespa agreement in June 2018, the subsequent ratification by the Macedonian and Greek parliaments in late 2018 and early 2019 respectively, and the official renaming of Macedonia to North Macedonia in February 2019.
Bulgarians are an ethnic minority in North Macedonia. Bulgarians are mostly found in the Strumica area, but over the years, the absolute majority of southeastern North Macedonia have declared themselves Macedonian. The town of Strumica and its surrounding area were part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria between the Balkan wars and the end of World War I, as well as during World War II. The total number of Bulgarians counted in the 2021 Census was 3,504 or roughly 0.2%. Over 100,000 nationals of North Macedonia have received Bulgarian citizenship since 2001 and some 53,000 are still waiting for such, almost all based on declared Bulgarian origin. In the period when North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, there was also migration of Bulgarians from the so called Western Outlands in Serbia.
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 an official candidate for accession. The then Republic of Macedonia submitted its membership application in 2004, thirteen years after its independence from Yugoslavia. It is one of nine current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
The foreign relations of Bulgaria are overseen by the Ministry of Foreign Relations headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Situated in Southeast Europe, Bulgaria is a member of both NATO and the European Union. It maintains diplomatic relations with 183 countries.
Diplomatic relations are maintained between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of North Macedonia.
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the north. 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 population of 1.83 million. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities.
North Macedonia–Serbia relations are bilateral relations between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia. A 2022 poll conducted found that the citizens of North Macedonia consider Serbia to be their friendliest state.
Zoran Zaev is a Macedonian economist and politician who served as prime minister of North Macedonia from May 2017 to January 2020, and again from August 2020 to January 2022.
The Stracin–Kumanovo operation was an offensive operation conducted in 1944 by the Bulgarian Army against German forces in occupied Yugoslavia which culminated in the capture of Skopje in 1944. With the Bulgarian declaration of war on Germany on September 8, followed by Bulgarian withdrawal from the area, the German 1st Mountain Division moved north, occupied Skopje, and secured the strategic Belgrade–Nis–Salonika railroad line. On October 14, withdrawing from Greece, Army Group E faced Soviet and Bulgarian divisions advancing in Eastern Serbia and Vardar Macedonia; by November 2, the last German units left Northern Greece.
Hristijan Mickoski is a Macedonian politician and former mechanical engineer, currently serving as Prime Minister of North Macedonia, a position he has held since June 2024. He is also a university professor and the party leader of VMRO-DPMNE. In 2016, Mickoski became the director of Power Plants of Macedonia, and in the period from 2015 to 2017, he was an energy advisor to prime ministers Nikola Gruevski and Emil Dimitriev. As the sole candidate, he was elected leader of VMRO-DPMNE at the party's 16th congress in Valandovo.
The Prespa Agreement, also known as the Treaty of Prespa, the Prespes deal or the Prespa accord, is an agreement reached in 2018 between Greece and the then-Republic of Macedonia, under the auspices of the United Nations, resolving a long-standing naming dispute between the two countries. Apart from resolving the terminological differences, the agreement also covers areas of cooperation between the two countries in order to establish a strategic partnership.
The North Macedonia–Taiwan relations refers to the bilateral relations between North Macedonia and Taiwan. Diplomatic relations were established in 1999, but were severed in 2001.
In early July 2022, protests began in Skopje, North Macedonia. The protests were triggered by Bulgaria–North Macedonia negotiations surrounding the accession of the latter into the European Union.
Germany–North Macedonia relations are the diplomatic relations between Germany and North Macedonia. The Foreign Office of Germany describes the relationship between Germany and North Macedonia as good. Both states are members of the COE, NATO and OSCE. Germany is EU member, North Macedonia is an EU candidate.
Consequently, the Bulgarian anticommunist president and government started repeating scholarly clichés firmly established during the nationalist-communist regime of Todor Zhivkov.
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