Bulgaria and North Macedonia had a skirmish in PACE
Bulgaria allegedly has evidence of hate crimes and persecution of Bulgarians in North Macedonia, but Macedonians believe that hate speech is being spoken by Bulgarians voicing their claims to Macedonian lands.
Participants in the PACE Autumn Session spoke about this, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“My question is about democracy, the rule of law. There are reports of hate crimes and persecution in North Macedonia. In addition, there are publications in the media that also talk about the propaganda of hatred by politicians and government institutions against Bulgarians.
There is evidence that says that Bulgaria is a fascist nation. What measures are you taking to counteract these trends? I think that I have a very important remark,” said Bulgarian parliamentarian Ekaterina Gecheva-Zakharieva.
“There is resolution 1482, which deals with the crimes of totalitarian regimes. What measures have been taken to combat these trends, and how does the state facilitate access to the archives of totalitarian security services?” – added Zaharieva.
In turn, identical counterarguments followed from Macedonia.
“About the language of hatred and hostility. Firstly, government officials, let’s say a few words about them: we don’t have such cases. In the previous election cycle, there were indeed politicians, Bulgarian politicians, who said that North Macedonia belongs to Bulgaria. I believe that this is exactly hate speech,” replied Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration of North Macedonia Nikola Dimitrov.
“When you talk about the fact that hostility is growing among our population, but it is you who are trying to explain to them something about their history, about their language, about their identity. Sometimes some private individuals actually say something, but as for officials, we have a law. Lastly, we sit on the Council of Europe and we support an initiative called the Observatory for the Study of History in Europe.
In my opinion, certain problems between our countries are precisely related to history, to the teaching of history. It would be great if you joined this initiative, and we would conduct a comparative analysis and consider how other states look at historical issues,” suggested the Macedonian representative.
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