Following concessions to Bulgaria on ethnic rights, violent protests erupt in Skjope

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/6/concessions-to-bulgaria-prompts-violence-in-north-macedonia

At least 47 police officers have been injured in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje during protests against the government’s concessions on ethnic rights as part of EU accession talks, according to news agency Makfax that cited the police.

Wednesday’s report said that two of the 47 officers were seriously injured in the Tuesday protests. Eleven protesters were arrested.


Nationalist opposition party VMRO-DPMNE had called for the protests, enraged because of concessions to Bulgaria amid the EU accession process.

EU member Bulgaria had blocked the start of accession talks with North Macedonia for more than two years, demanding that the population of about 3,500 Bulgarians living in North Macedonia be mentioned in its constitution, to guarantee their equal rights.

North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski had told EU President Charles Michel on Tuesday that his country can live with the concessions that Bulgaria has already formally accepted and now requires the backing of North Macedonia’s parliament.

[CumbrianLefty]

I thought there might be a few more Bulgarians in the country than that.

[Lord Halifax]

I thought there might be a few more Bulgarians in the country than that.

Since it's essentially variants of the same language and culture hanging on to a Bulgarian identity for generations hasn't been that common, you'd need to actively prevent intermarriage with Macedonians and gradual assimilation, and if you add the constant pressure from the authorities and Macedonian society in general it's no wonder there aren't many left who identify as Bulgarians. There was some immigration of Serbian Bulgarians to Macedonia which kept the Bulgarian identity alive for a bit. It's mainly around Strumica in the SE that you've had enough Bulgarians to retain a Bulgarian minority identity. The Macedonians who have applied for Bulgarian citizenship is a much bigger group, but that was mostly to be allowed to work and live in the EU.

For comparison there are 90k Slovaks in the Czech Republic, but their separation is much more recent than the current North Macedonia being separated from Bulgaria, they haven't been united since they were both part of the Ottoman Empire.

[GMantis]

Strange. By any metric this decision was favorable to Macedonia, yet they're the one demonstrating...

Since it's essentially variants of the same language and culture hanging on to a Bulgarian identity for generations hasn't been that common, you'd need to actively prevent intermarriage with Macedonians and gradual assimilation, and if you add the constant pressure from the authorities and Macedonian society in general it's no wonder there aren't many left who identify as Bulgarians. There was some immigration of Serbian Bulgarians to Macedonia which kept the Bulgarian identity alive for a bit. It's mainly around Strumica in the SE that you've had enough Bulgarians to retain a Bulgarian minority identity. The Macedonians who have applied for Bulgarian citizenship is a much bigger group, but that was mostly to be allowed to work and live in the EU.

Also declaring yourself a Bulgarian in Macedonia during the Communist was extremely inadvisable and it's far from recommended doing so today. Even the Bulgarians who had emigrated from Serbia didn't dare to do so.