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Northern Macedonia changed its name to please Greece.
Then came Bulgaria
The small Balkan country has agreed to differentiate its name from that of a province in Greece that has prevented it from joining the UN and NATO for decades.
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Macedonia
Bulgaria
Greece
Zoran Wolf
News agencies
Monday, 23 November 2020, 12:59
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Photo: Reuters, Editing: Tomer Levy
Northern Macedonia changed its name last year to end a protracted conflict with Greece, which prevented it from joining the European Union, but now a new obstacle has emerged - Bulgaria.
Sofia wants her little neighbor to recognize what she defines as the “Bulgarian roots” of her language, people and history, and last week she used her veto to stop talks about joining the bloc.
The poor country, home to two million people, went through a similar path when Greece halted talks demanding that it rename its former name, Macedonia, which it claims testified to territorial and historical claims in Greece, where there is a province with a similar name as part of Alexander the Great's legacy.
To overcome Greek opposition to Macedonia joining the EU and NATO, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Ze'ev drafted an agreement with Athens in 2018 to add "Northern" to its name to differentiate it from the Greek province. gain.
However, more and more delays have risen way, from initial resistance among EU states such as France, the expansion of the bloc to the current crisis with Bulgaria, again deals with history and heritage.
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Demonstration in Skopje, Northern Macedonia, against changing the name of the country (Photo: AP)
Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, was the first country to recognize Macedonia after splitting from crumbling Yugoslavia in 1991.
For this, Ze'ev called her "our greatest friend," but the shared history of the two neighbors is now a source of conflict.
Bulgaria claims that the Macedonian identity is artificial, and in fact its people and language are Bulgarian.
She opposes the definition of "Macedonian language" and claims it is a Bulgarian dialect.
Most of the controversy stems from the fact that the region was for years under Ottoman rule, after which new nation-states emerged while changing borders in the wars of the 20th century.
Bulgaria accuses Northern Macedonia of stealing its history, and is particularly outraged at the lack of progress in the work of a joint committee that is supposed to agree on a joint narrative to be studied in history books.
Ze'ev said he believes this should be left to "historians," but said it is important to emphasize the agreements the committee has reached on certain issues.
He said Bulgaria's move was contrary to EU values and was causing "great bitterness" in his country.
According to him, any doubt about the Macedonian identity is a "red line".
In an interview with AFP he said "this is an issue of self-determination", which is at the heart of the European project.
"That's the absurdity of the whole problem."
Map of the Balkans
Ze'ev described the Bulgarian veto as an "unpleasant surprise".
"A great deal of anger has been created on both sides, between brotherly peoples living across both sides of the border," the northern Macedonian prime minister said.
"We have shown how much we believe in European values, and now that Europe was supposed to show us its European values - they are not here," Ze'ev said, referring to the name change.
Despite everything, he insisted that he believed a breakthrough could still be achieved.
"I have a big belief in European values, possibly more than some of the EU members themselves," Ze'ev said.
"Celebrate the things that unite us"
Many in Macedonia are exhausted from engaging in historical controversy instead of focusing on the future.
"It feels like we're on the same track again," said in despair Bujan Dimski, a 30-year-old consultant from the capital Skopje.
"In the 21st century, where globalization is the main engine, we discuss in which country language or history began, instead of celebrating the things that unite us."
The committee of experts from the two countries got stuck last year around the curriculum in history books in seventh grades, around the hero Gotza Delchev from the Ottoman period.
He was born in what is today part of Greece, when the province was under Turkish rule, and rose to prominence as a revolutionary leader who fought the Ottomans with the beginning of the 20th century.
Both Bulgaria and northern Macedonia see him as their hero, and cities, statues and educational institutions are named after him.
The battle for narrative.
Statue of the hero Goethe Delchev in Skopje (Photo: Robert Atanasovski / AFP)
In a city in southwestern Bulgaria, called by that name, no one doubts the hero's roots. "The people here are safe - Gotza Delchev is a Bulgarian historical figure," said Elka Bozikova, a local high school principal.
Across the border, in a church in Skopje where the remains of Delchev are buried, the perception is the opposite. "I can say what every Macedonian would have said. Of course Goethe Delchev is ours," said a Skopje resident who refused to give his name.
Germany has tried in recent days to mediate between the countries to prevent Bulgaria from vetoing, but it has not succeeded. Several experts from countries in the region have come out against the Joint Committee of Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia because they oppose the idea that only one story can be formulated about the past.
Experts accuse Sofia of pursuing a well-known tactic in the Balkans: fueling emotional and historical conflicts in order to win points ahead of next year's elections in Bulgaria. In addition, Skopje is under pressure due to its desire to be accepted into the European Union.
"Every nation is undergoing a process of construction, even 'artificial' in the full sense of the word," a line of historians wrote in an open letter.
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