NEW DEVELOPMENT IN RELATIONS BETWEEN SOFIA AND SKOPJE

AIM, Skopje, May 25, 1995

Summary:

Contrary to the announcement of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Videnov that "accomplishment of the reality" would be the backbone around which Sofia will build its stance towards Skopje, national romantic attitudes about "union of all Bulgarian lands" accompanied with denying of the existence of Macedonia and the Macedonians is a factor which is gaining relevance in Bulgarian policy.

This year's manifestation "Macedonia in Honour of St. Cirilo" which is held in Rome, is attended both by the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, and the Head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, Mr Mihail. Real reasons for such a high level of the delegation have nothing to do with the celebration of the anniversary of Slav educators Cirilo and Metodije. The reasons are primarily of a diplomatic nature. Namely, apart from the planned reception in the Vatican, Mr Gligorov will meet with Italian President Scalfari, and he will try to consolidate the recently expressed stance of the Italian administration that Macedonia should be offered significant economic assistance. Manifestations held in Skopje on the occasion will be customary and in accordance with the generally accepted viewpoint on all-Slav background of Ciril and Metodije.

This year the Bulgarian delegation in Rome will be on the customary level (headed by the Minister of culture, Georgi Kostov), but, according to the reports from Sofia, grand festivities are prepared in Bulgaria, similar to those held in the time of "communism". Sofia is decorated with state flags and placards and slogans which suggest that Ciril and Metodij (creators of the Slav alphabet) are in fact a Bulgarian "gift" to humanity. Two separate manifestations will be held in the capital, and they will be attended by President Zeljo Zeljev and Prime Minister Zan Videnov. It should be mentioned that in the past four or five years this manifestation was neglected and that only this year it is being given back its "glory".

Regardless of the fact that this celebration in Sofia cannot be directly connected with Kiro Gligorov's visit to Rome and the Vatican, it can be concluded that it continues the agony of Bulgarian politicians which results from their being obsessed by the Macedonian issue. This obsession is repeated each spring as an unpleasant cycle connected with another celebration - anniversary of the killing of Macedonian (according to Bulgarian sources, Bulgarian, of course) revolutionary, Jane Sandanski. It all began in April 1990 when thousands of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria used the anniversary of the death of Jane Sandanski to manifest openly and at the time without restraint their Macedonian self-consciousness. Since then, the Bulgarian authorities decided that this should never happen again and each spring they start a campaign against the organization of ethnic Macedonians OMO "Ilinden" (which is not permitted to be officially registered, by the way), and the celebration is held each year with intensified police supervision and occasional incidents. And the Macedonian "happening" has never been repeated.

However, this spring, intensified polemics in Sofia media reveal deeper reasons for this year's more frequent presence of the Macedonian issue in inter-party discussions in Bulgaria. The polemics culminated during the last election campaign when Videnov's Socialists bitterly attacked President Zeljev for his "lenient" stance towards Skopje (where his book titled "Fascism" was published in the "unrecognized" language

• Macedonian, and promoted in his presence) and for his "premature recognition" of the Republic of Macedonia. After the elections and victory of the Socialists, the Democrats returned fire by accusing the ruling party of pursuing "neo-Macedonian" policy. Nationalists headed by Public Prosecutor, Ivan Tatarcev, readily accepted the polemic, of course, declaring that the incriminated organization OMO "Ilinden" was part of the Bulgarian Communist Party inherited by - the Socialists.

Apart from this contention between political parties, a somewhat more serious dispute broke out between Sofia-Skopje. A series of the already elaborated and coordinated interstate agreements was not signed due to a persistent refusal of the Bulgarian party to accept and note the fact that the agreements were written in Bulgarian and Macedonian language. The official Bulgarian linguistics considers Macedonian language a "dialect of Bulgarian", and politics accepted this "discovery" readily and blocked the process of interstate agreements.

Contrary to post-election announcements of Videnov that "accomplishment of reality" would be the axis of Bulgarian external policy, the national romantic stance about "union of all Bulgarian lands" together with the increasingly stressed denial of Macedonian history and nation in general, is becoming a more and more relevant factor on the political scene in Sofia. This process may not significantly threaten the otherwise good relations between Skopje and Sofia (especially the established economic links which are obviously important for both economies), but one must bear in mind what persistent external Greek policy towards Skopje has brought about: internal political disturbances in Athens, blockade of all relations with the Northern neighbour, but also its dangerous self-isolation in relations with the Western partners.

Romanticist denial of historic and current reality as a rule leads to irrationalism and isolationism. This can already be discerned in certain tragicomic moves of Bulgarian diplomacy. Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has, for instance, recently reacted with a demarche to a series of articles in Skopje daily "Nova Makedonija" and assessed them as "anti-Bulgarian". Or another, even more comic example: Bulgarian Ambassador in Skopje, Angel Dimitrov, some time ago, formally granted Bulgarian citizenship to a few Macedonians (according to the press in Skopje, there were "two, but maybe more") who felt as Bulgarian. In the official census of the population of Macedonia, everyone was allowed to declare oneself as one pleased, and therefore as Bulgarians too, which is not the case in Bulgaria.

In the beginning of May, Bulgarian media assessed the latest Congress of the Macedonian opposition party VMRO-DPMNE as "definite recognition of the Bulgarian character of the National Liberation Struggle in Macedonia", therefore, as a recognition of the Bulgarian character of Macedonia and the Macedonians in general. But, as everyone in Skopje is aware that no sound opposition platform can be constructed on the basis of an identity crisis of several spokesmen in opposition newspapers inclined to VMRO-DPMNE (the leader of this party himself, Ljupco Georgievski, appealed for getting rid of national romanticism), it has become even more obvious that Sofia cannot build bridges for influenceing the Macedonian political scene on such rump foundations.

The Macedonian public is not too excited about the "discoveries" of Bulgarian historiography, linguistics and daily policy, and especially about the articles of some local pople who are very enthusiastic about these "discoveries". Moreover, one should be reminded that the Macedonians have spent almost five decades in perhaps grounded but perhaps also groundless fear of Bulgaria and the Bulgarians. In the former regime and the former joint state (Yugoslavia), Serbophilia was considered to be a good personnel reference, while imputed or actual advocating of pro-Bulgarian stances often meant going to jail. Macedonia is slowly forgetting this unfortunate time, but certain amount of recidivity is still present.

The unintelligible course Sofia has taken may lead to effects contrary to those which ait may have expected.

So far, Skopje is following polemics and festivities in Sofia with evident restraint. Gligorov's administration will not allow any imprudence on its own part threaten the bridge towards Sofia. The media may fly into a rage, but that too shall pass. The issue here is in what direction Sofia will go. Dubious connections of Bulgarian Socialists woth Serb Socialists of Slobodan Milosevic, but the possible current turning of Sofia towards Moscow does not seem too encouraging either.

BRANKO GEROVSKI