Contacts
at the Governmental Level
The Sofia Democracia n.p. of 18 March announced that the Macedonian president B.
Traikovsky had invited the Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov to visit the Republic of
Macedonia. In his invitation B. Traikovsky emphasized that the permanent development of
the bilateral contacts were of mutual interest and of interest for the stability on the
Balkans. In fact this would be the second meeting of the two presidents. They met and
talked in Zagreb last month during the inauguration of the Croatian president Stipe
Mesich. The 168 Hours n.p. of 3-9 March announced some details of the forthcoming
meeting of the two presidents. According to the newspaper they were to discuss the joint
projects of Skopje and Sofia in the framework of the Stability Pact. Or at least these had
been the intentions expressed by the two parts. The meeting has so far been postponed due
to the events in the Republic of Macedonia in relation with the prohibition of OMO
"Ilinden Pirin" by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court. Still there are
projects that have to be discussed.
The contacts between the
governments of the two countries continued at the meeting of the two prime ministers in
Budapest. According to the Democracia n.p. of 12 March they have talked tete-a-tete
during the meeting of the prime ministers of the neighbour states of Yugoslavia.
The new direction of the
relations between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia that the two presidents intended
to discuss was expressed in the project of Sofia and Skopje to jointly participate in the
reconstruction of the power supply systems in Kosovo. During his visit in the town of
Ohrid from the middle of March the Chairman of the Bulgarian Agency of Power Engineering
Ivan Shiliashki was authorized to sign an agreement on this matter between the Agency and
the ministry of economy of Macedonia. According to the signed agreement the Kosovo problem
is to be resolved by the long agreed construction of the 400 kV power-transmission line
between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia aimed at the connection of their power
supply systems. In this way Bulgarian electric power will transit to Kosovo through
Macedonia. The power transmission line is designed with a branch for Albania. Both
variants are part of the programme in the framework of the Stability Pact and are to be
presented for financing by it.
In the media
announcements occurred about talks between the Bulgarian and the Macedonian defense
ministries in regard to the purchase or grant of arms and military materials. On this
occasion the Democracia n.p., 24 Hours n.p. and other Bulgarian newspapers
of 25 and 26 March focused the statements of the Macedonian defense Minister N. Kljussev
about the opportunities and the terms of these deals.
The Skopje media of 29
March informed about the Sofia meeting between representatives of the chambers of industry
and commerce of the two countries, where the trade exchange for the year 1999 was reported
to have amounted to $ 133 million USD and the establishment was made that during the first
two months of the year 2000 the trade exchange had grown by 27 percent compared to the
same period of last year. All this created the impression of normal though not especially
dynamic relations at bilateral basis and of strengthening the cooperation between Bulgaria
and the Republic of Macedonia at multilateral basis. However in his interview for the Nova
Makedonia n.p. of 20 March the Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov shared that the
Council of Ministers had discussed the bilateral relations and had noted some measures for
their intensification.
The
Episode OMO Ilinden Pirin
One could not deny that the prohibition of OMO Ilinden Pirin by the Bulgarian
Constitutional Court cast a blight on the relations of the governments of the two
countries in March. This was witnessed by the attempt of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan
Kostov to keep a distance from the problem stating in his interview for the Nova
Makedonia n.p. of 20 March that the case were "rather legal and not a political
one and it should not cool the relations between the two states". And once again in
his interview for the Dnevnik n.p. of 3 March he stated that he did not even know
what exactly the judgment of the Constitutional Court was. On this grounds the Makedonia
Denes n.p. of 10 March published a material with the title "The naive Ivan
Kostov". There his statement was called a "fairy-tail for little children".
Such a shadow could also be seen in the statement of the president B. Traikovsky on this
occasion. Immediately after the judgment of the Constitutional Court he declared for the Utrinsky
Vestnik n.p. of 2 March that it were not correct for a "head of state to
criticize the judgment of the most superior judiciary institution of another state".
And because of the delicacy of the matter Traikovsky felt the necessity to express his
hope that the Bulgarian part would pay greater attention to the resolution of such or
similar matters. A bit later the president stated before the Dnevnik n.p. of 11
March that he were sorry for the judgment of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court regarding
the prohibition of OMO Ilinden Pirin which did not contribute to the good relations
of the two states. On the same lines the Prime Minister L. Georgievsky stated for the Utrinsky
Vestnik n.p. of 8 March that the judgment on the case of OMO Ilinden Pirin
would not contribute to the good relations between the two countries and that the
Macedonian mass media reacted on this not without reason.
In fact no one can deny
that the two decisions of the Bulgarian Courts, the jedgment of the Sofia City Court about
the admission of OMO Ilinden Pirin to participation in the local elections and
after that the prohibition of OMO Ilinden Pirin by the Constitutional Court, placed
the Macedonian government in a difficult position. And most of all the first judgment
about the recognition of the party following the Declaration of the prime ministers of the
two countries of February last year through which the Macedonian country canceled its
claims on a "Macedonian minority" in Bulgaria.
In the Macedonian
government itself and in the circles of VMRO-DPMNE the prohibition of OMO Ilinden
Pirin gave rise to a sharp reaction. The Macedonian Minister of expatriates Martin
Trenevsky stated in the Nova Makedonia n.p. and the Utrinsky Vestnik n.p. of
2. and 22 March that the judgment of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court "is
scandalous" and that neighbours had to consider the claims of minorities.
Still whereas the
reaction of the ruling circles in the Republic of Macedonia on the case "OMO Ilinden
Pirin" was restrained and complying with the good relations between Bulgaria
and the Republic of Macedonia, the opposition viewed the case as an opportunity to
introduce a fresh note into its anti-Bulgarian campaign as part of its struggle against
the government of L. Georgievsky. As a matter of fact anti-Bulgarianism has been the
dominating feature of Macedonianism as the state-creating idea of our neighbours for
decades. It has been the fundamental of the efforts of the so-called Macedonianists there,
ever since the Balkan Wars, to substantiate their efforts to rob Bulgarian history and
culture, as well as for their claims for Bulgarian territory and population and for
mythologizing the Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian state as the principal hazard for the
existence of the federal republic of Macedonia within Yugoslavia and now as an independent
Macedonian state. Until the establishment of the government of L. Georgievsky precisely
this part of the content of Macedonianism its anti-Bulgarianism, used to determine
the relations between the two countries. A significant part of the Macedonian population
educated in this spirit for decades, is as it became evident during the presidential
elections campaign yielding to such suggestions about Bulgaria.
On basis of this case
with OMO Ilinden Pirin, which was just an episode of the long anti-Bulgarian
campaign, the opposition in the Republic of Macedonia managed to establish mass
anti-governmental action involving various circles. Opposition media, which considered the
prerequisites and the grounds for the judgment of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court from
their own aspect, were also mobilized. Directly were involved such state institutions like
the Academy of Sciences and Arts the representatives of which had to
"scientifically" substantiate the hazard for the "Macedonian minority"
in Bulgaria arising from the prohibition of OMO Ilinden Pirin. Such organizations
like the one of the refugees from Aegean Macedonia, the World Macedonian Congress, the
MAAK-Conservative party, cultural associations etc. rose to the rank of organizers of the
"nation-wide protest", in order to give the protest public sounding while the
driving force hiding behind them is the SDSM. The situation was so incandescent that the
Parliament with the votes of some of the deputies from VMRO-DPMNE adopted a declaration
against the judgment for the prohibition of OMO Ilinden Pirin. Part of this action
was the attempt to organize a mass protest meeting in front of the Bulgarian Embassy in
Skopje and the claim of the leader of MAAK Conservative, Strasho Angelov, to expel
the Bulgarian Ambassador from the Republic of Macedonia. Still the principal accents in
the action around OMO Ilinden Pirin, as it looks like in the press and the
electronic media, were two: the unwillingness of the present Macedonian government to
protect "its fellow-countrymen" in Bulgaria and the aim of Bulgaria to thereby
participate in an eventual division of the Republic of Macedonia.
The second accent is
evident from the publications of the Skopje media against the Albanian leader and
coalition partner of L. Georgievsky because of his mediation in the relations between the
Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov and the Kosovo leader Hashim Tachi. For the
opposition Xhaferi is dangerous due to the influence of his party among the Albanian
population and due to its categorical support for VMRO-DPMNE in ruling the country. The
subject of the attack against Xhaferi was his phone call with the Bulgarian Prime Minister
Iv. Kostov in which, as he stated himself for the Vecher n.p. of 17 March, the
latter had asked him to deliver his letter to Hashim Tachi which letter was dealing with
the escalation of tension in Souther Serbia. The position of Xhaferi was that the protests
on the occasion of OMO Ilinden Pirin were an attempt to give rise to a crisis in
power. He and his party have declared themselves against this. But exactly this
represented the grounds for the growing accusations from the part of the opposition, the
activity of which accusations had been examined during the presidential elections
campaign, that a joint action for the apportion of Macedonia between the Albanians and
Bulgaria were in course. This is what the chief editor of the weekly "Focus" N.
Mladenov wrote about, who is one of the leaders of the newly established Democratic Union,
lead by Pavle Trayanov. This was also the topic of the publication of the Belgrade
newspaper Politica of 23 March. Daily tens and hundreds of publications were
written to this topic in March in the press of the Republic of Macedonia. Of course, the
reaction of the opposition on this occasion could not last for long. Still the opposition
will find other occasions since its principal characteristics which is the
anti-Bulgarianism remains.