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Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister-designate of FYROM: "We are the same people (with Bulgarians)"

5/9/2017

1 Comment

 
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In a TV interview on the Bulgarian TV channel 'b tv', Zoran Zaev, the Prime Minister-designate of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) was answering questions on how neighboring countries reacted to his electoral win and if Bulgaria interfered in the elections.

His response was "we are a brotherly people, we are the same people and I am very glad that all political parties from Bulgaria sent friendly messages."

Unlike his predecessor Nikola Gruevski, the politics of 'open doors' towards Bulgaria seem to be a part of Zaev's worldview.

English subtitles: Vladislav Perunovic, Skopje, FYROM

​In Bulgaria, Zoran Zaev's statement was seen as a positive gesture after decades of anti-Bulgarian sentiments in the FYROM. Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov, the Director of the National History Museum in Sofia stated on Focus News Agency:

“I expected that this would happen sooner or later. Zaev is a functioning Macedonian [sic] politician, who is saying that there is no difference between Bulgarians and Macedonians [sic]. I hope this is a sign that Macedonian [sic] politicians are finding the courage to admit this; they have done so in private conversations with me but not publicly,” Prof. Dimitrov explained.

“Unfortunately, these confessions happen at a time of accelerated albanisation of Macedonia [sic] with larger territories getting settled by the growing Albanian population and political parties putting high demands on their potential Macedonian [sic] partners. The statement is accurate and historically true,” he added.


Sources: Macedonia Forever Greek, Focus News Agency
1 Comment
Greg Chase
5/10/2017 06:38:56 pm

Modern Slavs, both Bulgarians and Macedonians, cannot establish a link with antiquity, as the Slavs entered the Balkans centuries after the demise of the ancient Macedonian kingdom. Only the most radical Slavic factions—mostly émigrés in the United States, Canada, and Australia—even attempt to establish a connection to antiquity [...] The twentieth-century development of a Macedonian ethnicity, and its recent evolution into independent statehood following the collapse of the Yugoslav state in 1991, has followed a rocky road. In order to survive the vicissitudes of Balkan history and politics, the Macedonians, who have had no history, need one. They reside in a territory once part of a famous ancient kingdom, which has borne the Macedonian name as a region ever since and was called ”Macedonia” for nearly half a century as part of Yugoslavia. And they speak a language now recognized by most linguists outside Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece as a south Slavic language separate from Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian. Their own so-called Macedonian ethnicity had evolved for more than a century, and thus it seemed natural and appropriate for them to call the new nation “Macedonia” and to attempt to provide some cultural references to bolster ethnic survival..
"Macedonia Redux", in "The Eye Expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity", ed. Frances B Tichener & Richard F. Moorton, University of California Press, 1999

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