Bulgaria – North Macedonia commission on historical issues reports no progress
No progress has been made in the work of the Bulgaria – North Macedonia joint commission on historical and educational issues, it emerged after its latest meeting, according to a report by Bulgarian National Radio.
The commission was set up after Bulgaria and North Macedonia put into effect their bilateral good-neighbourliness treaty and is meant to achieve consensus on key aspects of shared history.
The differences in the understanding of the disputed historical issues between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia are insuperable, the Bulgarian co-chairperson of the commission Professor Angel Dimitrov said.
He described the results of the meeting as insignificant and added that the tasks assigned to the commission were beyond its means.
“We have many different ideas with our colleagues, not only about the meaning of our work, but also about understanding the good neighbourliness treaty, which ultimately prescribed the creation of the joint commission. We are not in a position to say that serious results have been achieved.
Professor Dragi Georgiev, the co-chairperson of the commission from North Macedonia, said that there was no progress in agreeing about Gotse Delchev. A 19th century revolutionary, Delchev is an important figure to both countries.
“We have some different views about Gotse Delchev again and no progress has been made here.”
It also emerged that an agreement was reached to suspend the meetings until May 2020 because of the upcoming elections in North Macedonia. On April 12, voters in North Macedonia go to the polls in early parliamentary elections.
