In the last three meetings of the Commission, I do not see a desire for progress among Bulgarian colleagues, and that is due to the political situation in Bulgaria, said DragiGjorgiev, chairman of the Macedonian team in the Joint Macedonian-Bulgarian Commission for Historical and Educational Affairs.
Discussions at the 13th meeting of the joint multidisciplinary commission for historical and educational issues between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, held online on Thursday and Friday, primarily focused on the approach and form of the textbook recommendations. Major differences remain over the approach and views on how to formulate recommendations for seventh grade history textbooks.
“The Macedonian team proposed several ideas on how to overcome the units in the textbooks having the potential to politicize history and thus, incite new political disputes or keep existing ones alive,” read Friday’s press release.
It added that after sixth class history textbooks used in Bulgaria were discussed at the previous meeting, the commission members took part in a comprehensive discussion on the remarks of the Bulgarian experts about Macedonian history textbooks for seventh-grade pupils.