A total of 85 prominent intellectuals from Macedonia addressed the public with a reaction to the denial of Macedonian national, cultural and linguistic distinctiveness by Bulgaria.
“Recently we were faced with the constant engaged denial of the Macedonian identity features – the people, the nation, the language, the culture, by the governmental and state institutions of the Republic of Bulgaria in order to show that the Macedonian nation is an artificial creation of the Comintern and Josip Broz Tito, which has existed as such since 1945, and that through forced propaganda by the then communist authorities, the “Bulgarians” in Macedonia were forced to register as Macedonians. Moreover, the Agreement on Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation requires the acceptance of the so-called common history with Bulgaria, and at the same time giving up the Macedonian minority, which has lived there for centuries. The very fact that the Bulgarian state does not recognize the Macedonian nation and the Macedonian language speaks, basically, of what “friendly” agreement it is and what, in essence, hides behind it – complete depersonalization of everything that is Macedonian, reads the letter signed by 85 prominent intellectuals.