Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov in the first interview for the British BBC complained that the Bulgarians in Macedonia did not have legal protection. We still have problems to solve,” he said in an interview. But the journalist who conducted the interview Stephen Sackur interrupted Petkov on such a statement and reacted with a direct question about the rights of Macedonians in Bulgaria.
“Bulgarians in North Macedonia still do not have the right to legal protection,” said Kiril Petkov.
“Sorry, but there are no ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria, in fact there were more cases in the European Court of Human Rights on that basis than vice versa, of Bulgarians whose rights have been violated in Macedonia. Your arguments are weak. It comes down to your political will, your president says that your hand extended to the Macedonian Government is a mistake, you will need the support of many influential people in your country to normalize relations with Macedonia “, added Stephen Sackur.
“The European Court of Human Rights had more cases on that basis than for the Bulgarians in Macedonia. You are on a slippery slope here,” Sackur told the Bulgarian prime minister during the interview with the BBC “HARDtalk” show.
