We, the Macedonian teachers (school teachers, professors, scientists, doctors, social and cultural actors, pedagogues, artists, journalists and everyone who helps in the upbringing and education of our generations), who dedicate our whole lives to the education and science of our children, to our Macedonian people and their prosperity, referring to the Charter and the UN General Declaration on Human Rights and Freedoms, as well as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, and in the spirit of the KRUSHEVO MANIFESTO and the ASNOM MANIFESTO, we express our dissatisfaction with the Proposal of the French President Mr. Macron, in which the Macedonian people are the subject of disparagement and humiliation.
The French proposal, in which the bilateral protocols with Bulgaria become an integral part of the negotiation process, will reduce the Macedonian people and the Macedonian language to a one-sided statement that has no validity before the EU institutions. The Macedonian people will be a tree without roots and will not have the opportunity to express its continuity in space and time. With this proposal, even before the negotiation process begins, the Macedonians will be reduced to an artificial construct from 1944. The Macedonian language, according to this proposal, will be historically non-existent for the EU. The proposal states that “the EU will take into account the respective unilateral declarations of Bulgaria and Macedonia on the Macedonian language”, and the content of the declarations on the Macedonian language is not disclosed. As we know, the Bulgarian official policy has always claimed that the “Macedonian language” did not exist before 1944, but now the EU will also verify this, because in all future EU documents where the Macedonian language is mentioned, “in accordance with The Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia”, while the Republic of Macedonia will have to declare “that the Macedonian language, as stated in its Constitution, is the official language of the state which was codified in 1945”. The Manifesto was signed by 844 teachers.
