Goce Delcev was — and remains — Macedonian
The attempt by the Government of Bulgaria to dictate the past in the present is a play for the future of Macedonia.
And it proves something about human nature: concessions to blackmail encourage further blackmail. The current Government of Macedonia has already proven that it is open — and quite willing — to making concessions. That it has done so once, means it will do so twice. And a third or fourth time if necessary until there is nothing left to concede. And in the meantime, it demoralizes Macedonia and the Macedonians, something which Bulgaria — and Greece — wish to do, applauded, all along, by the Western transnational elites who really don’t give a bloody damn.
Because Macedonia is now — finally though we still don’t have a date — supposed to start negotiations with the European Union which might, after many, many years, result in EU membership for Macedonia, the Bulgarians have decided that now is their time to push their demands that the Government of Macedonia acquiesce and agree with them that the Macedonians really are “Bulgarians” and that Macedonian history really is “Bulgarian history,” and that Macedonian heroes really are “Bulgarian heroes.”
None of this is unexpected, and as I have written many times before, while both Greece and Bulgaria withheld their veto on Macedonia’s NATO membership because Macedonia capitulated to both countries in various ways, now both countries will exercise their other potential veto, that of EU membership.
Why did they both agree to Macedonia in NATO? That’s simple. The US State Department exercised its muscle behind the scenes. And both Greece and Bulgaria knew that they would have this second opportunity to finish what both countries began with the so-called treaty of friendship between Macedonia and Bulgaria on the one hand and the so-called Prespa agreement between Macedonia and Greece on the other hand.
Up first, Bulgaria. (Greece will demand more soon enough)
And their target is Macedonian hero Goce Delcev.
I’m not going to take a deep dive into history here and dredge up past statements or records or anything else. Because historians, and teachers, and others can debate these things all day long.
The essential point here is this: Macedonians celebrate Goce Delcev as a Macedonian hero, vitally important to the eventual formation of the independent nation-state of Macedonia. Goce Delcev’s final resting place is Sv. Spas, in Skopje, a place I am humbled to visit. Goce Delcev is one of four men mentioned in Macedonia’s national anthem. The town of Delcevo is named after him. And Macedonian schoolchildren learn about him and his importance to them, as Macedonians, in their studies.
The Bulgarians, for their part, claim him as their own. That is their business.
But what is not their business is for them to tell Macedonians that they must proverbially kneel before the Bulgarians and agree to whatever it is that the Bulgarians demand, or else Bulgaria will essentially put a veto on Macedonia starting EU accession talks.
We have been down this road many times in Macedonia’s history.
And yet the Government of Bulgaria — a government, we should note, that is a member of the European Union which speaks volumes about the EU and its lack of a spine — the Government of Bulgaria manufactures a non-existent issue that has nothing to do with Macedonia’s readiness to start EU talks.
And so here we are: the Government of Bulgaria behaving like the fascists they were in World War II. Perhaps they never changed.
The leaders of both the EU and NATO told Macedonia, long before Zoran Zaev and Ali Ahmeti took over the government in 2017, that “These countries are in the clubs and you, Macedonia, are not” in so many words. They said that if Macedonia desired to join either club, Macedonia would have to acquiesce to the demands of those countries making those demands. So in a way, Bulgaria is merely agreeing with what the leaders of the EU and NATO said way back then.
Will the EU stand up to Bulgaria? My guess is no because while the European Union claims to have lots of “values” it certainly has no virtues.
The best way to break the deadlock is to agree to disagree and stop talking about the issue. But it seems that Bulgaria will not and will, instead, continue using its position as a member inside the club of the EU to make the Macedonians kneel before them which is why I wrote, at the beginning of this column, that the attempt by the Government of Bulgaria to dictate the past in the present is a play for the future of Macedonia.
And it is all about raw power. And the fact that they covet Macedonia.
Zoran Zaev, for his part, will give in to the demands of the Bulgarians because he is both vain and weak, a bully, and a coward, a Quisling and a man desperate to save his own skin, a man who believes he is serious and taken seriously by others while not understanding the truth — that he is seen as a pathetic joke both by Macedonians and the international elites whose attention he craves.
None of this, however, means that Macedonians — individuals or institutions — must agree with him or his government.
And the time will come again, soon, when Macedonians can tell the Bulgarians to bugger off, mind their own business, celebrate whatever they like, but that Goce Delcev was, and remains, a Macedonian.
Remember, to paraphrase British author Douglas Murray, you can’t have a future if you hate your past and you can’t have a future if you disagree on the fundamental historical foundations of your country.
