By Boban Jovanovski, UMD Director of Public Policy – This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Bulgaria’s newly elected Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, revealed a cabinet whose anti-Macedonian credentials would make even Greek Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyannis, blush.  Mr. Borissov himself burnished these credentials when he claimed in 2008 that, as Prime Minister, he would infiltrate the Macedonian economy and force Macedonians to both respect their “Bulgarian” past, and to love Bulgaria.  Macedonian “denialists” in Bulgarian governments are nothing new.  Mr. Borissov’s rhetoric however, combined with the inclusion of one man in particular, Bozhidar Dimitrov, as minister without portfolio designated to handle “diaspora” affairs, are taken together particularly troubling signs.  

Some may be unaware that Mr. Dimitrov is the former head of the National Historical Museum of Bulgaria.  As such, he has built a reputation for glorifying the history of medieval Bulgaria, instilling pride in his compatriots over Bulgaria’s hard-fought independence, and shedding light on its ancient Thracian, Persian, Roman, and Byzantine past.  He is however, arguably most famous for not only denying the existence of a distinct, Macedonian nation, but of denigrating anyone who claims to be Macedonian as a mere “Serbo-communist.” 

Alone, Mr. Dimitrov fits the profile of the majority of nationalistic Balkan politicians.  His inclusion in any government, particularly as the minister charged with assisting Bulgarians abroad, demands some inquiry into the motives of a Bulgarian foreign policy towards a nationality that Mr. Dimitrov expressly rejects.  That he has little, if any diplomatic-consular experience should be a wake-up call to those apologists who prefer to give the new government the benefit of the doubt.

It should surprise no one that one of Mr. Dimitrov’s first acts, as Diaspora Minister, was aimed directly at the Macedonian judiciary.  Recently, a young mother with joint Macedonian-Bulgarian citizenship, Spasska Mitrova, was arrested and jailed for flouting a court order granting her husband visitation rights to their young daughter.  Despite the clear breach of Macedonian law, Mr. Dimitrov leapt to his feet, declaring that Ms. Mitrova was forcibly imprisoned because of her Bulgarian citizenship (and associated self-identity).  Mr. Dimitrov even offered to take her place in prison.  Her allies within Macedonia, particularly in the RADKO organization (named after the late Nazi-sympathizer Vancho “Radko” Mihailov), repeated these claims.  Earlier this summer, Macedonia’s former Health Minister, Vlado Dimov, was arrested in Poland and freed only after Bulgarian authorities intervened to “assist one of their citizens.”  Mr. Dimov remains a wanted felon in Macedonia for his role in a massive corruption scandal.

In both these cases, the offending party retained their Macedonian citizenship and thereby remained subject to Macedonian law.  Consular precedent allows sovereign states to apply their own laws within their respective borders and only accredited diplomats may claim immunity from prosecution.  All others must obey the laws of the country in which they find themselves.  For Bulgarian officials to now suggest their citizens in the Republic of Macedonia deserve either special “diplomatic” or “extraterritorial” immunity from local law in criminal cases certainly does not bode well, particularly given the stinging EU rebuke issued to Sofia precisely as a result of Bulgaria’s rampant corruption and criminality.

Of equal concern, is Mr. Dimitrov’s insistence that Bulgaria join Greece in blocking Macedonia’s entry into the EU and NATO.  Mr. Dimitrov’s grounds for this strategy is the baseless charge that Macedonia does not respect the rights of its ethnic minorities.  Normally, such an accusation would be grounds for a veto; however, Macedonia actually is the only state in the region where ethnic minorities are granted the same status as the majority demographic in the state.  The 2001 Framework Agreement ended Macedonia’s civil conflict and stipulated that Macedonia’s state policy towards minorities would be among the most liberal in the region.  In perhaps the cruelest irony, Macedonia registered and allowed the formation of the RADKO organization, whose sole purpose is to deny the existence of a Macedonian nationality and to promote the concept of a Greater Bulgaria.  At the same time, a Macedonian political party seeking legal status in Bulgaria has repeatedly been denied permission to register, even after the Bulgarian State lost a series of lawsuits at the European Court of Human Rights.  One could say that the Bulgarian pot is calling the Macedonian kettle black; actually Mr. Dimitrov has seen in the Macedonian kettle his very own reflection.
 
It is sad that Bulgarian officials continually use the “Macedonian question” to distract Bulgarian citizens from the difficulties they face and the difficulties those very same officials’ policies have created with Brussels and their EU partners.  None of this is coincidental – for decades, Bulgaria has nursed a sense of injured pride following repeated failed attempts to conquer Macedonia.  In all probability, the prevailing motto in Sofia now reads, “What Athens began, we will end.”  The Republic of Macedonia has done what the international community has asked of it and we are confident that Balkan chauvinism, laced with scandal and masquerading as struggles for human rights certainly will deceive no one.

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