Macedonia and Bulgaria Boost Neighbourly Ties

The visit to Bulgaria is one of the first international acts of the new head of Macedonian diplomacy |              Photo by: MNR

Macedonia's Foreign Minister, Nikola Poposki, and his Bulgarian counterpart, Nikolay Mladenov, have signed a memorandum obliging Bulgaria to help its neighbour join the EU and NATO.

“The memorandum is a significant document, which sets the basis for cooperation between the two countries... over Macedonia’s full membership of European and Euro-Atlantic structures,” the Macedonian Foreign Ministry said.

The newly appointed Macedonian Foreign Minister chose Bulgaria as one of his first foreign destinations since taking the office in July.
 
A source in the ministry told Balkan Insight under condition of anonymity that both the visit and the document should be viewed as an attempt “to warm up relations” and “put past feuds behind us”. But he said that whether both sides honoured the agreement “remains to be seen”.

Although Skopje and Sofia have friendly relations, they have opposing stances on important past and present events, which has caused tension.
 
Skopje claims that a considerable ethnic Macedonian minority lives in western Bulgaria while Sofia insists that these people are, in fact, Bulgarians. Sofia also complains that Bulgarians living in Macedonia are oppressed.

Although Bulgaria was the first country to recognise Macedonia after it declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it has not recognised the existence of a Macedonian nation and language as separate from Bulgarian.

Political mistrust escalated last year when Spaska Mitrova, a Macedonian-born woman with Bulgarian citizenship, accused the Macedonian courts of trying to take away her child because of her nationality. In a custody battle the court first awarded the child to its father, who is of Serbian decent.

The case soon spilled over into politics with some Bulgarian politicians and media vocally championing her cause. However Mitrova eventually won the custody battle.

This January another legal case left a bitter aftertaste when a Bulgarian court refused to extradite a controversial priest named Jovan Vraniskovski to Macedonia. The former Macedonian Orthodox Church cleric faces embezzlement charges.

Last year Sofia offered Skopje a comprehensive draft friendship treaty involving increased cooperation in many fields and the elimination of hate speech between the people and media of both countries.
 
Skopje said it was reviewing the document but never published an official answer. Officials in Skopje feared the draft hid what they called Sofia’s hidden agenda, expressing concern that the terms might give Sofia undue privileges.

Macedonia's authorities said this week's memorandum had nothing to do with the previous draft treaty. “That issue at the moment is completely closed,” the Macedonian Foreign Ministry told the Dnevnik daily on Thursday.

Macedonia potentially has much to gain from Bulgaria's guidance on the EU and NATO. Bulgaria joined the Atlantic Alliance in 2004 and the European club, alongside Romania, in 2007.

Macedonia's own bid to join these two organizations remains obstructed by Greece. Athens refuses to let the country enter because of the long-standing "name" dispute. It objects strongly to use of the name "Republic of Macedonia", saying it implies a territorial claim to the northern Greek province of the same name.