Skopje 'Knew About Bulgaria's Friendship Treaty'

Officials remained silent due to disagreements it had with some of the proprosal's contents, the sources claim.

A source cited by A1 TV on Thursday said that Skopje received the draft deal, which consisted of 13 articles, last year.

Allegedly, the reason for keeping it under wraps was that some of the articles in the text could legitimise Sofia’s right to stall Skopje’s EU and NATO integration bids over bilateral issues.

In addition, Skopje reportedly found some aspects of the draft treaty to be problematic, including the proposals to hold joint celebrations of some historical events that concern both states, A1 informed.

After Sofia this week announced it has sent the proposed treaty to Skopje, the Macedonian Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that it was seriously reviewing the contents.

Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman, Vesela Cherneva told Macedonian media on Thursday that her country does not plan to condition its support for Macedonia’s aspirations to enter the EU and NATO on the signing of the deal.

Although Skopje and Sofia officially have friendly relations, the states have opposite readings of some historical events that concern both sides, which has caused tension in the past.
 
While many Bulgarian scientists argue that the ethnic origin of Macedonians is Bulgarian, Macedonian historians see the Macedonian identity as a separate ethnicity.

The two countries also have some disagreements concerning minorities. Skopje claims that a considerable Macedonian minority lives in western Bulgaria while Sofia says that these people are Bulgarians. Sofia also complains that Bulgarians living in Macedonia are subject to repression.

A seemingly trivial court custody case involving a woman who lives in Macedonia but holds a Bulgarian passport and considers herself to be Bulgarian strained relations between the two countries last year and prompted accusations of hate speech.

Bulgaria and Macedonia signed a declaration of mutual understanding and cooperation back in 1999. In it both sides agreed not to take hostile action against each other nor support activists who sought to harm the peace and territorial integrity of either state.

Some in the Macedonian public suspect that there are hidden intentions behind the Bulgarian draft document.

“Bulgaria’s friendship offer is probably less humiliating than the Greek one but it is safe to say it is not easy to swallow either,” one of the editors of the local daily Utrinski Vesnik, Erol Rizaov wrote in his column on Friday.

“If that weren't the case, the two countries prime ministers and presidents would have been embracing each other in front of the cameras a long time ago,” Rizaov notes.

The new draft proposal suggests increased cooperation in a number of fields, including the economy, infrastructure, energy projects and the fight against organised crime.