North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that Bulgaria had no grounds to comment on human rights after Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced that he would raise the issue of the treatment of Bulgarians in North Macedonia with Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
“A country that avoids implementing several dozen judgments of the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights has the least grounds to comment on human rights. These are provocations that we hear continuously. This is anything but good-neighborly relations,” Mickoski said.
He said that there was no court ruling against North Macedonia establishing that the government violates or infringes on the human rights of its citizens. According to Mickoski, the authorities in Skopje should not respond to Sofia using the same rhetoric, as this would lead to new tensions and could be used on the international stage.
“We must respond to them with reason, with arguments, with a clear strategy, and that is how our government operates,” the Prime Minister of North Macedonia said.
Radev: The problems facing Bulgarians are deepening
On November 12, Rumen Radev said that he would discuss the issue with Alain Berset. The Bulgarian Prime Minister said that there had been no change in the attitude of the authorities in North Macedonia toward Bulgarians in the country and that their problems were deepening.
“I will raise once again the issue that we continue to discuss with him every time, namely that there has been no change in the attitude of the authorities of the Republic of North Macedonia toward our compatriots in that country. On the contrary, the problems are deepening,” Rumen Radev said.The exchanged positions continue the dispute between Sofia and Skopje over the treatment of Bulgarians in North Macedonia and the implementation of the judgments of the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights.
Sources: vesti.bg, bntnews.bg