This is a deliberately sought conflict. The North Macedonians have no right to be angry that we did not put up the Macedonian flag during the visit of the President of North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska. When you are on an unofficial visit, it is a courtesy to inform your colleague, but they are not required to offer ceremonial honors. The Macedonian flag can only be displayed at official meetings or out of goodwill. This was stated by the leader of VMRO Krasimir Karakachanov in the program “Face to Face” on bTV, quoted by novini.bg.
“We saw that the Macedonian flag was also absent at the meeting of the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski in Croatia, but there was no such violent reaction. What Bulgaria should be doing, but is not doing, is to work actively with our European partners following the example of Greece. The problems are no longer only between Bulgaria and Macedonia, but between the candidate member Macedonia and the entire EU”, he explained.
„Mitskoski is deliberately looking for a provocation, therefore Bulgaria must engage our European partners and warn them that they risk freezing their European membership. He made provocations even in his position of opposition“, recalled Karakachanov.
„And there are provocations towards Greece, but they react, and we do not. Due to a misunderstanding of the subject, we are too tolerant”, noted the politician.
„I also warned when we signed the agreement with Macron. This only delayed the problem, not solved it. Every tolerant attitude of ours, they take it as weakness. We see that they are kind to us, but they are constantly stabbing us in the back. They do it because they think we have some territorial claims, but that was resolved with the signing of the Treaty of Good Neighborliness, said the former defense minister.
„We observe that towards Serbia they are trying to create bridges, and towards Bulgaria they are trying to break them, and purposefully. Attention should be paid to their fear, which is caused by the fact that the population of Macedonia will not become Serbian. They are afraid that if our relations open up, if they respect the treaty, if they recognize our common history, and a large part of the population will recognize their roots. These are duplicitous people. They fear that the warming of our relations will lead to the recognition of the de-Bulgarianization of their population. They are scared by our shared history. Therefore, I suggest that they give up their history until 1944 during Tito's rule”, Krasimir Karakachanov also said.