No matter how much the politicians near Vardar may not want it, they will still have to hit him on request in Sofia. This is what the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen recommended to them that day, on Friday, in Skopje, where she was on a several-hour visit as the last stage of her routine annual tour of the Western Balkans.
Her host and interlocutor, the Prime Minister of the RSM Hristijan Mickoski, usually arrogant and self-confident in his public appearances, this time was as meek as a pet and immediately recommended that his head of diplomacy send a note to Sofia requesting a meeting with Velislava Petrova-Chamova. He was so humble that he said all this to journalists at the press conference after his talks with the guest from Brussels. Anyway, Timcho Mutsunski was going to go to Sofia for some forum about Corridor 8, to pray and meet his colleague. Things like that.
Coincidentally or not, Tuesday is October 6. This is the anniversary of the death of Tsar Samuil, who 1012 years ago, at the sight of his blinded soldiers, had a heart attack and died. This is the narrative that is used in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and not only in them, and which is the final touch on the biography of the glorious military leader and ruler, adding the necessary dose of historical drama to his life and work.
On this very day, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of the Republic of North Macedonia, Timcho Mucunski, should be in Sofia, and it probably depends only on him whether he will not spend at least half an hour of his precious time to go to the Basilica of "St. Sophia" and bow before the marble sarcophagus with the mortal remains of Tsar Samuil. The Bulgarian diplomats, his hosts, could afford a small dose of treachery and suggest that he do so with the clear awareness that if he comes to Sofia, one of the prohibitions that he must follow at all costs and under all circumstances is precisely this - in no way should he go to pay homage to the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil, resting in “St. Sophia“ on Bulgarian soil. In no way and under no circumstances! Not that such practices do not exist in diplomacy, of course they do!
It would be interesting to check the parameters of the mandate with which he came. Since the organizers on the Bulgarian side of the welcoming of Samuil's mortal remains did not seem to have bothered to extend an official invitation to the politicians and institutions in North Macedonia, but even if they had, there would hardly have been a positive response. So a test of the willingness of the authorities across the border to accept the news about Samuil in a civilized manner and confirm a European attitude towards it would not be superfluous.
This, by the way, did not prevent a photo from appearing on social networks with Gordana Silyanovska-Davkova and Hristiyan Mickovski, both dressed in mourning, bowing their heads in front of the marble coffin with the remains of Tsar Samuil. They had reconsidered their decision not to come, but they did not come, because - according to their scientists, these were not the bones of Samuil and therefore there was no point in paying tribute to a person they did not know who he was. The picture is a complete fake, of course, generated by artificial intelligence, which many people, serious at that, have caught on to. The pranksters on social networks have increased quite a bit, as I see, and there are as many topics about this in the political practice of the rulers in Skopje as you want.
I don't want to dive deep into the waters of the reaction there regarding Saturday's ceremony. Still, I want to preserve some of my emotion from the great act - the return of Tsar Samuil's mortal remains. And that wouldn't be possible if one read and listened to everything that was said and written there on this occasion. It hurts them a lot! And there's a reason - a friend from Skopje, a very intelligent person, had told me that the idea of the centuries-old Macedonian identity, which dates back to biblical times, is based on the myths of Alexander the Great and his family, of Samuil, Gotse Delchev and Kosta Solev-Ratsin. If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt his words, the concerns are justified - Greece pulled the rug out from under their feet with Antiquity, now Bulgaria is "taking" Samuil and the Middle Ages from them, we argue about Gotse, although it is clear there too, and as for Kocho Racin - we will see!
So with Timcho Mutsunski. No one is to blame for him becoming a victim of this combination of two events - our ceremony with the return of Tsar Samuil's mortal remains to Sofia and von der Leyen's recommendations given to Mickoski on Friday during his visit to Skopje. If you ask me, it was a real washing of hands following the example of that Pontius Pilate from the Bible, after Mickoski's request for the European Union or its representative to mediate in the dialogue with Bulgaria, Ursula simply told him - go to Sofia and understand each other. We are sending diplomats and politicians from North Macedonia to Brussels and there to fight the European consensus, which insists on changing the country's constitution and including Bulgarians in it as a state-forming people. For his part, Mitskoski swears that he does not want bilateralization in the search for a solution to continue on the European path, that is, he does not want this solution to be sought in bilateral talks with Sofia. And the head of the European Commission is pushing him towards that very thing. And come on, Mutsunski should write a note requesting time to meet with his Bulgarian colleague.
So, apart from this strange recommendation by von der Leyen, the story has long been painfully familiar - no matter what happens in the relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, no matter how clogged the communication channel is and how many tangled knots we have to untie between ourselves, in the end there is always someone to recommend that you get in the car and go under Vitosha. I will also say something personal - during my entire time as a correspondent in Skopje, I have needed a medical examination and advice twice.
Both times I turned to my neighbor in my office apartment, Vesna, a doctor with many years of practice who worked in one of the local hospitals. In both cases, the woman wanted to help me, but both times she simply told me: “Kosta, get in the car and go to Sofia! There is no one here to help you!“ I listened to her and it's good that I did!
So on Tuesday, Mucunski will be in Sofia. Will there be an event related to Corridor 8? As far as I understand, he was angry that the department he heads - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, was not invited as a co-organizer. However, in this case, it is not Timcho's unrest that excites me. A colleague who is very knowledgeable about the matter told me that the signals that the Bulgarian hosts will send about the prospects for relations will be very important. For example, whether he will meet with Velislava Petrova-Chamova somewhere on the sidelines of the Corridor meeting, or whether he will be given time in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Will anyone from Rumen Radev and Iliyana Yotova agree to meet with him and if so, how much time will be given to him. Will there be any public appearance, meeting with journalists or a press conference? All things that are symptomatic of diplomatic practice and which in many cases provide information about the content of the visit and its results. Once we have brought it to the point where there is no predictability in our bilateral dialogue, where we are lurking like the most adversaries about what we will say and how we will say it, where we do not trust each other, and we are supposedly the closest in the Balkans.
It is no coincidence that Mitskoski stated that the note will ask for time for a conversation, because the previous meetings of Mutsunski with his Bulgarian colleague were not substantive, something like that. However, there is a risk here that even if they have enough time available, the two could very quickly end the conversation, if Mutsunski comes and repeats Mitskoski's threat, for example, that while he is prime minister there will be no change to the constitution and, respectively, the inclusion of Bulgarians in the basic law will not happen. Why talk any more? We are clear - we have agreements that must be respected. Period.
Otherwise, the Bulgarian capital, and our entire country, are hospitable. Now in Sofia we have another reason to welcome guests. Tsar Samuil is here.