1 “Sanja Bozhinovska is a greater Macedonian than all of you combined,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said from the parliamentary rostrum when asked whether he knew that the Minister of Energy had a Bulgarian passport during the formation of the Government. I’m not sure if the Prime Minister has some kind of Macedonian Metre, but while his comparison of what it truly means to be Macedonian was aimed only at the SDSM MPs present, that thesis is quite insulting to those of us without Bulgarian passports.
So, Minister Sanja Bozhinovska, who in 2004 signed a document claiming she identified as Bulgarian to obtain a Bulgarian passport “for economic reasons,” is considered a greater Macedonian than those of us who hold only a Macedonian passport. As if all of us who haven’t obtained Bulgarian passports are fools, who don’t want to do business in the EU, who don’t want our children to study at significantly lower costs like EU citizens, who don’t want to cross borders easily, who’d hate owning properties somewhere in Spain, Portugal, Croatia or places like that, who like paying expensive roaming fees, who enjoy being humiliated by police officers in Germany as they count the days between stamps in our passports to check if we’ve overstayed our welcome… Nah, we definitely don’t have economic reasons. Nah, we don’t want the “business crème de le crème from Ukraine to Spain and from Scandinavia to Athens” to know about us, as the Prime Minister suggested regarding Bozhinovska.
I know several Macedonians who hide the fact they hold Bulgarian passports. When I ask them why they obtained a Bulgarian passport if they don’t identify as Bulgarian, their parents aren’t Bulgarian, their grandparents aren’t Bulgarian, they haven’t lived in Bulgaria long enough to qualify for citizenship, they don’t speak Bulgarian, they typically reply with: “Well, you know…” Well, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me why? “Well, you know.” Again, I don’t know. I don’t know how I’d claim to be Bulgarian if I’m not.
Simply put, you don’t identify as Bulgarian, yet you chose to go there, you consciously gave up your identity, you spat on your ancestors, your family, everything that came before you, you lied to the Bulgarian state claiming that you speak Bulgarian and feel Bulgarian. Why? For economic reasons? That sounds like selling your soul, doesn’t it?
“Well, you know.” Well, I don’t know. I know how to get a Bulgarian passport. However, it wouldn’t even cross my mind to trample over my values and trade away my identity. First my own, then the identity of the entire nation. Because, one by one, you’ve collectively become 150,000.
Now Mickoski and Bozhinovska are claiming that those who’ve sold their souls are greater Macedonians than us. Because they wanted to go to the EU faster than us. Those same people are parading around as proud Macedonians while labelling those of us who’ve kept only their Macedonian passports as Northerners, and throwing all sorts of other insults… They found it easier to say they were Bulgarian than saying they were Macedonians from North Macedonia. They whine that we were forced to change our name, when in reality, they’ve changed their identity. They didn’t give a damn that they had to betray their parents and grandparents, that they had to pay for lawyers, nor did they mind sharing their residence address with a thousand other people registered at a utility pole in Blagoevgrad. As for us, who hold only Macedonian passports – at least we endured, we remained Macedonians. But as for them, “the economists” – they have willingly self-identified as Bulgarians.
That’s why, just mind your own business. In any case, your guiding idea is economic reasons. Stop fooling us with nationalism. Don’t even try to use patriotism. You’ve said more than enough. You’re only interested in money.
2 After Bulgaria reported that the Director of the National Security Agency, Bojan Hristovski, took the TOEFL English language exam at a language studio that doesn’t administer such exams, Mickoski said: National security shouldn’t be a topic of interest for the public.
You don’t say. Then what should be a topic of interest for the public? The Bulgarian and Czech citizenships of Minister Bozhinovska are matters of national security. The energy sector is at stake. How can we be sure she’s not fonder of her other two motherlands, the Czech Republic or Bulgaria, than Macedonia? However, Mickoski does trust her. I wonder how, considering she’s lied twice already. The first time was when she lied to the Bulgarian state by claiming to be Bulgarian, but she wasn’t, and the second time was when she didn’t tell Macedonian voters that she had two other spare motherlands.
You’d think to yourself, Mickoski made a mistake, he didn’t know Bozhinovska held a Bulgarian passport and didn’t know Hristovski had an English language certificate issued by a non-existent language studio in Bulgaria. But then again, doesn’t VMRO-DPMNE have other people at their disposal? Why is he so determined to defend them?
It turns out that the “Julia” studio in Plovdiv also issued fake TOEFL certificates to other people who wanted to be directors in state institutions. They didn’t take the English exam here, in some of the schools certified for issuing TOEFL certificates, and would rather go to Bulgaria. They wanted a top-quality EU TOEFL, not the rubbish Macedonian TOEFL we offer.
This whole situation with the English exam taken in Plovdiv reminded me of an old commercial where two elderly people are studying English from a tape recorder, repeating: “Let’s go to the disco tonight.” This new age brings with it new challenges. “Let’s go to Plovdiv tonight. We’ll be greater Macedonians than Macedonians.”
Two principals have already received suspended prison sentences for fraud after submitting forged certificates from the same language studio where the new director of the NSA took the exam. However, Hristovski isn’t just a principal of a village school, but the head of a secret service, whose job, among other things, is to prevent such frauds.
Prime Minister Mickoski presented some files with such forged certificates and gave them to Venko Filipche. Why give them to the leader of SDSM? He should have given them directly to the Prosecutor’s Office. That’s the right address. And while we’re waiting for the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Prosecutor’s Office to outwit one another who’s the competent authority to investigate the scheme with the English certificates issued in Plovdiv, the evidence can be destroyed.
What did they think? That Bulgarians would go easy on us? That they would respect their privacy? That they wouldn’t publish their citizenships, their companies, certificates, and diplomas, no matter if they’re forged or genuine? Let them publish them. As if it wasn’t enough to be humiliated by singing Bulgarian songs, let them be humiliated a second time. That way we’d know who we’re dealing with back home.
3 Mickoski decided there was no need to write letters to the European Union with his proposal that the inclusion of Bulgarians in our Constitution should be with delayed effect until our EU accession. I think he should have written it and passed it in the Assembly, but hey, perhaps he has some kind of strategy. Meanwhile, the leader of DUI, Ali Ahmeti, worked his fingers to the bone by writing letters to our neighbours, the EU, and the USA. He’s complaining that the Framework Agreement is at risk.
The Framework Agreement is already part of the Constitution. Why does Ahmeti keep going on and on about the framework? Does that mean that they’re only interested in the fair ethnic representation aspect of the Constitution, and couldn’t care less for the rest of the Constitution? After all, the Constitution regulates others rights and obligations, not just the number of Albanians who should be ministers and directors.
Let’s be real, they don’t care about the Constitution or the laws. They don’t care about the Framework Agreement either. The only thing they care about is being in power.
4 Mickoski has a great idea to invite all of us, along with the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) to participate in devising a national strategy through 2050.
In the context of strategic thinking, I’d like to point out that October 29 marked the 80th anniversary of the first publication of the “Nova Makedonija” newspaper. At the end of this year, it will be 80 years since the launch of the Macedonian Radio programme. This month marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of all Macedonian towns from the fascist occupiers.
The newspaper marked the jubilee with a front-page feature. And that was it. As a privately-held newspaper, it can’t do much more. However, the state didn’t think it was necessary to organise a formal academy event. There was no strategy devised by MANU, nor was there any greeting from the president, the prime minister, or the president of the Assembly. There wasn’t a single billboard or a celebration. Completely overlooked. 80 years, it’s as though it never happened.
We sing “Nova Makedonija” and the Macedonian Radio in our anthem – “New songs, new newspapers.”
The Bulgarians aren’t to blame for a country that fails to remember the pillars of statehood, which are rooted in anti-fascism.
5 A so-called “deaf room” has been established in the Parliament, designed with special protection against wiretapping and data breaches, where the most sensitive security issues for the state will be discussed, accessible only to those holding the highest-level security clearance.
Back here, the moment two people enter a room, it’s no longer “deaf.” By the time they leave the meeting, the third and fourth individuals outside will already know what was discussed and will be spreading it far and wide.
It’s not in vain that even during the Ottoman era, there was a saying about Macedonians: Two komitadjis – three snitches.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
