1 As we wait for the working groups of Kiril Petov and Dimitar Kovachevski to agree whether the fundamental civil value upon which the EU rests shall apply for Macedonians, Europe is disappearing. And not just symbolically, because with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the initial idea from the 1950s of a European community that will prevent a new war on European soil now loses its meaning. But literally, too. Thirty two years after the fall of The Berlin Wall, we’re witnessing the rise of a new Ukrainian wall on the east of Europe. And an additional black hole on the Balkans, much closer to the heart of Europe.

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel has stated that the war in Ukraine is a turning point for the history of Europe. What about the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia and eventually in Macedonia, were they not bloody and tragic enough for the EU to consider them as turning points back then? They could’ve absorbed the entire region and stabilize the Balkans once and for all. And not leave dimwits who draw their inspiration from authoritarian regimes and thus endanger the security on the entire continent.

2 The German ambassador to this country, Anke Holstein, has noted that “today it is quite clear what it means to be a NATO member. Prespa means NATO membership and a stable North Macedonia”.

Macedonia joined NATO at the last gasp. Germany realized that Prespa’s favorable winds should be utilized, so as the holder of the EU Presidency was chasing a date for the accession talks with Macedonia and Albania. Unfortunately, there are people in the EU who still don’t have the political vision to recognize the value of the Prespa agreement for their own safety.

They have screwed it up at their very first chance. Out of selfish reasons. First, the local elections were coming up for Macron, so he got scared of the EU candidates and found himself coming up with new methodologies for the expansion. Although we have the population of a Paris suburb. It was just the right amount of time for Bulgaria to realize how much power they’re given by the EU. And it’s decided to use that power to argue over who Goce Delchev belongs to.

Putin has been deeply installed into Ukraine for eight years, and the European Union was once “seriously concerned” and “deeply concerned” another time. Because the political elites in each of the 27 EU member states were trying to accomplish their own short-term goals. And Putin, as we see it, had a long-term goal.

Goce Delchev is just an excuse for the humiliation that the European Union allows Bulgaria to put us through. Much in the same way, Putin’s excuse for the war is the condition of Russians in Donbas. We don’t argue with the EU about Goce Delchev. We argue about whether the civil value of self-determination is valid when it comes to us joining the EU.

3 In spite of all the millions of euros and material support given to Macedonia from EU’s taxpayers, trust in the EU has fallen to an all-time low. The latest research by the “Societas Civilis” Institute for Democracy, in collaboration with the German foundation Konrad-Adenauer, has shown that only 9.5% of Macedonian citizens believe that the EU has the biggest influence in this country, while two years ago, that number was 44.8%. The perception of the EU as our greatest ally has also dropped from 43.2% in 2019 to just 13.1%.

The mood in Macedonia is not pro-Russian. Neither is it an anti-Western one. The mood is simply being disappointed in the West, which decided to deny us the basic values of self-determination.

We’re thankful for the help. But, just imagine how much more efficiently the European money would’ve been spent if we had already started the negotiations. Or, if we already were in the EU so that we too could contribute to the development of the Union. A lot of time has passed since 1991, when the Badinter Commission of the then-European community consisted only of the presidents of the constitutional courts of France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy decided and recommended that only Slovenia and Macedonia met the standards to be internationally recognized. Ah, what could have been.

Now everyone’s stating that the Russian attack on Ukraine represents a blatant violation of international law. What about the Greek embargo, when they blocked us and left us for dead for 18 months in 1994-1995, wasn’t that a violation of international law? In December of 2011, when we won the dispute with Greece in the International Court of Justice in The Hague over a flagrant violation of the Interim Agreement, they were laughing at us – what did you expect, that we’d arrest Greece? Justice is one thing, and politics a completely different one.

Everyone keeps saying – continue with the reforms. Good ruling, anticorruption, free market, legal system, prosecution, public administration, reforms, reforms, reforms… The only reform that’s left for us is how to include Bulgarians in the Constitution. Just to satisfy the whims of five or six marginal politicians who have never done well on any elections and yet their only function is to be Bulgaria’s tongs in igniting the flame.

When people are not integrated into a wider, more developed community and feel conned and rejected by said community they tend to buy into the “firm hand” myth. They are amazed by authoritarians of Putin’s kind. And what has Bulgaria accomplished by defending their national interest by trying to prove that Macedonians are Bulgarians and unless we admit that, they’ll keep us in the black hole outside of the EU? Let them keep putting vetoes and let them bring the Russian boot even closer to the EU.

4 Those who are amazed by the power of the Russian army and Putin’s audacity, who “gave the West what was coming to them”, should re-read and pay more attention to his statement announcing the aggression on Ukraine. Especially the part where he says: “Lenin is the author and the architect of Ukraine, he wronged Russia. Modern Ukraine was fully created by Russia, or by the Bolsheviks to be more specific. It is part of our history.”

Replace the word Lenin with Tito. Replace the word Ukraine with Macedonia. Replace the word Russia with Bulgaria. Replace the word Putin with Radev. And the decision by the Russian Duma from 2022 with the Declaration by the Bulgarian Assembly in 2019.

Moreover, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev keeps stating that we’re brothers and that “no one wants Macedonia to join the EU more than Bulgaria”. Same as the way Putin has attacked Ukraine in order to prevent a war between two brotherly people.

It wasn’t that long ago when Karakachanov threatened that he’d send an engineering regiment in Macedonia to replace the plates on the antifascist monuments. The threat came from a Minister of Defense of an EU member-state.

Putin is punishing Ukrainians for not being Russians. Radev is punishing Macedonians for not being Bulgarians.

And the EU? The EU is “deeply concerned”.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski