Bulgaria was the first to recognize us, but we forgot that it was like a "second Bulgarian state", says Muhammad Halili

Muhammad Khalili, Photo: Archive

Bulgaria was the first to recognize Macedonia as an independent state, but we have forgotten their claims as to why they recognized Macedonia, he says Muhammad Khalili, president of the non-governmental organization Council of Ambassadors, in interview for "Makfax".

- Their prime minister at the time declared: "We recognize Macedonia as the second Bulgarian state" and we did not take his statement for granted. And according to Gligorov's memoirs, the then Prime Minister Georgievski himself received the news with joy, but said that the problem with the language and the nation will be solved by history and historians. Unfortunately, a lot of time has passed since then, neither history nor politics have solved that problem, Halili says.

Analyzing the latest developments in Macedonian-Bulgarian relations, Halili assesses that Bulgaria made a mistake and is aware of it.

"Now he wants to cover his mistake. This problem came to light when Bulgaria wanted to present the thesis to the world: Yes, the state of Macedonia exists, but the Macedonian people and Macedonian language do not exist. Since their thesis was not accepted, they changed their minds and fell into a trap, so now they say: we are fighting for the rights of the Bulgarian minority living in Macedonia."

Regarding the incident with the beaten Pendikov and the reaction of the head of state, Halili assesses that Pendarovski should have waited with the reaction.

"The problem is very delicate, he was faced with a dilemma - whether to react or not to react." But any reaction, where the minefield is not cleared, has the risk of falling on a mine. "In my opinion, it would have been better if he had waited for the police-judicial proceedings to end, so that when we had a clear picture of these institutions, he would react," Halili said.

He assesses that Osmani is successfully dealing with the problem with Bulgaria.

"Some find fault with him because he is Albanian and he cares about a problem, which is typically ethnic," says Halili.

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