The Bulgarian authorities can't wait for even a small and insignificant incident to break out in order to shout with drums and at the top of their voices that Macedonia is leading an anti-Bulgarian policy and that it has no place in the EU. On the other hand, the Macedonian diplomacy, led by Bujar Osmani, uses every opportunity to woo Sofia, although those efforts do not meet any reaction, at least positive, on the Bulgarian side, on the contrary.

The latest incidents related to the beating of the person HP (privately a potential dealer or cocaine addict or both, and officially the secretary of the association of citizens who consider themselves Bulgarians, "Tsar Boris 3" from Ohrid) and the commemoration of the moment when a Bulgarian woman killed a Serb in Skopje during the Serbian occupation (or administration, who caress) of Macedonia, only confirm this finding.

Namely, last week a small number of Bulgarian citizens from Bulgaria came to Skopje, to the place where, during the Second World War, the Bulgarian occupation authorities undoubtedly erected a memorial, wanting to mark the place where Mara Buneva, a terrorist from Macedonia with a Bulgarian national feeling, assassinated the Serbian police chief Velimir Prelić in 1928, at a time when both Serbian and Bulgarian propaganda had unleashed the assimilationist policy on the Macedonian population at its strongest.

A few days later, in a fight in Ohrid, HP, secretary of the association of citizens who feel like Bulgarians from Ohrid, had his jaw broken. Even before the prosecution came out with a statement about the reasons for the fight, avalanches of reactions arrived from official Sofia in which they strongly condemned the attack on the person HP, which was caused only because he felt that he was Bulgarian, and the people who beat him did not they liked it. By the way, we are talking about a person who, waking up one morning, took off his T-shirt with the sun from Kutlesh and on the square in Ohrid (symbolically) unfurled the Bulgarian tricolor shouting: "Ohrid is a Bulgarian city", after previously receiving the thirty pieces of silver which he used to buy cocaine.

In other words, the main pillar of Bulgaria in Macedonia, personified in the person of HP, was a member and sympathizer of VMRO DPMNE, as evidenced by numerous photos in which he is pictured with three raised fingers and in which there are senior leaders of this party, including Hristijan Mickoski. After that, the desire to take pictures with "famous" persons is transferred from "our" VMRO, to the Bulgarian VMRO, so photos follow with the famous Macedonian hater and punished (for showing a Nazi salute in the hall of the European Parliament and persona non grata in the announcement). MEP Djambaski and with the now forgotten Karakachanov, for whom almost no one votes in the last few election cycles, not even those who received Bulgarian citizenship through his "privatized" Agency for Bulgarians Abroad (for which there was an affair with taking bribes in the Bulgarian public ).

The reason for this "rearrangement" of the person HP became known two days after the incident in Ohrid, after the Ministry of the Interior issued an announcement that during an examination carried out in the atar of the village of Leskoec near Ohrid, cocaine was found and confiscated from the person HP and a criminal charge was filed against him. report for the committed crime of "unauthorized production and placing on the market of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors", so most likely he was under the influence of these substances and may not even have been aware of the representatives of the VMRO.

This whole circus culminated with the "special military operation", in which Rumen, Gulab and Nikolay sent a Bulgarian state plane to "evacuate" the HP person in Sofia. Now that the Macedonian and Bulgarian public can breathe a sigh of relief, because the person HP is safe (as far as the author of these lines is concerned, he can stay there and not return at all), we can ask the question which from a professional point of view it bothers me, and that is: How can this person leave the country freely, and a criminal complaint has been filed against him, if it is known that for such crimes usually the measure of detention is determined or in the best case (for the accused) his travel permit is taken away right?

Here we have to ask ourselves, on which "dereje" did the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations fall? After the breakup of SFRY, Bulgaria had the opportunity to make Macedonia a friend, and the two close nations to start a new stage of their relations. Only visionaries and people with broad ideas could see that, such as the presidents Kiro Gligorov and Zhelju Zhelev, during whose time the warming of relations between the two countries began. Unfortunately, that process lasted very short, and then came some other politicians with other agendas who ruined Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the possibility of cooperation and above all, creating a climate of trust and friendship. With the recent events of a few years ago and the Bulgarian veto for Macedonia, I am afraid that that chance has been irretrievably lost.

When the discussion was held on whether or not to accept the so-called French proposal for lifting the Bulgarian veto and starting Macedonia's negotiations with the EU, the majority of free-thinking intellectuals, and this was generally the opinion of the great majority of citizens, were of the opinion that that proposal should not be accepted because it will only mean opening Pandora's box and a prelude to increasing the appetites of the Bulgarian side. After recent events it becomes crystal clear. Those who accepted the French proposal now, from this perspective, surely regret that they did so only for a few photos and a "pat" on the back from Brussels, which have already faded in the citizens' memory. What remains is the bitter taste in the mouth that the problems with Bulgaria are just beginning and that Macedonia's path to the EU will be hindered by many more people with the initials HP who, working on their agenda, are holding an entire country hostage. But unfortunately, "it's late, baby, the latch has fallen."

All this is the official version of events, but if we scratch a little under the surface, this whole situation can be seen from a completely different angle. Let's ask ourselves the question: Who benefits from the instability of the Balkans and who does it suit? Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia or Kosovo or any other country is insignificant to analyze individually and therefore the stability of the entire Balkans should be seen together in relation to the overall developments in the world period. If we start from the CUI BONO assumption, the knowledge that the Macedonian security services have, which was presented to the public by President Pendarovski, especially on the day of commemoration of Gotse Delchev's birthday (February 4), the ready reaction of official Sofia to the event from Ohrid , it says enough that an orchestrated and pre-prepared operation is currently being conducted, the aim of which is to block Macedonia's negotiations with the EU, that is to say that it remains an open question. Let me repeat, here Macedonia plays a secondary role, i.e. the action is not aimed at Macedonia, but things are put in an unfavorable general context - aimed at endangering the stabilization of relations in the Balkans and the joining of all the countries of the region to the EU, which would finally close the open nationalist claims of all the countries that make up the Balkan Peninsula.

The main instigator of the disruption of the relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria, in the last period, is the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev. He with his statements towards Macedonia, but in general the statements he makes about the war in Ukraine (one of his epic statements is that giving military aid to Ukraine would be adding fuel to the fire. Which speaks volumes for his pro-Russian and anti NATO position, and that at a time when NATO is negotiating to give significant military aid to Ukraine, which could also mean a turning point in the war), it can be safely said that he is acting as a spokesman for the Kremlin, and hence it is easy to concluded who is his principal and what is his goal - that the Balkans remain as a reserve neuralgic area that Russia can escalate and be a potential second front if the situation in Ukraine breaks away completely from Russian control.

The provocateurs did not manage to provoke a negative reaction from the Macedonians during the event dedicated to Mara Buneva, despite the harsh rhetoric. Well, being a "Patient" once is not so bad.. In order for the situation to escalate before February 4, it was surely necessary to make some new incident and after the provocation with Mara Buneva failed, the creation of a new crisis situation caused by the beating of a marginal person such as the person HP, so that the tension can be kept until February 4 when the main incident is expected which, if it happened, would cool the relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria for a long period of time and would strengthened the Bulgarian veto, which was never actually lifted. Keeping Macedonia's negotiations with the EU closed will also mean maintaining tensions and inflaming nationalisms on both sides, which ultimately results in increasing destabilization in the region, which, let me repeat, only suits Russia.

As for the EU and its representatives, they are expectedly silent. They are not from here. Good judgement; any comment on this topic would add fuel to the already fueled fire of Balkan stupidity and irrationality. In poker, he who has a stone face wins...

(The author is a lawyer)