Macedonian associations demand that Canada condemn the "anti-Macedonian actions of Bulgaria"
The President of the Macedonian International Movement for Human Rights (MMHRM), Bill Nikolov, and Vasil Sterjovski, Macedonian human rights activist from Albania and President of the Macedonian Alliance for European Integration, met with Julie Cloutier, Deputy Director of European and Euro- Asian Affairs of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs. Sterjovski is also the first Macedonian elected as an MP in Albania.
At the meeting, Nikolov explained that we are "witnesses to a dramatic increase in anti-Macedonian actions in the Balkans, resulting from the forced name change by Greece, which was illegally imposed on us by the United States and the Zaev regime that the United States installed in Macedonia ".
"There was a massive violation of international law and Macedonian laws and human and civil rights and freedoms in order to illegally impose the extremely offensive name "Northern Macedonia", which was invented to erase Macedonian identity, culture and history, in exchange for raising the Greek veto for the admission of Macedonia to NATO, which was imposed on us by the USA", he says.
"Bulgaria has intensified its attacks on Macedonians in Bulgaria, including, among others, an attack on the cultural center in Gorna Jumaya, secret police activities and arrests of participants in Macedonian rallies, and the explosion of anti-Macedonian hate speech by Bulgarian politicians and media", says the reaction of the Macedonian associations.
Furthermore, as Sterjovski explained, Bulgaria is expanding its anti-Macedonian activities in Albania, where it seeks - and receives - support from the Albanian government in its claim that the Macedonian minority in Albania has suddenly become "Bulgarian". This is done in exchange for Bulgarian support for Albania's accession to the European Union.
As Sterjovski pointed out, Bulgaria abuses its membership in the European Union, and uses various methods to assimilate Macedonians and produce a "Bulgarian" minority in Albania. She encourages Albanian citizens to take out Bulgarian passports - for which she charges thousands of euros - which will give them the privileges of citizenship in the European Union. Bulgaria then declares these people "ethnic Bulgarians".