Macedonians in Albania say Bulgaria is trying to force them to identify as Bulgarians, widening the dispute with Skopje over history, language and identity, says BIRN’s analysis of Albania’s population census and the efforts of the Bulgarian side for the assimilation of the Macedonians.
He assesses that Bulgaria and Macedonia have been in “conflict for decades over issues of identity, language and history, which culminated in the past three years in the Bulgarian blockade of Skopje’s integration into the European Union.” But now a new front has opened in Albania.”
-During the census in Albania, members of the country’s small Macedonian minority say they were pressured by Bulgaria to identify as Bulgarians, who were only recognized as an ethnic minority in Albania in 2017. The Macedonian minority accuses EU member Bulgaria of waving EU passports around to convince Macedonians – mainly in eastern Albania, as well as on the border with Kosovo and Macedonia – to identify themselves as Bulgarians in the census, which ends on November 15. , the analysis states.
It added that the alarm was raised when Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Jotova visited Albania in September, two days before the start of the census, and attended the ceremonial start of the new school year at the Bulgarian Sunday school in Elbasan.
She recalls that Jotova also visited a village in Golo Brdo where, according to her, the inhabitants identify themselves as Bulgarians and had official meetings at a high level in Tirana.
-Bulgaria claims that ethnic Bulgarians have long been present in Albania, but were denied their true identity in both Albania and North Macedonia during communist rule, as well as in the three decades since the fall of communism and the breakup of federal Yugoslavia, is emphasized further in BIRN’s analysis.
BIRN reminds that in letters to Albanian and international bodies, Vasil Sterjovski, former member of the Albanian parliament and president of the Macedonian Alliance for European Integration, warned of an attempt to create an “artificial minority” in Albania.
– The Macedonian community must not be collateral damage on the Albanian road to the EU, he wrote on September 29, BIRN reports.
Using its veto power as an EU member, Bulgaria has tried to extract a series of concessions from North Macedonia to satisfy Bulgarians who claim that Macedonian identity and language are of Bulgarian origin, a claim deeply offensive to many Macedonians.
The issue of the Macedonian minority in Albania has also been a point of contention for years, but has come to a boil with the start of the census.
He points out that the areas where both countries claim their compatriots live are Gora, Golo Brdo and Prespa, along the Albanian border with Kosovo and Macedonia. Macedonians in Albania accuse Bulgaria of trying to use its EU status to persuade both Macedonians and Albanians to identify as Bulgarians, offering them passports as a way to access job opportunities in the EU and escape poverty.
– This not only hinders the census, but also raises serious questions about the freedoms and rights of Albanian citizens of Macedonian origin, Sterjovski wrote in the second letter dated October 19 and addressed, among others, the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Ombudsman of the country, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE and a number of foreign embassies in Tirana.
He accused “Bulgarian extremists” of making threats via social media and Bulgarian officials of visiting during the census period and offering benefits to Macedonians, often in the presence of Albanian police and census officials from the Institute of Statistics, INSTAT.
According to BIRN, in the last census in Albania, in 2011, 5,512 people identified themselves as Macedonian, or approximately 0.2 percent of the population.