{"id":3394,"date":"2024-01-27T20:22:42","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T20:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maei.al\/?p=3394"},"modified":"2024-01-27T20:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T20:22:42","slug":"maei-requests-from-prime-minister-edi-rama-a-ban-on-the-activities-and-donations-from-the-bulgarian-memory-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maei.al\/en\/archives\/3394","title":{"rendered":"MAEI requests from Prime Minister Edi Rama a ban on the activities and donations from the “Bulgarian Memory” foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Macedonian Alliance for European Integration\n(MAEI) party, which represents the Macedonians in Albania, submitted a request\nto the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in which it reiterates the constant\nconcern for the Macedonian community in Albania, which “faces the constant\nefforts of the Bulgarian authorities for its assimilation, taking advantage of\nBulgaria’s membership in the European Union”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Bulgarian authorities use various means and methods\nto assimilate the Macedonian community in Albania and create a non-existent\nBulgarian community. A notable example is the activity of the “Bulgarian\nMemory” foundation and its president Milen Vrabevski from Bulgaria. Supported\nby various Bulgarian structures, this foundation corrupts Albanian officials\nthrough donations, with the aim of assimilating the Macedonians in Albania,\naccording to the letter of the MAEI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is added that this foundation repeatedly claims and\nwrites that it has the main credit for starting and organizing the entire\nprocess for the recognition of the Bulgarian minority in Albania in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– This fact alone speaks of the foundation’s\ninvolvement in the corruption of the Albanian authorities. Over the years, this\nfoundation has created a network in Albania, infiltrating various institutions\nto advance their agenda of assimilation of the Macedonian community. This\nnetwork, funded by the “Bulgarian Memory” foundation, is involved in\nthe business of Bulgarian passports in Albania, it is further stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is already known to the authorities but also to the\nentire Albanian public, it is emphasized in the letter, in the past two years\nin Albania, the local authorities for money have been issuing illegal\ncertificates of Bulgarian origin to all Albanian citizens who apply for a\nBulgarian passport in several municipalities, in order to use EU privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Top Channel television and the show “Fix Fare”, the party states, it has been proven that only the municipality of Bulqiza has issued thousands of such illegal certificates. Despite the actions against officials in Bulqiza municipality, this corrupt practice of illegally issuing certificates of Bulgarian origin continues unabated in other municipalities in Albania, controlled by the Bulgarian Memory Foundation network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition, according to MAEI, this network\ninfluenced the last population census in Albania, by installing enumerators in\nMacedonian minority areas and by pressure, threats and bribes to force Albanian\ncitizens to declare themselves Bulgarians. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-One of the measures of the “Bulgarian\nMemory” foundation for corrupting Albanian officials and for the\nassimilation of Macedonians in Albania, apart from the business with Bulgarian\npassports and illegal certificates of Bulgarian origin, are the various\ndonations that this foundation, with the support of the Bulgarian embassy, makes\nin the areas where Macedonians live in Albania, representing Macedonians as\nBulgarians and causing a revolt among Macedonians in Albania, MAEI states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of the Macedonians in Albania, the party\ncalls on the Albanian authorities to take decisive action against “this\ncriminal network” which is supported by the Bulgarian Memory Foundation,\nwhich includes an investigation into their role in the census and the illegal\nissuance of certificates of Bulgarian origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– We also demand a ban on the activities and donations\nfrom the “Bulgarian Memory” foundation in the areas where the\nMacedonian community lives, representing them as Bulgarians, because these acts\nrepresent gross interference in the internal affairs of Albania and encourage\nethnic intolerance. Macedonians\nin Albania are loyal citizens who contribute to the country through regular tax\npayments. We call on the government to invest in the development of the regions\nwhere Macedonians live. These areas, among the poorest in Albania, have been\nneglected for more than 30 years, the letter states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is assessed that\ninvesting in the areas where the Macedonian community lives is key to\n“improving living and working conditions and preventing our fellow\ncitizens from becoming victims of denial and assimilation attempts by external\nforces”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same letter was\naddressed to the Head of State Bajram Begaj, several ministries, the Ombudsman,\nthe Commission for Combating Discrimination, as well as to the international\nrepresentatives in Tirana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Macedonian Alliance for European Integration (MAEI) party, which represents the Macedonians in Albania, submitted a request to the Albanian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_GB","_original_post":"https:\/\/maei.al\/?p=3394","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7","en-GB"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3396,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394\/revisions\/3396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maei.al\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}