site.btaTISP Leader Trifonov: North Macedonia's Court Sentence against Ljupco Georgievski Is Another Act of Political Anti-Bulgarian Repression

There Is Such a People (TISP) leader Slavi Trifonov said in a Facebook post on Friday that the suspended sentence by a court in Bitola, North Macedonia, against Ljupco Georgievski is "yet another political anti-Bulgarian repression".

Georgievski is a prominent representative of the Bulgarian community in North Macedonia and former head of the now-closed Ivan Mihaylov Cultural Club. He was charged after posting on social media quotes by Ivan Mihaylov, which were seen as xenophobic and hate speech.

In his post, Trifonov wrote that the suspended sentence to one year in prison issued on Thursday is for "xenophobia, racism, and distribution of racial hatred online through quotes by Ivan Mihaylov and for presenting the Macedonian Blood Wedding play of Voydan Chernodrimski." "North Macedonia's authorities got offended that during the play's performance, it was said that the author was a Bulgarian Revivalist and his work, part of the Bulgarian cultural heritage and a representation of Bulgarians' fight and strive for freedom," Trifonov wrote. 

"Now. Let me make something clear to the North Macedonians. First, Voydan Chernodrimski is a Bulgarian Revivalist, Bulgarian playwright, Bulgarian theatre worker and Bulgarian writer. Second, the Macedonian Blood Wedding play is part of Bulgarian cultural heritage and an embodiment of the struggles and strive for freedom of the Bulgarians. For your freedom! Because, until the decision of the Comintern, you did not exist even as an idea of a nationality or a language. This is the simple historical truth. And your pathetic court with its pathetic verdict cannot change that. Third, Ivan Mihaylov, or Vanche Mihaylov as he is known, was one of the most outstanding figures of the Bulgarian national liberation movement in Macedonia, a long-time leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization," the TISP leader's post reads. 

"This latest political anti-Bulgarian and, in a sense, complex repression, only proves how right I was when I overthrew that harmful [Bulgarian] government of Kiril Petkov. Because you are neither ready, nor deserving, nor worthy of being called Europeans," Trifonov commented. 

At the end of his post, he paraphrased the words of the convicted Georgievski. "You are not bothered by the name of the Ivan Mihaylov association, but by the Macedonian Bulgarians. It bothers you that they exist, that they are a reality. But reality, dear North Macedonian rulers, is one such thing, which does not care about your feelings, fears and complexes. Reality exists and is truth," Trifonov wrote. In his words, as far as he was concerned, they would never join the EU.