site.btaForeign Minister Georgiev: Bulgaria Sees Case against Cultural Club Chair Georgievski as Politically Motivated

Bulgaria considers the case against Cultural Club in Bitola Chair Ljupcho Georgievski to be a politically motivated process, Minister of Foreign Affairs Georg Georgiev said after meeting with Georgievski at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. 

The ministry added that the talks took place as part of Bulgaria’s intensified efforts to protect the rights of Bulgarians in North Macedonia.

“Politically motivated processes that use state institutions and courts for repression against people who identify as Bulgarians and defend their identity are absolutely unacceptable in a country that claims to be European,” Georgiev told Georgievski, as quoted in the ministry's statement.

The minister reiterated that Bulgaria views the case against Georgievski as a politically motivated process. “We have little faith in the reasons given against you and the substance of your case,” Georgiev also said. During the conversation, Georgiev expressed Bulgaria’s unequivocal support for Georgievski, who received a one-year suspended sentence with a two-year probation period from the court in Bitola. The case against him is related to his activities as chair of the Ivan Mihaylov Cultural Club—an organization that drew a strong reaction from the authorities in North Macedonia and was later dissolved.

Georgiev also stressed that the right to self-determination is a fundamental principle of the European Union and cannot be questioned. “The way you defend your principles and heritage through the cultural club and your broader work is more than worthy of our support as a country, and with this we stand fully behind you,” he said.

Georgievski thanked Bulgaria for its support. “I do not regard the sentence as a shame. On the contrary—for me it is an honour to be tried as a Bulgarian defending Bulgarian heritage in Macedonia. Until a few years ago, we sought to prove our Bulgarian origin, today I have a document for Bulgarian ancestry and something my grandchildren can be proud of,” he said.

Georgiev recalled that Bulgarian institutions remain unwaveringly committed to guaranteeing the rights of Bulgarians in North Macedonia, including through the use of all international human rights mechanisms.

Later on Tuesday, President Rumen Radev is also due to meet with Georgievski. Georgievski will also be heard by the European Affairs and EU Funds Control Committee in the National Assembly.

On June 13, National Assembly Chair Nataliya Kiselova expressed her support for Ljupcho Georgievski at her meeting in Sofia with Hristian Pendikov, secretary of the cultural club King Boris the Third in Ohrid.

The parliamentary group of GERB-UDF, on June 13, in a statement, expressed strong indignation and deep concern over the conviction of Georgievski.

In its position on June 12, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry described the sentence handed down by the Basic Court in Bitola as absolutely unacceptable. Deputy Foreign Minister Elena Shekerletova commented from Vienna that the trial against Georgievski could be described as an act of crime.