site.btaIvan Mihaylov Culture Club in Bitola: The Inclusion of Bulgarians in the Constitution of North Macedonia Is a Right, Not a Privilege

The Ivan Mihaylov Culture Club in Bitola sent an open letter to the President of the Republic of North Macedonia, where the members of the association, which was deleted from the Central Registry of the Republic of Macedonia, insist on participating in the development of a proposal to change the country's constitution to include its Bulgarian citizens, a commitment made within the country's negotiating framework for negotiations with the EU.

"More than three decades have passed since the end of the Yugoslav occupation of our Macedonia. Three decades, during which Macedonian Bulgarians expected our people to receive freedom and justice on an equal footing with the rest of the peoples living in the country. Today, this is an insistence of all 27 member states of the European Union. The problem is already European. Nothing can erase the fact that there is a Bulgarian issue in North Macedonia, which can only be solved with the tools of democracy and the rule of law. The beatings of the Macedonian Bulgarians, the dismissals, the arson and shooting of our clubs, the acquittal of perpetrators, the banning of our associations, the hate speech in the controlled media, the desecration of our monuments and the falsification of our history - nothing will stop us because we are the people!" read the letter, signed by the organization's president Lupcho Georgievski, who stressed: "Our inclusion in the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia is not a privilege, but a right", 

The association expressed its readiness to help the inclusion of Bulgarians in constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia.

“You can't discuss our status behind our backs and claim to be looking for a solution," continued the letter: "We expect to be invited to be heard in Skopje, as we were invited and heard at the European Commission in Brussels".

Ivan Mihaylov Culture Club in Bitola appealed to the president of the Republic of North Macedonia with the following requests: not to play with the term "minority", because they do not consider themselves a minority; not to present Macedonian Bulgarians as fascists to the EU; not to waste taxpayers' money on creating fake Bulgarian associations that supposedly represent them; and not to count on them to be swayed by "corrupting individual public figures in Sofia".

"We expect you, Mr. President, to accept our outstretched hand," reads the open letter, also published on the association's Facebook page.