site.btaForeign Ministry Condemns "Unacceptable, Offensive Language" Used by North Macedonia's PM towards Bulgarian Foreign Minister

In a position released late on Thursday, the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the "unacceptable and offensive language" used by Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski to address the Bulgarian Foreign Minister earlier in the day. "Such statements are incompatible with the elementary norms of diplomatic and political dialogue, as well as with the principles of good neighbourliness, which the Republic of North Macedonia publicly states that it shares, but in practice flagrantly violates," the position reads.

Earlier in the day, media in North Macedonia made headlines for Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev calling Mickoski a "North Macedonian" prime minister (instead of the official "of North Macedonia") during an interview on bTV. Mickoski took offense as the country's officials strive towards the title "Macedonian". Under the 2019 Prespa Agreement between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia settling their bilateral name dispute, the adjectival reference to the State’s official organs and other public entities shall be “of the Republic of North Macedonia” or “of North Macedonia”, as according to Greece "Macedonian" denotes not only the area and people of the region but also their attributes, as well as the Hellenic civilization, history, culture, and heritage of that region from antiquity to present day.

Approached for comment on Georgiev's words, Mickoski called the Bulgarian Foreign Minister a "boy" sent to get his attention and said the Bulgarian Government "is being run by someone else in the background".

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry's position reads further: "The latest use of vulgar qualifiers towards representatives of the Bulgarian State not only undermines the already fragile trust between our two countries, but also calls into question the authentic commitment of the political leadership in Skopje to the 2017 Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation, as well as to the declared desire to join the European Union - a process that requires mutual respect, responsibility and political maturity."

"Bulgaria will not tolerate hate speech, personal attacks and deliberate undermining of relations between the countries. Such statements by officials in the Republic of North Macedonia create a climate of hostility and do not demonstrate political will to return to normal, respectful and constructive discourse," the Foreign Ministry said.

The press release also said that the Bulgarian Ambassador to North Macedonia was summoned to North Macedonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade over Georgiev's use of the adjective "North Macedonian". The Bulgarian Ambassador in Skopje has expressed his surprise at the occasion of his summoning, especially against the background of a series of unfriendly messages and actions coming from representatives of the authorities in Skopje in recent months. The Bulgarian diplomat has explicitly stressed that in the public space the official authorities of the Republic of North Macedonia systematically and purposefully demonstrate a lack of respect for Bulgaria.

During the meeting, the Bulgarian Ambassador also expressed Bulgaria's significant concern about a number of harsh, manipulative and often offensive statements by high-ranking officials in North Macedonia, directed both at Bulgaria and the EU. "It is particularly unacceptable to call an 'enemy state' a country that has consistently provided real and selfless assistance - including at the time when Bulgarian firefighters were assisting the Republic of North Macedonia in Kriva Palanka on the occasion of the fires that broke out there," the position further reads.