NEWS

 

 

The Vice President attends the opening of an information centre of the "Horizons" Association for Tolerance and Cooperation

 

Many unsolved problems were shared by our compatriots in Ohrid at a meeting with Vice President Iliana Iotova who attended the inauguration of an information centre of the "Horizons" Association for Tolerance and Cooperation. Its chairman, Lyupcho Kurtelov, is a descendant of the Miladinov brothers. Iotova presented the Association with an icon of St Ivan of Rila, Bulgarian classical literature and a collection of the Miladinov songs.

 

"The Macedonian Bulgarians have a guarantee for their protection in the face of the Bulgarian state. They say that they feel such firm support for the first time in many years," the Vice President told Bulgarian and Macedonian media.

 

Discrimination in the workplace just because you are of Bulgarian origin and identify yourself as Bulgarian is the most common problem faced by our compatriots.

 

"We have learnt disturbing things about the census - the Macedonian authorities have demanded Bulgarian documents. This requirement was not applied to other ethnic groups," Iotova said. She reiterated the Bulgarian position that guarantees for the rights of the Macedonian Bulgarians are expected, the most certain guarantee being their inclusion in the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia.

 

Responding to a question from Macedonian media, the Vice President said that Bulgaria expected clear results as enshrined in the Neighbourhood Treaty. "We expect a change of certain texts in the textbooks. We expect the opening of the archives, the uncovering of the persecutions of people over their Bulgarian identity. It is unacceptable in the 21st century to desecrate monuments just because they are devoted to Bulgarians," Iotova stressed, giving concrete examples shared in her meetings with our compatriots. One of them - a repeatedly destroyed tombstone of a Bulgarian officer who participated in the liberation of these lands in 1903. 

 

Asked by a Macedonian journalist about the recognition of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, the Vice President urged him to read the Bulgarian Constitution, which mentions no minorities, and stressed that a decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg was not in favour of recognising a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.

 

In Ohrid, Iliana Iotova visited a day-care centre for children with autism, funded by the Bulgarian government as part of the Foreign Ministry's "Bulgarian Development Aid" programme. The Vice President presented educational materials for the children.

 

Earlier in the day, Iotova paid tribute at the memorial to the 15 Bulgarian tourists who died on the Ilinden sunken ship in 2009.

 

Head of State Rumen Radev today held a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda ahead of the upcoming summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Warsaw.

Timor-Leste has the potential to be a valuable partner for Bulgaria within the Southeast Asian region, and a stable basis for the development of bilateral relations are shared democratic values, human rights and a rules-based international order. This was stated by the Head of State Rumen Radev at a meeting with the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Jose Ramos -Horta, who is on a working visit to our country

This was the position that Head of State expressed at a meeting with European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos

The Head of State holds a meeting with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO at the US Department of Defense