Analysis by Ognen Vangelov
Bulgaria’s veto on opening North Macedonia’s accession talks with the EU has internationalized a bilateral historical dispute that is obscure and perplexing to international observers. This article explores the genesis of this historical dispute and how it has been rationalized by the current Bulgarian political and academic elites. The dispute concerning the origin of the Macedonian ethno-linguistic identity is a legacy of both Bulgaria’s nation-building processes and its politics of continued grievances about the “injustice” done to Bulgaria and Bulgarians ever since the annulment of the San Stefano Treaty in 1878. Bulgaria’s current formulation of the problem was canonized in the 1960s by its communist leader, Todor Zhivkov, and continues to shape Bulgaria’s foreign policy toward North Macedonia.
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