User:Gurther/Sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Macedonian-Bulgarian historical commission[Note 1] (Macedonian: Македонско-Бугарска историска комисија, Bulgarian: Македоно-българската историческа комисия) is a commission formed by the republic of Macedonia and the republic of Bulgaria after signing the friendship treaty[Note 2] as an attempt to resolve the political disputes regarding Macedonian history. The Bulgarian historiography has been criticized by both Macedonian and international historians for forging evidence regarding the Macedonian identity during Ottoman rule.[1][2] Some historians believe that this commission is used by Bulgaria to pressure top Macedonian historians to accept the Bulgarian belief of the Macedonian identity.[3]
The commision first sprang into action in 2017, at first it was mostly minor advances and most of the time they were in a stalemate and rarely reached any sort of conclusions, however in recent times after the Bulgarian veto on the Macedonian entry into the European Union in 2020, pressure was placed by both sides of the goverment to the commission to reach a final solution in a faster pace,[4] this resulted in a lot of controversy and scandals from both sides. Aleksandar Litovski, a Macedonian historian served in the commision but quit after the pressure from both sides, stated that the Bulgarians made impossible demands and that they wanted to re-read and reshaping history [sic][5]
Some journalist have noted Bulgaria's hypocrisy regarding the commision by pointing out that Bulgaria's veto in Macedonia's entry into the EU was a way of ignoring the corruption scandal in Bulgaria and making media focuse more on the veto given to Macedonia by Bulgaria, and that this tactic has been abused by multiple politicians in Bulgaria to change focuse towards other topics.[6]