No progress after the meeting of the Sofia-Skopje joint commission on historical issues

The 12th meeting of the Joint Expert Commission on Historical Issues between Skopje and Sofia was unsuccessful, the co-chairman from the Bulgarian side, Prof. Angel Dimitrov said on February 26. Historians are still on the Middle Ages section, despite statements by politicians in Skopje that experts are making steady progress.

"Unfortunately, the meeting did not bring optimism, because it is no different from the last one for 2020. In January, we held two technical meetings to work on the unsigned minutes of the previous meetings, without which the work so far could not be formalized. We managed to move forward the minutes of the nineth meeting, which stayed for more than a year in our folders, but it took a lot of effort,"said Dimitrov.

According to him, the only positive decision is that the commission is about to sign the minutes of the 10th meeting from last year.

"In complete contradiction with the cheerful statements of politicians from the Republic of North Macedonia that we have completed the Middle Ages, we are still on the 10th century. There is no step forward because we cannot agree on a text for PCM textbooks - specifically for the end of the first Bulgarian kingdom and the time when King Samuel and his heirs ruled. We are faced with a strange reluctance of our colleagues to comply with basic principles, namely - respect for historical sources and compliance with the dominant scientific research on this topic," he explained.

Angel Dimitrov said an attempt was being made to equate world science with works from the former Yugoslavia.

"Our colleagues are aware that their position is difficult to defend, but they insist on equal works of world medievalism and some works on this topic, which belong to local historians and perhaps several people from the former Yugoslavia. Such theses create a misconception about the assessment of a historical time. They want to find a new approach and assessments for King Samuel, which differ from our assessment when we offered a joint celebration of Samuel, " he added.

Such a double standard shows a reluctance to take a step forward, the expert stressed. "What is extremely unacceptable to us is the avoidance to use the term 'common history' and is the biggest argument for looking for a close-knit point of view that will allow textbooks to be cleared of misinterpretations and public sentiment to be minimized," he added.

At the end of April, the 13th meeting of the Joint Expert Commission on Historical Issues between Skopje and Sofia will take place.

"Everyone in the Republic of North Macedonia succumbs to the suggestion that there may be a change in our position, but we, as historians, would not change it. We are witnessing fundamental differences in attitudes. In their textbooks - change to happen - what we do as a proposal ... What they offer is a complete alignment of a scientific and a very controversial non-scientific thesis, " he explained.

Angel Dimitrov stressed that he can only note as positive the fact that in the Republic of North Macedonia already publicly, although not always correctly, there is a talk about the past and the controversial moments.

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