The news circulated by media outlets in the Republic of Macedonia that with the bill on the protection of minorities in Albania drafted by the government, Tirana plans to recognize Macedonian, Greek, Wallachian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Bosnian and Egyptian minorities but not a Bulgarian minority, has prompted strong reactions on behalf of Bulgaria.

The member of the European Parliament from the ruling party Gerb Andrey Kovatchev has stated that there is a bill in the Albanian parliament which has not been passed. Therefore the news that the Bulgarian minority is not officially recognized is fake news and has been used to generate tensions on the issue. According to Kovatchev, part of the Macedonian academic community opposes the recognition of the Bulgarian minority in the territory of Albania, because such an act would abolish its thesis that no Bulgarians have ever lived in Macedonian territory.

The former Bulgarian ambassador to Tirana Bobi Bobev has joined the discussion recalling that in the past the only active political topic that the Bulgarian state used to discuss with Albania was exactly the status of the Bulgarian population there, but that back then Yugoslavia was doing everything to thwart the process.

On the same day the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Albania Boyko Borissov and Edi Rama talked over the phone. Borissov has insisted on guarantees of the rights of the Bulgarian minority in Albania based on international law. Rama has assured him that the bill is still in the making and Albania will not violate the interests of the Bulgarian minority.

A group of European Parliament members from different countries and political fractions have said that the question will again be put to Tirana in writing and in the spirit of the resolution of the European Parliament from February this year. It is worth noting that in connection with this resolution, in July this year, Albanian President Ilir Meta assured Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva that “no one cannot be discredited in Albania and be prevented from defining himself as Bulgarian.”

If contrary to vows the bill is passed without a mention of the Bulgarian minority, this would be not only an unfriendly token to Bulgaria, but also an act of discrimination of an ethnic minority which is historically proved but has been waiting for recognition for decades.

In unofficial figures the Bulgarians in Albania are about 100,000. In 1932 at the Second Balkan Conference in Istanbul, the two countries signed a protocol under which the Albanian delegation recognized the existence of a Bulgarian minority in Albania. Following a change in governments and the upcoming world war the resolution was not ratified and the issue has remained open ever since. It remains open today too when the European Parliament has urged Albania to recognize the Bulgarian minority and Albania’s key political leaders have vowed that the rights of this minority will be guaranteed.

The latest reactions of Sofia on the problem were fairly clear and categorical, as well as the vows that came from Tirana. During the telephone conversation of prime ministers Borissov and Rama they have agreed that communication between Sofia and Tirana on the problematic bill should continue to make sure that the interests of the Bulgarians in Albania are duly protected. In this context the outcome is a matter of the near rather than of the distant future.

English Daniela Konstantinova