Macedonians Protest Bulgarian Demands to Lift EU Veto: No Pasaran

Tens of thousands of #Macedonian citizens took to the streets in Skopje, #Macedonia on Saturday, July 2, 2022, protesting #Bulgarian demands for Macedonia to change its identity, language, and history in order for #Bulgaria to lift its veto on Macedonia's #EU accession. The messages on protest signs were loud and clear "No" to the French proposal, "No Pasaran" to EU membership if Macedonians have to change who they are.

#Macedonians have been in the waiting room to join the #EuropeanUnion since 2001 with no end in sight.

#Greece blocked the country's EU accession and #Macedonia was forced to change its name to "North Macedonia" with no clear guarantees that it would enter the EU. There have been no guarantees that one day Greece will not object to something else.

France vetoed EU enlargement in 2019. This gave Bulgaria a window of opportunity and its leadership vetoed Macedonia's EU accession talks.

Note for the audience: Bulgaria has blocked the start of EU negotiation talks for Macedonia - there are 35 chapters to open and close in order to join the EU.

Bulgaria's position is very much like Putin's towards Ukraine. Putin stated that Ukraine was invented by Stalin and thus does not have a right to self-determination. Bulgaria claims that Macedonia was invented by Tito and that before 1945 Macedonians did not exist and were actually ethnic Bulgarians.

Bulgaria occupied Macedonia during WWII and killed over 25,000 Macedonians, including deporting over 7,000 Macedonian Jews to their deaths in the Treblinka camp. Bulgaria wants to whitewash this part of history and in order for Macedonia to get Bulgaria's support, Macedonia must remove any mention of Bulgaria's role in its history textbooks. This is clear Holocaust denial and revisionism.

The EU is complicit in human rights violations and Holocaust denial and revisionism.

The United Macedonian Diaspora, the leading voice of Macedonians abroad, stands with the Macedonian people. #UnitedWeCan