Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz has become so deeply engaged in arrogantly promoting pseudo-truths about the past and present of the Republic of North Macedonia that he has even succeeded in imposing a report on the country’s progress in preparing for substantive EU accession negotiations.
By Ivan Nikolov*
The farce played out by Skopje before our eyes has found enthusiastic spectators in the European Parliament. One of them, Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz, has immersed himself in promoting pseudo-historical narratives about the past and present of North Macedonia to such an extent that he managed to push through a progress report filled with arguments rooted in unchecked self-deception.
This comes as no surprise.
What is surprising is not only Bulgaria’s insufficiently effective policy on an issue that concerns the essence of its national historical biography. The surprise also lies in Bulgaria’s failure to recognize its own historical mission — to protect the EU from the banalization of its core values.
That is the heart of the issue.
The falsifications concerning the age-old roots of the so-called “Macedonist” — not Macedonian — identity and language have been disproven above all by European researchers, travelers, and diplomats who visited the region of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
This is not an accusation directed at the citizens of the country along the Vardar River, who are victims of systematic indoctrination with pseudo-historical propaganda about their identity and history. The accusation is directed at Bulgarian MEPs, diplomats, and the political elite as a whole, who underestimated the reach of these falsifications when they were allowed to circulate unchecked on the international political stage.
This is not about the declarations and resolutions of the Bulgarian parliament that refute Skopje’s falsehoods. I repeat: this is about the Bulgarian state’s still-unrealized historical mission — to defend European values with its humanist credibility against erosion by the pseudo-truths of “Macedonist” ethno-ideology.
We are already dealing with a body of documentary heritage left by diplomats and travelers from various European countries, who offered valuable testimony about the character, mentality, and national awareness of the population in the geographic region of Macedonia, in both the recent and distant past.
Is it really so difficult for a Bulgarian MEP, for instance, to take the work of German scholar Prof. Gustav Weigand titled “Ethnography of Macedonia”, published in Leipzig in 1924 (Etnographie von Makedonien – Prof. Gustav Weigand, Leipzig, 1924), and discuss it with a few German colleagues, original copy in hand? When they read the author’s concluding remarks:
“From the foregoing we have seen that Macedonia is inhabited by various nationalities, listed by number as follows: Bulgarians, Turks, Albanians, Greeks, Vlachs…” — they should ask themselves why their fellow German scholar never once refers to a nationality called “Macedonian,” as the prime minister now claims.
Ivan Nikolov is a journalist, publicist, and publisher. He is director of the magazine “Bulgaria–Macedonia” and the publishing house “St. Clement of Ohrid.” Source: BGNES