Macedonian intellectuals strive for Sofia to impose conditions to Skopje before EU’s support was the title of an article published on Tuesday by the Bulgarian news website „actualno.com“ which was news of the day in Bulgaria that the Macedonian Scientific Institute from Sofia has issued 8 obligatory conditions that official Sofia has to set to Skopje as a condition for its support from Bulgaria.
The title which mentions “Macedonian intellectuals” is completely wrong and misleading and we assume it was done mostly with clickbait intentions i.e. extremely provocative formulations in order to attract readers to open the content and to read it which will be profitable.
In the past few years since the Good Neighborly Agreement with Bulgaria was signed, without exception, when the Bulgarian media used the construction “Macedonian scholars” it was a reference to the historians of this country. Therefore, the title used by „actualno.com“ is devious towards Bulgarian readership since the first association would be that intellectuals from North Macedonia with a Bulgarian leanings and preferences would have gathered and publicly would have asked Bulgaria to set conditions to Macedonia which certainly would have aroused the curiosity to those who will see the title in order to open it and see the people’s names.
Additionally, in cases where people with Bulgarian self-consciousness have had any requests or have addressed the public, In Bulgaria, they were referred to “Macedonian Bulgarians” or “Bulgarians from Macedonia” in the titles of the articles.
“The Macedonian Scientific Institute” is an institution formed in 1923 to study Macedonia from different aspects but with a basic premise for a Bulgarian national identity of the Slavic population in the areas of today’s Macedonia, part of Albania and Northern Greece.
