The Bulgarian Club of Ohrid “Tsar Boris III” continues to be at the center of yet another scandal between Skopje and Sofia. After Macedonian authorities called the club’s “controversial name” a provocation, the sign of him was broken.
On Thursday, the Ohrid police announced that the 47-year-old GI from Ohrid was the perpetrator of the “crime”. The publication “Svoboden Pechat” specifies that the man from Ohrid broke the cartel with an agricultural tool, after which he himself reported to the Ohrid police station that he had committed the act on his own initiative, but did not specify the reasons.
The incident was condemned by both Skopje and Sofia.
EU Ambassador to the Republic of North Macedonia, David Geer, also commented on the case on Thursday.
“The Republic of North Macedonia has a positive experience in relations between different communities. It is very important to respect the rights of all communities and all parties must strive to achieve mutual understanding and avoid tensions”. David Gear said in response to a reporter’s question regarding the opening of Bulgarian clubs “with controversial names” that hurt the feelings of citizens to use this as an argument that human rights in the country are not respected.
I will not go into the interpretation of historyGeer said, but regarding the latest incident, the North Macedonia MFA made it very clear that the line had been crossed.
Gear’s comment was made during the joint press conference with Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bojan Maricic on the occasion of the European Commission’s report on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia, BTA reported.
For his part, Bojan Maricic said that government representatives have already condemned and consider the opening of clubs with controversial names a provocation, but it is better, as a member state of NATO, EC and OSCE and a candidate member of the EU, to solve these problems institutionally and not by violence.
“Violence does not solve the problems. I think that both the Central Registry and the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the competent courts have the capacity, through the laws in force, to maintain public order regarding the names of these associations. I think that the Central Registry and already working on some of these cases, work is also underway for legislative changes to definitively determine the issues of possible and acceptable names of associations “. Marici said.
According to him, opening a club is not a problem in itself, but names are a problem and this will be defined in legal form using European practices.
“If we apply these European standards there will be no problems and it is better than having individual attempts at violence”. stressed Maricic, who added that there is regular communication between the two ministries of foreign affairs – of Bulgaria and North Macedonia “and all these cases are reported”a “as points of contact for the implementation of the bilateral protocol on his part on hate speech are the two ministries of foreign affairs”.
