Stephen Tafrov, Representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations, reported that on February 4, Bulgaria celebrated the anniversary of the birth of Goce Delchev, a significant revolutionary, a fighter for the liberation of the Bulgarian lands in Macedonia from Ottoman rule, ideologist and leader of the Inner Macedonian-Adrine Revolutionary Organization.
Tafrov emphasised that Almost every Bulgarian family has some history connected to Macedonia. Because according to some historians, nearly a quarter of Bulgaria’s population today are descendants of Bulgarians from Macedonia due to political and economic emigration at the time.
The family of Tafrov also has such a story. The former representative noted that her grandmother says Greek slavery was more terrible than Turkish slavery.
After 1878 Bulgaria is free, but Macedonia remains under Ottoman rule. Many years of attempts to set up committees and revolutionary movements for her release have been linked to many Bulgarian victims. Bulgarian self-awareness and belongingness of the residents in Macedonia together fought for their accession to the already free Bulgarian lands.
After the Second Balkan War, Aegean Macedonia remained in Greece and the Vardar lands – in Serbia. Bulgaria frees and preserves only Pirin Macedonia.
But Bulgarians living in the grabbed lands continue to feel Bulgarians despite the violent assimilation and even the name change to my ancestors’ hometown. Thus immigration processes are intensifying, and hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians from these Macedonian lands are moving to Bulgaria.
This is being provoked increasingly by the severe persecution and repression in the rest of Greece, part of Macedonia, where Bulgarians are forbidden to speak their native language, persecuted and killed for it, to be completely eradicated. Specifically, in the Kostur region, they closed the Bulgarian school, which my great-grandmother attended by boat across the lake.
During that time, thousands of families decided to flee to Bulgaria and settle permanently in Varna, Sofia and other regions.
Tafrov’s family is also one of them. He stated that one of the thousands of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia moved to Varna with their families. Bulgarians and Macedonians have a common history and roots. A fictional enmity that aims then and now to maintain opposition to serve foreign interests – those who do not want Bulgarians to be united but aim for division and weak Balkans.
According to Gotse Delchev’s promise, achieve a true cultural and economic union between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia, which will benefit both sides of the board.