N. Macedonia – Bulgaria joint commission on historical and educational issues to hold meeting
Skopje, 14 September 2022 (MIA) - The joint multidisciplinary expert commission on historical and educational issues between North Macedonia and Bulgaria is to hold a meeting on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
“Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting, the Foreign Ministry submitted the Commission’s proposal to the government before appointing Dimitar Ljorovski as a member of the joint multidisciplinary expert commission on historical and educational issues between North Macedonia and Bulgaria,” the Ministry said Tuesday.
Ljorovski, a historian who teaches at the Institute of National History in Skopje, has been appointed due to his expertise and the recommendations of the Commission to cover certain areas of its work.
On August 15, joint Macedonian-Bulgarian multidisciplinary commission on historical and educational issues adopted recommendations that refer to improving history textbooks for 6th grade in North Macedonia and 5th grade in Bulgaria as well as recommendations for joint honouring of figures of the medieval period – the Saints Cyril and Methodius, St. Clement, St. Naum and Tsar Samoil. The recommendations were adopted by the joint intergovernmental commission established in accordance with the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Bulgaria.
Dragi Gjorgiev, the Macedonian co-chairman of the Joint Multidisciplinary Commission of Experts on Historical and Educational Issues between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, regarding the adopted recommendations told the press conference on Aug. 15 that the Macedonian and Bulgarian experts were focusing on history textbooks “to relax the relations between the two nations” and clarify “misunderstandings that can cause tensions and hatred among young generations.”
He added that the Commission was only discussing how some events and persons were presented in the two countries’ history textbooks and whether these history lessons needed to be framed differently, confirming that the 19th and 20th centuries would be difficult for members to talk about.
“We never said we would need to take a unanimous position. The Commission will not resolve historical misunderstandings at any cost. Undoubtedly, this period will be difficult and painful to discuss. If we ultimately agree and manage to find some kind of solution, we will present it to the public. If we don’t, then there is no solution. This Commission does not necessarily have to solve, at any cost, the historical misunderstandings that exist between Macedonian and Bulgarian historiography,” Gjorgiev said in response to a reporter’s question.
