For the first time in the nearly 100-year history of "Macedonian Tribune", the publication published an interview with the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Maria Gabriel, BGNES reported.
"Macedonian Tribune" is a printed newspaper of the Macedonian Patriotic Organization /MPO/ in the USA and Canada, established in 1922. from Macedonian Bulgarians. The newspaper has been published since 1927, as a month after its first edition, it was banned in the former Yugoslavia and Greece, as it was considered pro-Bulgarian. After 1945 Bulgarian Communist Party banned it in Bulgaria. Since 1927 until the beginning of the 90s of the last century, the newspaper was published in the then literary Bulgarian language, an old printed form before the language reform, and since then it had continued to be published in English.
In the interview, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Gabriel points out that the human contacts between the citizens of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) remain excellent on a daily basis. The path for the European integration of the RNM is clear, this is the Compromise of 2022. with its three interrelated elements – EU Council Conclusions and constitutional changes; the implementation of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation; and its 2019 minutes. and 2022
FM Gabriel emphasizes that Bulgaria does not and will never have new conditions for the RNM. It is announced that the next ministerial meeting on Corridor 8 will be held in Sofia in the summer of 2024, on the initiative of Maria Gabriel. Transport and communication links between Bulgaria and North Macedonia are also very important from the point of view of military mobility and mutual support. Their development will further consolidate the resilience of NATO and the EU in the current complex geopolitical environment.
The publication notes the proclamations passed by the governors of Illinois and Michigan announcing that it will be celebrated on March 3, 2024. - Bulgaria's Liberation Day. The two political acts recognize the achievements of the Macedonian Bulgarians in the USA, who arrived in America in the first half of the 20th century. Macedonian Tribune congratulates the Bulgarian Consul General in Chicago, Svetoslav Stankov, who is the main engine behind the adoption of the two proclamations.
In 1999 The Ministry of Education and Culture publishes a book "First Page", which contains the iconic title pages of the "Macedonian Tribune" newspaper from 1927. The book's introduction was written by the editor at the time, Lyubomir Todorov, and is a brief history of the organization and the newspaper.
In the book's introduction, we read that the Harvard Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in America, published in 1980, found that until World War II, almost all emigrants from the region of Macedonia identified themselves as Bulgarians or Macedonian Bulgarians. In 1922 these Macedonian Bulgarians and veterans of the Ilinden Uprising created the NGO with the aim of establishing an independent Macedonia in which all ethnic groups could develop. The newspaper establishes itself as a "virtual icon", a symbol of hope and a powerful voice of the only truly free Macedonians in the world.
In 1930, "Macedonian Tribune" published the first petitions of the Macedonian Bulgarians to the League of Nations regarding the tragic fate of Macedonia. The first letters from the Macedonian Bulgarians in Perth and Sydney, Australia began to arrive in the editorial office.
After the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria was the first to recognize the Republic of Macedonia in 1992. At that time, Greece, interacting with the communist power in Belgrade, blocked the recognition of Macedonia as an independent state at the European level and in the United Nations. The MPO actively campaigned against these attempts, which led to the US recognizing Macedonia's independence in 1994. /BGNES
