Bulgarian MEPs came out with a letter in defence of the Bulgarian national minority in the region of the Western outskurts, whose rights have been systematically trampled by Serbia for a century, BGNES reports.
The letter is addressed to the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Council, the Council of Europe, and ambassadors.
In the letter it is stressed that in the Serbian public space there is a continuous hate speech against the Bulgarian minority. All this creates difficult living conditions and Bulgarians in Serbia are constantly emigrating to Bulgaria and Western Europe in search of better and more peaceful living conditions, the Bulgarian envoys to the European Parliament said.
"Serbia should not be judged by its words alone, but only by the actions it takes, which should be in line with European values and human rights, including those in defence of minorities", the Bulgarian MEPs said and warned that "generating hatred in Serbian society against Bulgaria, and therefore against the EU, is mostly in favour of the Kremlin".
BGNES news agency published the full text of the letter:
The purpose of this letter is to inform you about the systematic trampling of the rights of ethnic minorities in Serbia, a country that is a candidate for membership of the European Union. More specifically, we will focus on the Bulgarian ethnic minority. Depending on the source, a century ago there were between 91,000 - 120,000 Bulgarians in the area around Bosilegrad. This number has systematically decreased in the following decades. According to the official data of Yugoslavia, in 1961 in the whole country they were already 62,624, in 1971 – 58,627; 1981 – 36,189; 1991 – 25,214; 2001 – 20,500; 2011 – 18,543; 2022 - 12,918. This trend leads to depopulation of the areas inhabited by ethnic Bulgarians. This is mainly due to the momentum from the ideology of the totalitarian past, which unfortunately continues to the present day.
Aggravating factors for the Bulgarians in Serbia are the high unemployment, the administrative redistribution of the territory of the Bulgarian minority, the limited road infrastructure, environmental pollution, as well as poor healthcare. The teaching of the Bulgarian language is limited, the preservation of Bulgarian cultural heritage is prevented in every way, the falsification of history from the time of Tito's Yugoslavia continues, religious services in Bulgarian are not allowed, political, civil and environmental organisations and their activists are persecuted.
In the Serbian public sphere, there is continuous hate speech against the Bulgarian minority, in the media, in the scientific and historical circles, as well as in the statements of politicians, with which the image of Bulgaria and the Bulgarians as dangerous enemies is systematically developed in the Serbian society. All this creates difficult living conditions and the Bulgarians in Serbia constantly emigrate to Bulgaria and Western Europe looking for better and more peaceful living conditions.
The Serbian Orthodox Church, which is closely connected with Russian interests, unfortunately plays a serious role in creating anti-Bulgarian sentiments in the period from 2008 until now. Together with other scientific-historical, state and military bodies, as well as cultural institutions, it misuses historical events from the First and Second World Wars to maintain hatred towards Bulgarians. A memorial ossuary was built in the courtyard of a school in Surdulitsa where Bulgarian students also study, and the so-called "Surdulish Martyrs" were canonized, violating the church canons. Award contests in schools for essays and drawings on the topic of "Bulgarian atrocities" during the wars have been initiated, and there are annual church litanies as well as an action to build a church dedicated to the "Surdulish martyrs" - “victims of the Bulgarians”, and "icons" of these "martyrs" are distributed in the Bulgarian churches in Bosilegrad. Thus permanent hate speech against Bulgaria and the Bulgarians is maintained, which forced many young people to leave their native places and apply for Bulgarian citizenship.
During the same period, mining companies with Russian capital were established in Bosilegradsko, which, in the form of developing pilot projects for the production and storage of ore extracts of non-ferrous metals, seriously polluted the water, air and soil. According to authoritative Serbian scientists, the soil is so polluted that it cannot be reclaimed. All of this led to the rapid increase in the number of oncological diseases, which, given the lack of specialised medical care, led to an increase in deaths.
In the last year, there were many anti-Bulgarian manifestations and pressure against cultural-educational, political and environmental protection organisations and activitists:
• On the occassion of New Year's Eve, on 27.12.2022, an exhibition with clearly expressed anti-Bulgarian messages - "Bulgarian atrocities in occupied Serbia 1915-1918"[1] was staged at the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade.
• On 01.02.2023, from President Vucic's answer to a BGNES reporter, it is clear that the Cultural and Information Center "Bosilegrad" is being tapped by Serbian special services.
• On 11.03.2023 the police in Bosilegrad detained Dimitar Dimitrov from Bosilegrad for 5 hours because he intended to protest with posters during an official visit of President Vucic. On the same occasion, the eco-activist Daniela Mihajlovic from Surdulica was searched twice and her posters and protest letter were confiscated, which she wanted to hand to President Vučić, and at the end she was held for three hours by the police in Bosilegrad while the President's visit to the city took place.
• On 28.06.2023 at the "Ribartsi- Oltomantsi " checkpoint, the Serbian authorities stopped and returned to Bulgaria two Bulgarian citizens, Jana and Lina Gergovi, curators at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore, together with two photo-documentary exhibitions on historical themes.
• On 02.06.2023 Boycho Dimitrov and his wife with two five-year-old twins were held by the Serbian authorities at the "Ribartsi- Oltomantsi " checkpoint for more than five hours and he was returned to Bulgaria together with 53 books "Elegy for the End", by the famous Bulgarian poet, writer and diplomat Edvin Sugarev, which he intended to distribute to visitors during the promotion of the same book in the "Bosilegrad" shopping center.
• On 02.08.2023 Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told Pink TV, which has a national coverage, that Bulgaria does not recognise a Serbian minority and that he can say that there are no Bulgarians in Serbia and then there will be no problems with them.
• On 09.08.2023 Alexander Dimitrov was detained for 5 hours at the "Ribartsi-Oltomantsi" checkpoint, and three copies from the same book "Elegy for the End" were seized from him. On this occasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria handed a note of protest to the Serbian ambassador in Sofia.
• On 08.11.2023 on the occasion of the celebration of the Day of the Western Suburbs and the planned promotion of a book, by order of the High Court from Vranje, a police team of 8 people from the Department of Criminal Crime searched the Cultural and Information Center in Bosilegrad (KIC "Bosilegrad") and confiscated 23 books "Elegy for the End" as physical evidence in preliminary proceedings against the chairman of the "Bosilegrad" KIC Ivan Nikolov for "inciting national, racial and religious hatred and intolerance" under an article of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia. On this occasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over a protest note to the Serbian Foreign Ministry.
In addition to all these examples, the Serbian Prosecutor's Office is currently conducting criminal proceedings with baseless charges against the most active civil and eco-activists in Bosilegrad: Mr. Branko Mitov, Daniela Mihajlovic, Botiu Hristov, Dragoljub Ivancov and Ivan Nikolov, in order to exert pressure and intimidation.
With all this in mind, we appeal to the European institutions with a request to intercede with the Serbian authorities for unconditional respect for the rights of the Bulgarian minority, to take urgent actions to improve the economy, road infrastructure, healthcare and the environment. The goal is to create normal and peaceful living conditions, as well as to end the persecution of organisations and civil activists for expressed civil positions in favor of the environment in which they live.
Serbia should not be judged only by her words, but by the actions she undertakes, which must be in sync with European values and human rights, including those protecting minorities.
The creation of hatred in the Serbian society against Bulgaria, and therefore against the EU, is mostly in the benefit of the Kremlin, which is always looking for problems that it can increase in order to contribute to the strongest possible misunderstandings and disunity. In no case should we allow this to happen, on the contrary, we should actively work to strengthen good relations between all ethnic groups and countries in Europe, especially those that are candidates for membership of the European Union.
With respect,
Andrey Kovatchev, Andrey Novakov, Asim Ademov, Alexander Yordanov, Atidzhe Alieva-Veli, Angel Dzhambazki, Andrey Slabakov, Eva Maydell, Emil Radev, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Iskra Mihaylova, Radan Kanev
