“One of the reason for our current problems with North Macedonia is the fact that we don’t have a national policy with regard to our compatriots abroad,” said Vice President Iliana Yotova at the last meeting for the year of the Council for Work with Bulgarians Abroad, the BTA reports. “Relations there have shrunk to issuing Bulgarian passports, without extending the influence of Bulgaria, even after the signing of the goodneighbour agreement.”

“We have no lobby among our European partners on the national position concerning Skopje. We have no lobby within the academic circles of Slavic studies. We have not revived, nor are we creating new Bulgarian language chairs unlike the existing Macedonian ones,” Iliana Yotova stated.