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Skopje's Foreign Minister says Bulgarians in North Macedonia number 3,500

Photo: BGNES

There are 3,500 Bulgarians in North Macedonia, Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani told the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. 

The figure was contested by Bulgarian MEPs. They raised the issue of the mistreatment of Macedonian Bulgarians in the former Yugoslav republic.

"We know that even today over 120,000 Macedonian citizens have Bulgarian citizenship based on their Bulgarian ethnic origin," MEP Andrey Kovatchev said. He called "unprecedented" the accusations of the prosecutor's office of North Macedonia against the presidents of the Bulgarian clubs in Ohrid and Bitola that they incite hatred. Our main goal is to overcome all these problems coming from the past and the rapid membership of North Macedonia in the EU, Kovatchev emphasized.
Osmani assured that the Bulgarians will be included in the North Macedonian constitution, BNR correspondent Angelina Piskova reported from Brussels.



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