Minister Mladenov held talks with representatives of the Bulgarian Cultural Club – Skopje
14 September 2012 News
Possibilities regarding holding cultural events for the Bulgarian community in Macedonia were discussed today at a meeting between Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov and representatives of the Bulgarian Cultural Club – Sofia.
“The protection of the Bulgarian language and culture, historical memory and the traditions of our compatriots are among our foreign policy priorities,” Minister Mladenov said.
Ideas discussed included, among others, holding regular meetings between intellectuals from the two countries, the holding of seminars on various topics and visits by theatre groups.
The representatives of the Bulgarian Cultural Club Sofia expressed concern about the increasing number of complaints that they received from citizens of Macedonia of Bulgarian identity that their human rights are violated.
“We are not enemies of Macedonia. We want to see the country join the EU and NATO as soon as possible and we support the process of democratisation,” the cultural club’s president, Lazar Mladenov, said.
The Foreign Ministry requested the centre’s representatives for further information about whether the problems they experienced were evidence of a systematic violations of human rights of Bulgarians in Macedonia.