Bulgarians in North Macedonia

Bulgarians are mostly found in the Strumica area,[1] but over the years, the absolute majority of southeastern North Macedonia have declared themselves Macedonian.

[2] In the period when North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, there was also migration of Bulgarians from the so called Western Outlands in Serbia.

[3] Until the Balkan wars the majority of the Slav population of all three parts of the wider region of Macedonia had Bulgarian identity.

The new Yugoslav authorities began a policy of removing of any Bulgarian influence, making North Macedonia a connecting link for the establishment of new Balkan Communist Federation and creating a distinct Slavic consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia.

[12][13] In North Macedonia the Bulgarophobia increased almost to the level of state ideology,[14] and the communists were successful in removing all Bulgarian influence in the region.

[12] A special Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour was passed by the government of the SR Macedonia at the end of 1944.

The Presidium of Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia established a special court for the implementation of this law, which came into effect on January 3, 1945.

[12] Some 3,000 - 4,000 people that stuck to their Bulgarian identity (most from Strumica and surroundings) met great hostility among the authorities and the rest of the population.

In 2001 the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia banned the organization Radko as "promoting racial and religious hate and intolerance".

[44] The association is named after the conspiration pseudonym of Ivan Mihailov, leader of Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization during the interbellum.

[47] According to the Bulgarian co-chairman of the common Bulgarian-Macedonian historical commission Angel Dimitrov, the arguments for these changes remind him of the Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour, which allowed the sentencing of Yugoslav citizens from SR Macedonia for pro-Bulgarian leanings.