Kovacevski: Historians Should deal With History, Politicians with Politics

“Historians should deal with history, and politicians with politics,” says Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, after the latest Bulgarian provocation, this time around thes canonization of Kiril Pejcinovic. On the same day when he was canonized in the Lesok monastery, part of the Bulgarian historians recognized politics again, and the Bulgarian professor Plamen Pavlov, apart from accusing that the act itself violates the bilateral protocol between the two countries, also assessed that it was a matter of blasphemy and stealing and abuse of history. “What someone wants to use as provocation is their problem. We know exactly what our history is. We know exactly what our culture is. We know exactly what our Macedonian language is, now recognized throughout the European Union. I recommend historians to deal with history, politicians to deal with politics,” said Kovacevski. However, contrary to Dimitrov, from the historical commission, for the Bulgarian historian Ivan Ilchev, the public revolt against the names of the Bulgarian clubs in the country is not surprising. According to him, instead of building new bridges, the controversial names are destroying the existing bridges between the two countries. “I can understand, but it’s hard to justify forming a club and naming it with a name that will inevitably lead to conflict. That doesn’t seem very reasonable to me. It’s like grabbing a dog by the tail and being surprised when it bites you. It was entirely possible to call those clubs by more neutral names, such as “bridge”, “fraternity”, “passing”, “awakening”,” said Ilchev, a member of the Bulgarian team in the history commission. Ilchev, in an interview for 24 Hours, among other things, points out that Bulgaria’s approach in insisting on the terms “our brothers from Macedonia” is wrong and that it should be treated as a sovereign neighbouring state.