Skopje, 10 December 2021 (MIA) – The standstill in the work of the Joint Commission on Historical Issues dates back from October 2019, when Bulgaria adopted the framework position regarding the start of North Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations, says commission co-chair Dragi Gjorgjiev. “The standstill began in October 2019, when the Bulgarian parliament started adopting various declarations and framework positions on the issue. We are absolutely trying to put politics outside of our work and all discussions are led in the spirit of academic understanding of the past. We are working amid a political context and this cannot be avoided but the commission’s work is outside of any political influence, and we are trying to maintain this,” Gjorgjiev told Telma TV. He adds the December 9-10 online meeting focused on Tsar Samuel’s state in Macedonian textbooks, and no joint recommendation on the issue was reached. “Differences relate to the approaches in representing events and persons in the Middle Ages. Bulgarian colleagues insist that events of the 10-11th centuries are represented through the perception of absolute truth, namely only one truth about that event and that person. On the other hand, the attempt to present Tsar Samuel and his kingdom through its various interpretations in global history science remain the main problem in the commission,” says Gjorgjiev.