Skopje, 23 June 2022 (MIA) – I haven’t read the French proposal and I’m not familiar with its contents, but all reports about the work of the commission and the content of articles adopted for a joint tribute to Tsar Samuil are absolutely incorrect, said co-chair of the joint Macedonian-Bulgarian commission on historical and educational issues, Dragi Gjorgiev, commenting on the French proposal and bilateral protocol which allegedly requires changes to historical figures on the country’s part in the textbooks. “Reports in certain media outlets are absolutely not true in terms of what has been adopted by the commission regarding a joint tribute to Tsar Samuil. Also, the commission has never aligned wordings, so that they could be placed on memorials, monuments or fortresses. The commission adopts joint articles on joint tributes to certain figures,” said Gjorgiev. He added that there is an article on a joint tribute to Tsar Samuil which was adopted in 2019, and was published in some media outlets on Wednesday or Tuesday. In addition, at a meeting several months ago, a draft proposal to the governments has been adopted on how to present the country in history textbooks. “These two articles have absolutely nothing in common with what was, unfortunately, published by certain media outlets and then reported by our media outlets, without the slightest critical analysis,” Gjorgiev added. He reiterated that the work of the history commission cannot be part of the process of political negotiations. According to him, this should be a parallel process, neither limited by deadlines nor tied to certain imperatives. Maja Angelovska Panova from the Institute for National History said the very acceptance of the French proposal would be an issue, because it would mean revision of the official Macedonian historiography. “Undoubtedly, this is a precedent. There’s no such thing in modern world historiography as imposing someone’s narrative on another narrative. So, my view is that this is an aggressive behavior that doesn’t correspond to European values, not to mention values applied in scholarly research work,” said Panova. According to her, the implications of the proposal cannot be discussed about now, but it will have consequences if it’s adopted, because it will mean complete revisionism and aligning views as required by Bulgarian historiography, and this, she added, is inadmissible.