• Friday, 22 November 2024

Osmani calls for breaking the circle with Bulgaria in regard to opening of cultural clubs

Osmani calls for breaking the circle with Bulgaria in regard to opening of cultural clubs
Skopje, 1 November 2022 (MIA) – Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani urged for breaking the circle with Bulgaria by opening cultural clubs and called for returning to a normal track through constant communication and the opening of the cultural club in Blagoevgrad promoted by the Ministry of Culture. Responding to reporter’s question regarding the decision of a Bulgarian court to abolish the civil association that opened the Macedonian cultural club in Blagoevgrad, Osmani said that opening clubs because of a reaction to the other will not achieve the goals we want to achieve, which is to promote good neighborly relations. “The opening of Bulgarian clubs was not aimed at promoting the Bulgarian community. I qualify this same reaction in Blagoevgrad, unprepared, financed by dubious sources, in the same way. And that's how results happen, which will later create problems for those people who are part of those clubs and probably cause a chain reaction, there and here. My task is to bring the relations in a normal trajectory, to say stop to political profiteering and to the instrumentalization of the rights of the communities and to the good neighborly relations. I am convinced of my policy and I know that only it is in the interest of the citizens,” Osmani said at Tuesday’s joint press conference with the Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi. He underscored that with the abolition of the Macedonian association, the citizens, that is, the Macedonians in Bulgaria, will be mostly affected. “Now let those who went to encourage them and hunt for political points come out, to explain to the people why their association was abolished. That's why I said from the beginning that it was the wrong way. A dubious association from Canada funding the organization of a Macedonian club at this time as a response to the club in Ohrid is not the way to help the citizens,” Osmani said. Osmani also underlined that if we had not made a decision to start negotiations with the EU, that is, if we had not reached an agreement with Bulgaria, we would now be waiting for the results of the establishment of the Bulgarian institutions and we would be waiting when there would be some predictability there so that we could find solution. “We currently do not have an open dialogue on the problems with Bulgaria, but only in the area of implementation of the obligations. We are implementing our part of the obligations, and the Republic of Bulgaria is implementing its part. The last was the agreement with Frontex, which was an obligation of the Republic of Bulgaria undertaken with the protocol signed on July 12,” Osmani noted. Osmani stressed that he is continuing the communication with the official Government of Bulgaria, announcing that next week he plans to go on a working visit to Sofia, where, in addition to government officials, he will also meet with representatives of political parties.