Slowly, carefully and with a little beating

Ilo Trajkovski

Is beating not enough anymore? So quickly?! That’s what I’m asking myself during these days of turmoil in the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations. Until recently, or after signing the Friendship Treaty, it seemed as if there were good neighborly relations and cooperation between the two countries. When signing the Friendship Treaty, in August 2017, the two prime ministers estimated that it was a historical document that would open new perspectives in the development of relations between the two countries on a bilateral and multilateral level.
Prime Minister Zaev demonstrated a great deal of satisfaction, noting that one obstacle on our path to membership in the European Union has been overcome. Obviously, when signing this agreement, Prime Minister Zaev, and the country with him, still known as the Republic of Macedonia, did not know the maxim contained in the title. But they should have known it. Signing a “historic” agreement presupposes knowing all of the other past, more or less, historic agreements. They should have known it for at least two reasons.
First, this maxim is an integral part of the Bulgarian political folklore. It is a constant. Especially when it comes to the attitude of official Bulgaria towards the Macedonian State and Macedonians. And political folklore, as part of the political traditions and political culture of a nation, is not subject to rapid change. Political tradition is the most diligent fuse. It reacts to any oscillation in political flows. As it did yet again. Bulgarian politicians felt that now is the moment to activate the third phase – the beating. You will either accept that Goce Delchev was and still is Bulgarian, and with him many other of his contemporaries and comrades, or you will not get your membership in the European Union. We need to grab a stick and beat you as a disciplinary measure so that you finally grow up, according to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov!
The second reason, which was not only to be known, but also kept in mind that the stated idea is the guide to Bulgarian politics, is the fact that it is affirmed by one  of “our nationals” with a very prominent place and role in the Bulgarian political life! The person is Andrey Tasev Lyapchev. I deliberately say “our national”. He was born and raised in our country, in the town of Resen (1866-1933). He identified himself and formed himself as Bulgarian. He was first elected Minister of War and was later elected Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from June 1926 to June 1931. Therefore, some call him Bulgarian Bismarck.
Can we, reasonably, instead of calling him “one of ours’ call him Macedonian? We can, of course, but not in any sense of the word “Macedonian”. That is what journalist Viktor Cvetanoski calls him, for instance. According to him, Andrey Lyapchev and the rest of the “ours” from that period, such as Gjorche Petrov, Todor Aleksandrov, Simeon Radev and others, were the “crème de la crème of the Bulgarian society”. Lyapchev was a “Macedonian” in the regional sense, but in a national sense he clearly formed himself, decided and affirmed himself as a Bulgarian.
But besides this, history knows other meanings of the noun “Macedonian”. The word “Macedonian” is polysemic – one name, multiple identities. Some older, some newer. Some tougher, some more flexible. Conversely, the latest statements by the Bulgarian statesmen are an expression of an essentialist position. According to it, national identity is something that has been given, something objective, something fixed. But if so, then what is the meaning of Lyapchev’s maxim – “Slowly, carefully and with a little beating”?
The first time I heard this saying was thirty years ago. I got it at once, thanks to the presenter. I owe this to Krasimir Karakachanov, who is now the most aggressive defender of the so- called Bulgarianness in Macedonia, but only in North Macedonia, but keeps quiet his assumed Bulgarianness in Greek Macedonia. In a conversation about the Macedonian national identity as a historical fact, he used this exact maxim. Wanting to describe the policy of converting the Macedonians into Bulgarians he said: Yes, now many of you are declaring yourselves Macedonians, and we do not want to convert you all at once, it doesn’t work that way. Our policy is according to the maxim – slowly, carefully, with good intentions and in the end, for those who wouldn’t buy it, with just a little bit of beating.
I was lucky enough to hear the meaning of this maxim personally interpreted by one one of the fiercest advocates of the Bulgarian essentialist position regarding the Macedonian question. He is also licensed by the relevant Bulgarian state security service. And this service in Bulgaria, just like its counterpart in our country, has deeply compiled the country’s official truths, especially the truths of the two totalitarian communist regimes. The identity truths are the favorite. They act strategically in their actions – when needed they go slowly, then they are mild and careful if necessary, and when push comes to shove, they use physical strength and beating.
Yes. These services, as instruments for the protection of state interests, have monopoly over physical coercion, over power. But what they don’t have is monopoly over the truth. The truth about human, social and historical issues is not a single, sovereign interpreter. Social and human sciences, just like scientific cognitive disciplines, know the boundaries of their own knowledge. They know the boundaries of their truths. The more aware of these boundaries, the more the Macedonian and Bulgarian historical sciences will draw closer to the decision on the nationality of Goce Delchev and many other nationalities. And recognizing the limitations of our knowledge is the only defense against the various forms of essentialism, especially with regard to the issue of nationality in the Balkans.
According to these understandings, “national identity” is a birth mark of people. Nationality is a genetic way inscribed (culturally or by blood) in each individual and community. Regardless of whether the individuals or communities have highly evolved and became aware of their national identity, nationality can be recognized and decoded according to these understandings by means of authoritative expertise available to trained observers – often paid by “services”.
We recognize these ideas exactly in contemporary ethno-nationalist policies. The request to recognize that Goce Delchev as Bulgarian and only Bulgarian means that this is precisely his superior, original, essential national code. These policies do not take into account the time in which he lived, the fights he was leading with all of his rivals, and other identities – political and religious. He described himself as: “I am a socialist by ideology, an anarchist in conviction, and a terrorist as my life’s work”! Which of these benchmarks signifies his nationality?! In addition, in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, Orthodox churches have official status. But not the unionists, and Delchev was baptized in a union church, right? Does this mean that he is or was a Bulgarian unionist? According to what logic? Macedonian, yes, because Kukush was part of the then Ottoman Macedonia, and he himself fought to his death for “the state” Macedonia, independent even from Bulgaria! And that was far ahead of the formation of the Comintern and far ahead of the “Serbian conspiracy” against the Bulgarian economy in Macedonia.
However, Lyapchev’s maxim could still become a guideline today. But instead of beating, to ask for digestifs. That would be logical. To slowly go through the numerous expressed historical “truths”, to spice them up with goodness in the spirit of the treaty of friendship and good-neighborliness, and eventually, as the French did, top it with digestifs. Awaiting France’s and Germany’s move – October is close enough!