Encyclopaedic example

UNACCEPTABLE: Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha said that the content of Macedonia’s encyclopaedia was “unacceptable” and asked Macedonian authorities to adopt a clear position on the issue because “no one’s identity can be based on false history”.

A few weeks after Macedonia was told by European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn that it could start accession negotiations this year, Macedonian academics caused great distress in and outside the country by publishing a new Macedonian encyclopaedia in two volumes.

The Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts (MASA) published a limited run of the book on September 17. Copies quickly sold out, prompting MASA to consider a re-print. Passages in the encyclopaedia immediately angered Macedonia’s Albanian population and led to three other countries lodging official protests with the Macedonian government.

History has always been a sensitive issue in the Balkans, especially in the past 20 years when Macedonia has been engaged in heated arguments with its neighbours – mainly Greece and Bulgaria – about historical facts and myths. It is enough to mention Macedonia’s name dispute with Greece and how it has hindered the former’s foreign policy efforts.

As for Macedonia’s relationship with Bulgaria, the issue lately has been not so much whether King Samuil was Bulgarian or Macedonian (although that argument is still brewing) but on whether Bulgarians have oppressed Macedonians over the past 60 years or vice versa....


more see: http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/10/02/792969_encyclopaedic-example