The Census and Bulgarian “battle” in Pustec

The last battlefield of the historical clashes between Bulgaria and North Macedonia seemed to have been developed in the beautiful village of Pustec. Reporting of the Former Albanian Member of Parliament, Vasil Sterjovski for intervention and pressure exercised by Bulgaria to artificially create a minority in that area, despite of public facts, has been completely ignored so far by Albanian Authorities, regardless of doubts falling on the process integrity and on authenticity of information provided by the citizens under pressure.

Jona Plumbi

The process of gathering citizens data within the Census framework developed by Institute of Statistics of Albania brought the phenomenon of receiving Bulgarian passports back into the spotlight.

Former Member of Parliament, Vasil Sterjovski and Chairman of “Macedonian Alliance for European Integration” reported the Bulgarian interference toward this minority aiming to declare them as Bulgarian citizens in Census 2023.

THE CHARGE

In October 2023, Albania kicked off the Census process which Institute of Statistics use to gather and process population data to further be published in demographic and economic statistics etc.

Declaration of ethnicity is also part of this process which is done on a self-declaration base. This is exactly where pressure is exerted on citizens in villages where there is a large Macedonian minority, according to the Former Member of Parliament, Sterjovski.

“We were aware that Bulgaria would this time use the only left instrument, that of passports, for people to declare themselves as Bulgarian citizens”. – Sterovski declares by claiming that “since launching of the process, even a week before that, people who have applied for passport are being called by Bulgarian Embassy asking them to be declared as Bulgarian citizens that speak Bulgarian language, otherwise procedures of obtaining the passport will be stopped”.

OFFICIAL OPEN INTERVENTION

To understand the claimed intervention against Macedonian minority in Pustec and more, Faktoje verified Sterjovski’s report based on his gathered information.

“Since the start of the census, the Bulgarian Ambassador began visiting areas with Macedonian minority.” On the second day of the census, they went to Golloborda and shared gifts.”  – According to Sterovski’s report they openly campaigned on the second day of the census.”

On 15th of September, three days before the Census, Vice President of Bulgaria, Ilijana Jotova, officially visited Albania and met with Albanian President, Speaker of the Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku and Minister of Interior, Taulant Balla.

In her Facebook post, Vice President of Bulgaria states  that “ she was ensured from the highest level that registration of population in Albania will be performed according to the highest European standards respecting the right of all ethnic communities, including the Bulgarian one”.

Vice President of Bulgaria referred  to the Census process development in Albania as a “Challenge” and stated that it will be followed by Bulgaria as well “hoping that everything will be in order”.

During her visit, Vice President of Bulgaria traveled toward Albanian areas with Macedonian Minority as Golloborda, Ostreni i Madh and Elbasan.

Deputy Prime Minister, Belinda Balluku meets with Vice President of Bulgaria, Mrs. Jotova

Balluku meets with Spas Tashev

Part of accompanying delegation of the Vice President of Bulgaria was a citizen named Spas Tashev. The latter was Former Advisor of Bulgarian Government; however, he currently does not hold any official position.

Former deputy Sterjovski accuses that this person, on September 30, 2023, posted a photo of the census form in Albania on his Facebook page. He also provides pictures of the mentioned publication.

According to the allegations made by Sterjovski, the companion citizen of the Vice President of Bulgaria in meetings in the Macedonian minority areas of Albania, Spas Tashev, has shared photographs of responses given by Albanian citizens in the Census 2023 process. Such data is legally protected as sensitive and personal information.

“Thank you to my friends in Albania who sent me pictures of Census responses declaring themselves as Bulgarians who speak Bulgarian language.” – is written in the Facebook post of September 30.

This post can be found anymore in Facebook.

However, there is still an article published online by Spas Tashev saying “declaration of the ethnic affiliation of his fellow Bulgarians in Albanian Census  will primarily depend on Bulgarian diplomacy”.

Claims have been raised about the risk of altering the actual outcome and this is also supported by Vice President Jotova, Spas Tashev writes that the “issue” of registering the ethnicity of the population living within the borders of the Republic of Albania became clear in February of year when INSTAT conducted a pilot test for population registration.

Tashev, who claims to have seen the results of this pilot test expresses  that “back then, members of commissions were influenced by Skopje, and in the region of Small Prespa, only one Bulgarian was registered, even though people declared to us that they have declared their Bulgarian identity.”

The data that Tashev refers to in this article has not been published by INSTAT.

THREATS AND GIFTS

Another form of pressure and influence that Sterjovski report as being exerted on the Macedonian minority is that of influencing through gifts and openly public threats.

“The day when Census started in Albania, Makedonia Foundation publicly threated citizens who applied for Bulgarian passport”. – Sterjovski says showing the post shared in Facebook by a person named Viktor Stojanov.

The post, that is still public in, is self-explanatory. Stojanov publicly calls Albanian citizens who want to apply for a Bulgarian passport based on origin to declare as Bulgarians in the Census started on 18th of September.

Viktor Stojanov posts in Facebook were made least 1 month before Census had started in Albania notifying that he will personally be in Pustec during the process.

“This person is from the far-right of Bulgaria, Chairman of MAKEDONIJA Foundation in Sofia and we have recently had many issues with him, especially in Pustec. He has come many times and he caused incidents with other right-wing extremists of the ATAKA Party. We doubt that he may also be under Russia Influence as we have seen his open support to it. We have reported this person since the beginning before the Census had started.” – Sterjovski explains showing a photograph of his shared public threats to Albanians applying for Bulgarian passport.

Viktor Stojanov appeared in Facebook giving gifts in many cases in areas of Albanian where Bulgarian minority is claimed to exist. Dates coincide with those of Census development in Albania.

Among others, Stojanov shared a picture of a Tablet showing questions of the Census 2023 and answers provided given by respondents. The picture shows the tablet used by INSTAT for gathering population data due to Census 2023 including the question about ethnicity. Gëzimi, the citizen providing the answers, has declared himself as Bulgarian.

The Facebook post includes a photo of the INSTAT tablet with the answer regarding ethnicity

According to Former Deputy Sterjovski this situation creates significant pressure on citizens who may be in the process of acquiring Bulgarian citizenship and who believe that the information they provide as answers in the INSTAT survey is not confidential and “can be used against them.”

Mayor of the municipality, Pal Kolefski, declares that this person did not come to Pustec during the Census.

“I have also seen his writings on social media. We have reported this person to the Albanian Police indicating that the person in question should not influence or be present at least during the Census process. Because of he had a negative impact. We reported just in case he comes; however, he didn’t come near at all. – Pal Kolefski said for Faktoje.

Macedonian Alliance for European Integration Party also reported the case of Viktor Stojanov in order to prevent him from entering Albania during Census – as announced by Sterjovski.  However, it was not taken into account by the Albanian authorities, and Stojanov entered Albania unhindered.

The credibility of the process is further compromised when Pustec citizens data is published by media before the completion of the data collection by INSTAT.

Media is reporting 2023 Census figures even though the data collection process has not yet been completed

EUROPEAN STANDARD AND LAW ON MINORITIES

According to Vasil Sterjovski, all these kinds of pressures, especially ‘naming’ of individuals who have declared or not declared themselves as Bulgarians in the Census distort the result. This happens because lack of trust in a regular and confidential population registration process results in potential inaccurate responses.

Indeed, according to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe, free self-identification within the framework of population registration and other data collection processes begins with the individual’s free decision.

A person’s free self-identification may only be questioned in rare cases, such as when it is not based on good faith. – is written in the convention  of the Council of Europe. Coe document continues to emphasize that “official recording of a self-identification in case of minority identity must not be externally imposed.

Both of these basic registration criteria for through self-identification have been violated, Sterjovski emphasizes

BACKGROUND

Vasil Sterjovski refers to this action by Bulgaria as part of its strategy for artificial assimilation of Macedonian minorities in the region. According to him, evidence of this is the fact that even though the ethnicity question in INSTAT surveys has always been based on self-identification, in census 2011, no Bulgarian minority appeared in any area of Albania.

Bulgarian minority was officially recognized for the first time with amendments made to Law on Minorities in 2017 when no such minority was listed in Albania by then. Pursuant to this Law, any area where 20% of the population is part of a minority group must use the language of that minority in schools, official documents, tables, or announcements. This is what Bulgaria aims to achieve, according to Sterjovski.

Regardless of the aim and strategy chosen by the Bulgarian state, what Facebook posts show is the influence exerted on residents of the areas where Macedonian minority lives to declare themselves as Bulgarians in the census, and the threats of not granting or revoking Bulgarian citizenship for those who have acquired this right.

Based on the public data, we consider the report made by the Former Deputy Vasil Sterjovski to be credible.