Bulgaria, Macedonia Tackle Tensions With Religious Celebration

The joint celebrations dedicated to the saints widely regarded as the fathers of Slavic literary culture took place on Sunday in Sofia, coming at a time when the two countries' political ties remain strained.

The head of the Bulgarian academy of science, Stefan Vodenicharov, and his Macedonian counterpart, Vlado Kambovski, laid wreaths at the monument to Cyril and Methodius outside Bulgaria's National Library in Sofia.

“Science is an independent field and should not be affected by political affairs,” Vodenicharov said.

Kambovski added that the “negative energy” that exists between the two countries “should be transformed into a constructive force while Macedonia and Bulgaria jointly integrate into the European Union”.

The two academies made their first official contacts last year after decades of non-cooperation. The two sides agreed to work together on some 40 scientific projects, 30 of which have already begun.

The next joint event will come at the end of May when the Macedonian academy will organize the Days of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Skopje. A similar event is planned for the Macedonian academics in Sofia in the second half of this year.

Also present at the celebration in Sofia was the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Stefan, who attended a mass celebrated by Patriarch Neofit, the head of the Bulgarian Church in Sofia's Alexander Nevski church.

Stefan was there only as spectator because the Bulgarian church does not recognize Macedonia's religious institution as independent, taking the side of the Serbian Church.

The Macedonian church proclaimed independence, or so-called ‘authocephaliy’, in 1967, but the Serbian Church declared this...