Bulgaria's Academy of Sciences has rejected the idea of a Macedonian language, insisting that it is a Bulgarian dialect instead.
“The position remains unanimous and unchanged – the official language in the Republic of North Macedonia is a written-regional standard in Bulgarian. The academy will focus on this scientific fact with a series of events that will receive widespread public coverage and media coverage not only in our country, but also abroad” said the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in a statement.
The Institute for Macedonian Literature quickly denounced the Bulgarian claim saying that the denial of the existence of the Macedonian language activated political involvement and was a violation of international law on self-identification.
“Hundreds of thousands of monographs, studies, attitudes and arguments from renowned domestic and foreign academics have been published about the existence of the Macedonian language, literature, history and culture proving the legal and historical continuity of the Macedonian nation that exists with the Macedonian language" it counter claimed.