Bulgarians in North Macedonia

Throughout the Middle Ages and up until the early 20th century the Slavic speaking majority in the Region of Macedonia was more commonly referred to (both, by themselves and outsiders) as Bulgarians.[3][4][5]

Until the Balkan wars the majority of the Slav population of all three parts of the wider region of Macedonia had Bulgarian identity.[6] In 1913, the region of present-day Republic of North Macedonia became a part of the Kingdom of Serbia, thus becoming Southern Serbia. During World War II, when most regions of Macedonia were annexed by Bulgaria, a pro-Bulgarian ideology existed among the Slavic majority.[7][8] However, harsh treatment by occupying Bulgarian troops reduced significantly the pro-Bulgarian orientation of the Macedonian Slavs.[9] After the end of World War II, the creation of People's Republic of Macedonia and the codification of a new Macedonian language, a process of ethnogenesis started and a distinct national Macedonian identity was inaugurated into an established system. The new Yugoslav authorities began a policy of removing of any Bulgarian influence, making North Macedonia a connecting link for the establishment of new Balkan Communist Federation and creating a distinct Slavic consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia.[10] The authorities took also repressive measures that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feelings among parts of the population, such as the Bloody Christmas in 1945.[11][11][12] In North Macedonia the Bulgarophobia increased almost to the level of state ideology,[13] and the communists were successful in removing all Bulgarian influence in the region.[11]

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By the time the then-Republic of Macedonia proclaimed its independence those who continued to look to Bulgaria were very few.[11] Some 3,000 - 4,000 people that stuck to their Bulgarian identity (most from Strumica and surroundings) met great hostility among the authorities and the rest of the population. With the fall of Communism the hostility decreased, but still remains.[11] Occasional trials against Bulgarophiles have continued until today.[14][15]

In the period 2002-2016 some 70,000 citizens of North Macedonia have acquired Bulgarian citizenship (which represents more than 5% of the self-declared ethnic Macedonians in the country in the 2002 population census), almost all of them acquired by descent and always on 1st position by acquired citizenship per country.

Association Radko is an illegal Bulgarian political organisation it North Macedonia. The "Radko" association was registered in Ohrid in 2000. In 2001 the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia banned the organization Radko as "promoting racial and religious hate and intolerance".[29] The association is named after the conspiration pseudonym of Ivan Mihailov, leader of Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization during the interbellum. In official Macedonian historiography, Mihailov is a terrorist and a Bulgarian chauvinist. In 2009 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, condemned North Macedonia because of violations of the European Convention of Human Rights in this case.[30]