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Comment by gt565k | Hacker News Reader

Macedonia has a large ethnic Bulgarian population by origin. The running joke of Bulgarians is that Macedonians are really Bulgarians with a fake history. It's no surprise, after the split of Yugoslavia, which had many different ethnic minorities.

Eastern Europe is a brewing pot of cultural diversity and history.

Macedonians regularly apply for Bulgarian citizenship if they can prove their origin is from Bulgaria, so as to get a backdoor into the EU, they get a Bulgarian passport. [1]

Eastern Europe / the Balkans are pretty complex. They have been ruled by The first and second Bulgarian Empires, The Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Ottomans.

[1] https://www.novinite.com/articles/112811/Bulgarian+Passports....

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> Eastern Europe / the Balkans are pretty complex. They have been ruled by The first and second Bulgarian Empires, The Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Ottomans.

Pretty much sums it up, but you forgot the Most Serene Republic of Venice :)

And also partly by Austria-Hungary and the Soviet Union who all left their marks.

Don't forget the relationship between Italy and Albania.

Also, it might be worth noting that although influenced by the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Albania separately broke ties with Stalin in a pretty bold move for the time.

I like to think Yugoslavia got lucky there and managed to get away from Stalin in 1948 b/c:

1) It was already on the periphery of the SU sphere of influence, not central (unlike the unlucky Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc)

2) It was already agreed it will be 50:50 sphere of influence SU:US, at Yalta conference only couple of years back

3) In 1948 SU still lacked the atom bomb, while US already got it

4) Memory of WW2 still very fresh, would SU risk confrontation with US over far&away lands

I think this glosses over corruption in Bulgaria[1] and the fact that a lot of people got a Bulgarian passport without actually having any Bulgarian roots.

[1] https://www.dw.com/en/bulgarian-passport-scam-officials-arre...

> The running joke of Bulgarians is that Macedonians are really Bulgarians with a fake history.

Funnily, the equivalent running joke in Serbia is that Macedonians are Serbs with a speech disorder.

Heh - I understand this is (mostly?) in jest, and I'm not going out of my way deliberately seeking offence.

Having left the Balkans, I find it very liberating, these days, when a proposal or idea of mine gets shot down, that I don't have to wonder: "Did they think I am a liar?", "Did I not articulate it over well enough?" and the like. It is such a relief, to know - it was most likely the idea, not myself.

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