Vandal attack on our embassy in Skopje. An unknown man broke the glass at the main entrance of the diplomatic mission. The Foreign Ministry issued a sharp reaction to the attack, describing it as an unacceptable encroachment on the status of the diplomatic mission and a gross violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Ivo Nikodimov from BNT spoke with the Bulgarian ambassador in Skopje on the subject.
- We learned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Facebook profile of our embassy in Skopje that an attack was carried out today against the embassy building, when was it carried out and was only the glass at the main entrance broken?
Zhelyazko Radukov, Ambassador of Bulgaria to the Republic of North Macedonia: The attack took place today, at around 12.20 p.m. local time, the perpetrator was noticed by security cameras – how he purposefully approached the entrance door of the embassy with a heavy, sharp object, struck and retreated in another direction. It is a question of a reinforced glass, a showcase on the front door. It is double-glazed, we have a decent level of security. He managed to break only the first protective glass and that is probably why he did not continue the attack, since he saw that there were more protective systems after that.
- Ambassador Radukov, in recent weeks we have witnessed an escalation of hate speech, do you think that today's attack is a result of this hate speech, which has existed in the RSM for a long time towards Bulgaria?
- I am not sure whether this hate speech and manipulation of the truth is the result of the latest escalation, diplomatically speaking, on the subject of Bulgaria has been going on for decades. This action expands the circle of potential perpetrators of such attacks. Whether the person felt encouraged by this speech in recent weeks or before them – in this case is irrelevant. The problem is that the number of people like him is constantly increasing as a result of this purposefully created narrative.
- We are also observing impunity for attacks on Bulgarian associations, including attacks on people with a Bulgarian identity. The sentence for the attackers of Hristiyan Pendikov is only 8 months. At the same time, we witnessed a much heavier sentence for Ljupcho Georgievski for quoting Vanche Mihaylov. Do this impunity on the one hand and these double standards on the other hand contribute to such attacks?
- I thank you for this rather precise analysis of the situation. If hate speech expands the circle of potential perpetrators, then this impunity for crimes against the Bulgarian community or crimes against objects and figures associated with Bulgaria does not allow for the creation of prevention, on the contrary. It shows potential perpetrators that there is no problem with this type of behavior and this type of crime. I will remind you that in recent years we have had attacks against Bulgarians, we have shootings, we have had an axe attack. All of these have either not been effectively investigated, respectively, we have not reached a courtroom, or the penalties have been so small that they practically render the term prevention meaningless, but on the contrary - they encourage this type of attacks. And this is, of course, worrying. Not so much for the employees of our embassy, who have fully consciously made their choice to come and work for Bulgaria here, but I am more worried about the members of the Bulgarian community, who do not have the protection that we enjoy.