On National Unification Day in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said in Sofia that the state was going to set out in a document its red lines in the relations with its neighbors. Analysts in Macedonia immediately reacted to his statement commenting that Bulgaria is dreaming again the dream of San Stefano, Dnevnik reports.

Mladenov, as the news agencies reported, did not cite any concrete examples and did not point at Macedonia, yet stressed that Bulgaria was and always would be open for guests from the neighboring countries and for developing trade and would always be supportive of the EU enlargement.

“However, Bulgaria is not a country that will allow tempering with its history and identity because they are Bulgarian and politicians have no right to come up with interpretations of their own. All such attempts in the past proved a failure and therefore it is important that we look ahead rather than back,” he said.

The first regular meeting with the ambassadors from the neighboring countries serving in Bulgaria will be held next week to discuss the document and fully investigate relations.

Macedonian Minister Nikola Poposki said Macedonia had no reason to view Mladenov’s statement as directed against it. His statements are for domestic use, he told Dnevnik.