Bulgarians are an ethnic minority in North Macedonia. Bulgarians are mostly found in the Strumica area,Yugoslavism: histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992, Dejan Djokić, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003, , p. 122. but over the years, the absolute majority of southeastern North Macedonia have declared themselves Macedonian. The town of Strumica and its surrounding area (including Novo Selo) were part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria between the Balkan Wars and the end of World War I, as well as during World War II. The total number of Bulgarians counted in the 2021 Census was 3,504 or roughly 0.2%. Over 100,000 nationals of North Macedonia have received Bulgarian citizenship since 2001 and some 53,000 are still waiting for such, almost all based on declared Bulgarian origin.ЧЕТИРИСТОТИН ТРИДЕСЕТ И СЕДМО ЗАСЕДАНИЕ София, петък, 11 декември 2020 г. Открито в 9,04 ч. In the period when North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, there was also migration of Bulgarians from the so called Western Outlands in Serbia.Проф. Пламен Павлов: Македония трябва да се откаже от антибългаризма и записването на българщината в официалните й документи може да бъде крачка напред. 12 март, 2021, Агенция Фокус.
History
Yugoslavia Number and percentage of the Bulgarian ethnic minority in Macedonia from 1948-2021For more detailed census results, please see: Demographics of North Macedonia#Ethnic groupsEthnic groupcensus 1948census 1953census 1961census 1971census 1981census 1991census 1994census 2002census 2021Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Bulgarians8890.19200.13,0870.23,3340.21,9840.11,3700.11,6820.11,4170.13,5040.2 Until the Balkan Wars the majority of the Slav population of all three parts of the wider region of Macedonia had Bulgarian identity. 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 I and World War II, when most regions of Macedonia were annexed by Bulgaria, a pro-Bulgarian sentiment still existed among the Slavic majority.The struggle for Greece, 1941–1949, Christopher Montague Woodhouse, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, , p. 67.Who are the Macedonians?, Hugh Poulton, Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1995, , p. 101. However, harsh treatment by occupying Bulgarian troops and forcible Bulgarianisation by the authorities significantly reduced the pro-Bulgarian orientation of the Macedonian Slavs. 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, policies which were accepted by the overwhelming majority of the Slavic population in Macedonia without a problem. 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.Europe since 1945. Encyclopedia by Bernard Anthony Cook. , pg. 808. With such policies, the Yugoslav communist authorities mostly overcame the remaining pro-Bulgarian sentiments among much of the population. The authorities also took repressive measures against those who retained their pro-Bulgarian feelings, such as the Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour, which was passed by the government of the SR Macedonia at the end of 1944. The Presidium of Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia established a special court for the implementation of this law, which came into effect on 3 January 1945. Bulgarian sources claim that in early 1945, around 100,000 Bulgarophiles were imprisoned and over 1,260 were allegedly killed due to this Law.Bulgarian sources assert that thousands lost their lives due to this cause after 1944, and that more than 100,000 people were imprisoned under the law for the protection of Macedonian national honour 'for opposing the new ethnogenesis'. 1,260 leading Bulgarians were allegedly killed in Skopje, Veles, Kumanovo, Prilep, Bitola and Stip... For more see: Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians? C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, , p. 118.John Phillips, Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. (2004) I.B. Tauris (publisher), , p. 40. However, some Bulgarian researchers have questioned these figures, noting that the assertion that these individuals were persecuted and killed solely on account of their Bulgarian national consciousness is deceptive. Per political scientist Mirjana Maleska, in SR Macedonia, the Bulgarophobia increased almost to the level of state ideology, influenced partly by past hardships that Macedonians experienced as a result of certain nationalist and chauvinistic circles in Bulgaria, but a great part of these anti-Bulgarian sentiments were result from the need to distinguish between the Bulgarian and the Macedonian nations.Mirjana Maleska. Editor-in-chief. WITH THE EYES OF THE "OTHERS". (about Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the Macedonian national identity). New Balkan Politics - Journal of Politics. ISSUE 6 In the period between 1945 and 1991, when North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, there was also migration of Bulgarian population from SR Serbia to the SR Macedonia.Богослав Јанев, Босилегратчани во Македонија, Скопје: Здружение на граѓани. "Босилеградско", 2006, Куманово: Графотекс. ISBN 9989-57-472-3. The number of these migrants is unofficially estimated at 20,000.Александър Димитров, Колко са българите в РС Македония? Глас, Прес 10 март 2021 г.
Post-independence
By the time the then-Republic of Macedonia proclaimed its independence those who continued to look to Bulgaria were very few. 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. Occasional trials against Bulgarophiles have occurred.Violations of Human Rights of Macedonian citizens with a Bulgarian ethnic consciousness 1990–1997Court for waved Bulgarian flag in Macedonia. In the period after 1991 ca. 100,000 citizens of North Macedonia have acquired Bulgarian citizenship (which represents 10% of the self-declared ethnic Macedonians in the country in the 2021 population census), almost all of them acquired by descent and until 2023 on 1st position by acquired citizenship per country. On 11 December 2020 at the Parliament, the Minister of Justice of Bulgaria Desislava Ahladova reported that from 1 January 2010 to 22 October 2020, 77,829 files have been opened for the acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by citizens of North Macedonia, 77,762 of them based on declared Bulgarian origin. In 2018 Bulgaria faced a scandal over the alleged sale of citizenship documents. Former Citizenship Council director Katya Mateva exposed a scheme in which the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad issued thousands of falsified certificates of Bulgarian origin to Macedonians and Albanians in exchange for bribes.
In 2021, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev claimed that some 120,000 Macedonian citizens held Bulgarian passports and insisted on putting them into North Macedonia's constitution, which lists the Albanian, Serbian, Bosniak, Turkish, Romani peoples, as well as the other peoples inhabiting the country.Sinisa Jakov Marusic, Fact-Check: Can North Macedonia Meet Bulgaria’s Six Demands for Breakthrough? BIRN, Skopje, 19 October 2021. Despite sizable number of Macedonians that have acquired Bulgarian citizenship since 2002, only 3,504 citizens of North Macedonia declared themselves as ethnic Bulgarians in the 2021 census, which was observed and welcomed by the European Commission. The Bulgarian side does not accept these results as completely objective, citing as an example the census has counted less than 20,000 people with Bulgarian citizenship in the country, while in fact they are over 100,000.Лилия Чалева, Скопие преброи 19 645 души с двойно гражданство 29 април 2022, Dir.bg. The "passport paradox" indirectly contributes to the Bulgarian claims, therefore Bulgaria does not classify the Bulgarians as a national minority but rather as "citizens of North Macedonia with Bulgarian self-awareness", a framing that implies their actual number is higher than reported in census data. However, the discrepancy demonstrates that Macedonian applicants are primarily motivated by economic reasons and access to an EU passport rather than by Bulgarian ethnic identity.