The census was conducted to please the two leaders of the bigger parties, that is, it was an attempt to make a census, says Dobre Mitrev, President of the civil association “Macedonian – Bulgarian Friendship” at the panel “The smaller ethnic communities between statistics and politics” organized by CIVIL.

He adds that the census was conducted in order to see which of the two ethnic communities is more dominant in the country.

“When the enumerators went from house to house and people declared themselves as Bulgarians, they asked for passports for confirmation. Is that the basis of how the citizens want to declare themselves?

I claim most responsibly that the ethnic Bulgarians are neglected in the census, when someone declares himself as a Bulgarian and someone else asks for documentation. What if I don’t have a document and want to register as such? We as an association have many complaints, we also have people who will confirm it. Everything will be proven with documents for people who wanted to register as Bulgarians, but were not given the opportunity to do so”, says Mitrev.

He adds that the number is not a precondition for obtaining basic human rights.

“Even if it were one person, that person should have a basic human right. To me, the number doesn’t mean anything, rather it is the two big ethnic communities who are fighting over the number, in order to reach certain quotas. For me, every person should have a basic and individual right”, added Mitrev.

Panel led by Dehran Muratov

Text editing: Diana Tahiri

Camera: Atanas Petrovski

Editing and realization: Arian Mehmeti

Translation: N. Cvetkovska