Sofia and Skopje in a Paradoxical Normality Mode

SOFIA AND SKOPJE IN A PARADOXICAL NORMALITY MODE 

Kostadin Filipov 

On 1 August 2017 in Skopje, Zoran Zaev, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, and Boyko Borisov, his colleague from Bulgaria, signed an Agreement of friendship, good neighbourly relations and collaboration* between the two countries. 

The document which was initially proposed by Bulgaria, had spent 18 years in the drawers of administration of the Republic of Macedonia for various reasons, and signified a new stage in the development of the relations between the two neighbouring and friendly countries, between the people of both sides of the border. 

And most importantly – it revived the European and Atlantic perspective for our southwestern neighbour which had found itself in a regime of isolation under Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski...