Ethnic groups in North Macedonia

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Monday Serbia had paid a high price for freedom in WWI and that, for that reason, "our country and its citizens will continue to protect Serbian statehood, freedom and independence as supreme national values."

A Bulgarian citizen in Skopje, Borche Natsevski, was assaulted by two police officers reportedly due to his Bulgarian identity and his vocal expression of self-determination, reports OFFNews. This incident was revealed by Viktor Stoyanov, the chairman of the Macedonia Foundation, through a post on Facebook.

Discussions in North Macedonia are underway regarding potential constitutional changes, with former foreign minister Bujar Osmani asserting the necessity of a vote on the matter.

Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic has stated that the majority of illegal migrants entering Serbia and North Macedonia come through EU countries. Dacic and North Macedonia's Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski met in Kumanovo to discuss the issue, as reported by Macedonian media and cited by BTA.

The Bulgarian Parliament has unanimously adopted a declaration with 178 votes in favor, addressing the ongoing "systematic and methodical destruction of the dialogue" between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, as well as provocative and offensive remarks made by political leaders in North Macedonia.

Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski made a pointed remark in response to the controversy over the absence of the Macedonian flag during an informal meeting between Presidents Rumen Radev and Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova in Sofia.

EU ambassador in Skopje, David Geer, urged the Macedonian government to fulfill its obligation to include Bulgarians in the Constitution, stressing that the EU's negotiating framework will not change, BGNES reported.

The 2023 census in Albania not only showed alarming demographic data but stirred a fresh round of tensions with the Balkan nation's neighbors. 

Figures published late last week showed that the country's population shrank by 14% in 12 years from approximately 2.8 million to around 2.4 million. 

Sanja Božinovska, the newly appointed Minister of Energy, Mining, and Mineral Resources in North Macedonia, has Bulgarian citizenship. According to a registration at the Commercial Court in Zagreb, Božinovska worked in the Croatian branch of the "Rudnap" company as a Bulgarian citizen with a Bulgarian passport since 2013, as revealed by the North Macedonian news portal "360 Degrees".

In Albania, 7,057 individuals identified themselves as Bulgarians, based on data released by "Top Channel." This marks the first census after Bulgaria's national minority was officially recognized in Albania in 2017.