United Macedonian Organisation: Ilinden–Pirin (Обединена македонска организация: Илинден–Пирин) is a

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia * Mac ...

organisation An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution ( formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a pa ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, whose self-declared aims are protection of the

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language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

and

nationality Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture. In international law, n ...

of the Macedonian minority in the country. In Bulgaria itself the organization is regarded as a foreign government-funded separatist organization.

History

In 1999, the organisation was registered as a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

and took part in the municipal elections the same year. The party polled approximately 3,000 votes in the party's core region,

Blagoevgrad Province Blagoevgrad Province (, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia (), (''Pirinska Makedoniya or Bulgarska Makedoniya'') is a province ('' ...

, in line with the number of self-declared ethnic Macedonians in the region according to the Bulgarian census at the time (3,100 in 2001). The party received, however, almost no votes in the rest of the country. On February 29, 2000, by decision of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court, UMO Ilinden–Pirin was expelled from the Bulgarian

political system In political science, a political system means the form of Political organisation, political organization that can be observed, recognised or otherwise declared by a society or state (polity), state. It defines the process for making official gov ...

, as a

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

party. On November 25, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

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, condemned

because of violations of the OMO Ilinden–Pirin's freedom of organising

meeting A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision-making. Definiti ...

s. The court stated that Bulgaria had violated Act 11 from the

European Convention of Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is a supranational convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the ...

. On 26 June 2006, the party held a new founding meeting in the southwestern town of

Gotse Delchev Georgi Nikolov Delchev (; ; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (''Гоце Делчев''),Originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography as ''Гоце Дѣлчевъ''. - Гоце Дѣлчевъ. ...

despite an IMRO-BNM protest demonstration. IMRO-BNM deputy Boris Yachev accused the Macedonian government of sponsoring the party with

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

75,000 and called for the recall of the Macedonian ambassador

Abdurahman Aliti Abdelrahman or Abd al-Rahman or Abdul Rahman or Abdurrahman or Abdrrahman ( or occasionally ; DMG ''ʿAbd ar-Raḥman'') is a male Arabic Muslim given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' Abd'', ''al-'' and '' ...

. The party's leader, Stojko Stojkov, called the party Bulgarian and not ethnically based. According to the organization, their headquarters have been attacked and vandalized twice - once in 2007, and another time in 2008. Police refused to start an investigation, because according to them, the amount of damage done was not big enough for an investigation. On July 30 Sofia's City Court confirmed the decision to deny registration; the arguments advanced by the court were, among others, that the necessary quorum of 530 signatures had not been reached and that there were many irregularities among those presented. UMO Ilinden–Pirin has been accepted as a full member of the

European Free Alliance The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some ...

in April 2007.

References

Sources

Maknews: Interview with Stojko Stojkov, Co-President of the Five Member Executive of the OMO Pirin Political Party in Pirin Macedonia

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060614005118/http://maknews.com/html/articles/stankov_ilinden_v_bulgaria/stankov_ilinden.doc Maknews: Case of Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria]

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Macedonian Organization Ilinden-Pirin Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights Political parties in Bulgaria European Free Alliance Ethnic political parties Macedonian diaspora

History

See also

References

Sources

External links