Bulgaria-Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Diplomatic Conflict
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This article is for the diplomatic conflict between 
Bulgaria and 
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and not the actual war between the two countries.
Bulgaria-Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Diplomatic Conflict is a conflict between the Bulgarian and Macedonian Population which escalated with the addition of Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in the game.
Contents
- 1 Real Life Issues
- 2 The Stolen Money Controversy
- 3 Addition of Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
- 4 Attempts of Cooperation
- 5 The Macedonian Baby Boom
- 6 The VMRO Controversy
- 7 Bulgaria-Phoenix Diplomatic Conflict
- 8 The Lazokrat Controversy
- 9 The Bulgarian-Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Cold War
- 10 Aftermath
- 11 References
Real Life Issues
Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) have a long conflict in Real Life which transcends in eRepublik. More on these issues can be read in these Wikipedia articles: Bulgarians in the Republic of Macedonia, Ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria and The Macedonian Question.
Note: Clicking on any of these links will leave the eRepublik Wiki.
The Stolen Money Controversy
Boyan was born in late 2008. In real life he is Bulgarian with Macedonian origins. In the game he presented himself as a Macedonian. At that time there were few Macedonian players as Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) was not yet introduced in the game. He and Nikolce (another Macedonian player) created the organization "Macedonian Treasury" which was used to collect money for a hospital and a defense system for Macedonia once it was added to the game. They also created a forum for the Macedonian community. The Macedonian people were mainly pro-Phoenix and based in 
Turkey. Boyan along with the other Macedonian tried to PTO 
Greece, but the operation failed. Later the Macedonians with the help of some Bulgarian players PTOed the Greek Party in Turkey.
Soon tensions began to rise up. Because the Macedonian Party was now the second largest in Turkey and it was involved it Turkey's political life. At that time Turkey was split in two. On one side was BattalGazi and his people and on the other burakkocamis and the Lazokrats. Later the Lazokrats would become deeply involved in the Bulgaria-Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Diplomatic Conflict (see #Bulgaria-Phoenix Diplomatic Conflict). The Lazokrats were trying to lure the Macedonians with money and weapons but Boyan was loyal to Battlagazi and kept the Macedonians from following the Lazokrats.
Since both Bulgaria and the Macedonian community were fighting for the same goals Boyan stopped hiding the fact that he was part of the Bulgarian Army. This lead to a angry reaction from the Macedonians which started calling him a traitor. During the summer of 2009 he was away from the game for four months and by the time he returned things had changed.
With Boyan being absent from the game his place was taken by Martin Davitkovski who created an alternative Macedonian organization which unlike Boyan's was anti-Bulgarian. Boyan found out that the forum he had created was passed in the hands of Macedonian_Lion and Martin Davitkovski and thedragon were denied access to it. After several conversations with both of them he finally gained access to the forum only to lose it again in a few days. He managed to join the Macedonian Skype chat, where he was insulted by the Macedonians and was called a traitor and a spy. The administrators of the forums told him that his access was blocked because he didn't have a Macedonian IP, but this was clearly no the case as other Macedonians living abroad didn't have a problem.
Boyan felt that he was targeted because of his Bulgarian origin. Considering the fact that the Macedonian community was now anti-Bulgarian he took the 
150 GOLD that were collected in the organization "Macedonian Treasury". He didn't want that money to be used of a anti-Bulgarian Republic of Macedonia.
The Macedonian players later begged the Bulgarian government to give them back that money (even though Boyan had no position in the government). Bulgaria refused.
NOTE: This information is taken from Boyan's newspaper and shows his side to the stolen money controversy.[1]
Addition of Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
Things had cooled down and both communities had gone their own way. The Bulgarian-Macedonian issue came back when on September 23, 2010 the admins announced that they plan to add Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to the New World.[2]
The Bulgarian players were getting bored of fighting for others countries and wanted a war of their own. Their two enemy neighbors (Romania and Greece) were much more powerful than them at the time, so a war against them would end up in a disaster. Serbia and Turkey (traditional Bulgarian enemies from Real Life) were Bulgarian allies so a war against them was impossible. That only left Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as a possible enemy.
The Bulgarian community was split in half. One half wanted to be allies with Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and the other half wanted a war with them. Still the Bulgarians had warm feelings for the Macedonians, as even those who wanted war with them didn't see them as enemies but as brothers.
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) was finally added to eRepublik on October 7, 2010.[3] It was given a 45 day protection from attacks.
Attempts of Cooperation
At first the relations between Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) were warm. Bulgaria helped the newly founded country with food. There were some sharp comments from both sides but they were ignored. The Bulgarian Ministry of Youth even gave the Macedonian government their system for tracking the new born citizens. This cooperation period was brief as a new scandal erupted with the formation of the VMRO party.
The Macedonian Baby Boom
Some Macedonian players managed to advertise the game on a Macedonian TV station which resulted in a huge baby boom. The video said that the Macedonian players want to guard their ethnic boundaries. According to the Real-Life Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) policy, those ethnic borders include Aegean Macedonia (located in Greece) and Pirin Macedonia (located in Bulgaria). Many players put up avatars of United Macedonia (an irredentist concept which includes the aforementioned regions).
This baby-boom caused a great controversy in Bulgaria as they saw it a a threat to their sovereignty. The new players were anti-Bulgarian and started insulting the Bulgarian players. This polarized the public opinion in Bulgaria as more and more people were calling for a war with Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and the small pro-EDEN sentiments which appeared after Bulgaria lost Federation of BiH (see Bulgaria-Bosnia and Herzegovina Rental Conflict) grew.
The VMRO Controversy
VMRO was a Bulgarian party in Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) which was formed in order to give voice to the Macedonians with and ethnic Bulgarian conscience. In the Macedonian eyes however they were viewed as a PTO party. During the Congress elections, VMRO managed to get 3 congressmen elected. The comprise only about 10% of the entire congress, but the Macedonian government saw them as a threat.
During the presidential elections, VMRO had its own candidate (a Bulgarian player), but he was far from winning the election with only 65 which was 15 times less than the votes his opponent had.
During the party president elections, the VMRO party was PTOed by thedragon and became a Macedonian party.
While VMRO didn't manage to change anything in the Macedonian political life, it showed the true face of both the Bulgarian and Macedonian players and showed that there was no chance for peace.
Bulgaria-Phoenix Diplomatic Conflict
After its addition to eRepublik, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) sought to join Phoenix. The Macedonian players were all pro-Phoenix as Greece (their traditional enemy in Real Life) was part of EDEN. The only problem for their admission was Bulgaria. Bulgaria was an official member of Phoenix and didn't want Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to join it. If Macedonia became a Phoenix member that would put an end the any Bulgarian plans to attack it. As an official member of Phoenix, Bulgaria had the power to veto FYROM's admission. During talks with the Phoenix high command the Bulgarian president cryptos explicitly said that Bulgaria wants to declare war on Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) when the protection expires.
During that time there were problems between Bulgaria and Phoenix. Phoenix had assured Bulgaria that if it would attack Greece the battle would be the top priority for the entire alliance. As soon the battle was started Serbia and Hungary opened their own wars and left Bulgaria to fend for itself and it lost the battle. Even though Greece didn't counterattack that betrayal left e deep scar. At that time money in Bulgaria was scarce as it was still trying to heal its economy after the loss of Federation of BiH. From that point on Bulgaria went on a strike and in the next two month marked all of their allies wars as training wars in the MoD orders.
At the end of cryptos' term another scandal erupted. cryptos saw that there were Macedonian representatives in the Phoenix IRC channel even though Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) was not a member of the alliance. When he confronted the High command they denied him his right to veto because of the Non aggression pact signed secretly between Romania and Bulgaria.
During the term of the next president (The Graverobber) Bulgaria started to withdraw from Phoenix. Many Phoenix countries had started to resign their MPPs with Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The Bulgarian diplomacy was trying hard to make the Phoenix members decline the Macedonian MPPs. Even though some countries didn't sign a MPP with Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), most of the did.
Around that time the admins announced that they would implement the automatic fight feature. Bulgaria had two open wars - one with Greece and one Romania. Fighting on two fronts would have been impossible for Bulgaria so Bulgaria declared peace with Greece. Even though the high command of Phoenix was informed of that three days before the peace was signed another scandal erupted. Because of the peace with Greece and the NAP with Romania from cryptos' term proposition was pushed forward to kick Bulgaria out of Phoenix.
The proposition failed. Turkey, Argentine, Brazil and Estonia vote for the expulsion of Bulgaria and Serbia, United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary and Russia voted against it. When the new High command of Phoenix was elected it annulled the proposition. It wanted to fix the communication between the Phoenix members and solve the Bulgarian - Macedonian conflict. Bulgaria however had had enough and on November 30, 2010 it left Phoenix. Five days later Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) finally joined Phoenix.
The Lazokrat Controversy
In December 2010 the Bulgarian National Front (BNF) won the presidential elections with SturmmannIYI. BNF benefited the most from the Bulgarian departure from Phoenix. In a short time Bulgaria became pro-EDEN, as the majority of the Congress was from pro-EDEN parties. Bulgaria signed with most EDEN countries - Croatia, Greece, Romania, China, Sweden, Spain and Poland (The last 3 were EDEN members at that time). Also they signed MPP with Brolliance members - USA and Canada. But still there wasn't war with Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The other option was Turkey. Turkey was ruled by the Lazokrats - group known for its tricks, when it is talking about gold. This group financed Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and there were rumours about a joint attack on Bulgaria, thus Bulgaria would have to fight on two fronts. Also the group started resistance wars in the bulgarian rented regions in Iran, in order to push back Bulgaria to its original regions and to weak the army. For the Bulgarian government this was a provocation and in January 2011 Turkey was declared as Natural Enemy.
The Bulgarian-Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Cold War
Bulgaria successfully captured Marmara. But Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) declared Bulgaria as NE and began an assault on the nation's capital Sofia. It failed, but after the Bulgarian lost in Black Sea Coast of Turkey, Marmara RW and Eastern Macedonia, both Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Turkey began to push into the Bulgarian mainland. However Greece helped Bulgaria and declared Turkey as natural enemy (NE). The task for Bulgaria was a lot easier and they finally declared Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as their NE. When Turkey was erased from the map Bulgaria wiped-out Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and closed the front.
Aftermath
Before capturing entire Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria joined EDEN on January 21st 2011. Around this date Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) left Phoenix and joined ONE on April 12th 2011. They controlled most of the Italy and Switzerland. Turkey then joined PANAM (later Terra), but on February 8th left it and became pro-ONE. But the conflicts continued and all Balkan countries were involved in World War V, Fourth Balkan War, ONE invasion of Bulgaria, Bulgarian Independence War and EDEN invasion of Serbia.
