On October 3, the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki handed Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev the remains identified as those of Tsar Samuel. In Sofia the procession was received on Battenberg Square, with the anthem and a 21-gun salute. In return, Bulgaria is handing Greece 48 objects, mainly church utensils from several monasteries in Aegean Macedonia, which according to the Bulgarian side were "rescued" by Bulgarian scholars during the First World War.

Journalists asked Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski whether the move would have implications for Macedonia's relations with Greece and Bulgaria. He answered with history: the issue should be seen "through the prism of the Bled Agreement", reached after the capitulation of "fascist Bulgaria, which had, I would say, occupied the territory of today's Macedonia during the Second World War".

"As for the transfer of relics, I would go back several decades, to when the relics of the Macedonian giant Delchev were brought to Skopje as a result of that Bled Agreement," Mickoski said.

The calendar problem

The remains of Goce Delchev were brought to Skopje in October 1946. The Bled Agreement between Josip Broz Tito and Georgi Dimitrov was signed in 1947. So the relics arrived a year before the agreement that, according to the prime minister, brought them. The mistake was spotted immediately by Bulgarian media - and it is most awkward when it's Sofia correcting you on Delchev.

There is a second layer. Instead of saying what Skopje thinks of the act between Athens and Sofia, the prime minister turned to "administering" - the word former prime minister Zoran Zaev used in an interview with a Bulgarian agency in November 2020 - and to the opposition, which according to him has "its own puppets" and "runs them". The question was about Greece and Bulgaria. The answer ended at SDSM.

Mickoski expressed regret that "few people mention the Bled Agreement today". Perhaps so. But if you invoke history on a day when your neighbours are writing it in front of the cameras, getting the dates right is the least you should do. Does Skopje have a position on the transfer itself - or only on Bled?