Bulgarian Wikipedia has over 10,000 articles on Macedonia

If you go on the Bulgarian Wikipedia today you'll see this image:

That was on the very top left for a while, and now it has been moved down a bit but is still on the main page. You'll notice from the bottom right of the image that it is about the entire region of Macedonia (not just the current Republic of Macedonia), since it juts out into the sea. The main page has the following explanation:

which means:

Какво ново в Уикипедия -- What's new in Wikipedia

10 000 статии в Българската Уикипедия за Македония — приблизително 10% от цялото ѝ съдържание и на практика най-сериозното и пълно четиво по Македонския въпрос. -- 10 000 articles in the Bulgarian Wikipedia on Macedonia -- approximately 10% of its content (note: 124 000+ articles total) and practically (?) the most serious and complete reading on the Macedonian issue.

Този успех е резултат на няколко години усилен труд, който не ще спре да се развива дотук. -- This success is the result of several years of hard work that will not stop developing here.

Поздравления за всички потребители, допринесли за бройката, -- Congratulations to all users who contributed to this number, 

тъй като не са пестили време и ресурси, за да дадат възможност на цялата интернет общност да получи задълбочени познания по отношение на Македония. -- since they are saving time and resources to enable the entire internet community to get in-depth knowledge of Macedonia.

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October 2009: Turkish, Albanian, Serbian to be added as optional language in schools in Macedonia

The original article is here in Turkish, and here's part of it.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Education, with new changes to the educational system classes will be able to be given not only in Macedonian but also Turkish, Albanian and Serbian. With this Macedonian students as well will be able to have the chance to learn the languages of ethnic groups within their country.

The Macedonian Minister of Education Nikola Todorovski said he supported the new practice, and that the learning of ethnic languages would bring cultural and scientific richness to the students. The new program is also being supported by the Skopje representation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

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Turkish to become the third official language in the municipality of Gostivar in Macedonia from 2010

The article on this is here in French. The initiative came from a Turkish party in the municipality which proposed its adoption, which would make it the third official language after Macedonian and Albanian - this would mean all official documents and announcements would be translated into Turkish as well.

Macedonian law permits municipalities to make languages official according to their needs, and Gostivar has a Turkish minority that makes up 9.8% of the total population of 80,000. There are a total of 78,000 Turks in the country, making them the third-largest ethnic group.

Small European countries with large Turkish minorities are interesting since many have recently obtained or are progressing towards EU membership - Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus (if unification were to ever occur)...Kosovo also has a fairly large Turkish population and Moldova has an interesting Gagauz minority that speaks a language nearly the same as Turkish but Orthodox Christian instead of Muslim. Macedonia will likely be the next of these countries to obtain EU membership if the silly naming dispute can be resolved. One proposed name has been the Republic of Northern Macedonia.

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