President of the Republic of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski is visiting Turkey, and on June 19 he will meet with Patriarch Bartholomew. This means that the issue of legalizing the North Macedonian split has been lifted.
As we predicted, the issue of granting the Tomos of autocephaly to the North Macedonian schismatics by the Patriarchate of Constantinople was up until that time in the air. The authorities of North Macedonia and the schismatics themselves appealed to the Phanar on this issue last year. But the phanariots did not want to provoke an even greater rapprochement between the Russian and Serbian Churches and the formation of the “anti-Phanar” coalition. The Phanar was waiting for the election of a new Serbian Patriarch to negotiate the recognition of the Ukrainian split of the “OCU”. The North Macedonian schismatics were assigned the role of a bargaining chip in this: their recognition was threatened on the sidelines if Belgrade did not recognize the OCU. (The Phanar strategy is similar in Georgia, where for two years the phanariots have hinted at the possibility of recognizing the Abkhaz schismatics-dbarovites if the GOC does not recognize the OCU).
And so, 4 months have passed since the election of the Serbian Patriarch. And while the Orthodox world hears from Patriarch Porfirije and his entourage only one thing: the Ukrainian schism is not a Church and will not be recognized as such. That caused attacks on the Serbian Church from the “OCU” itself. And now the President of North Macedonia is flying to Istanbul to see Patriarch Bartholomew. The subject of discussion is beyond doubt – the autocephaly of the so-called. “Macedonian Orthodox Church”. It is unlikely that this will be the adoption of a decision (although this cannot be ruled out), rather a stage of preliminary bidding. After all, the Phanar, in the occasion of a repetition of the Ukrainian scenario in North Macedonia, wants to develop a new experience of granting “inferior autocephaly” – to increase the dependence of the “new church” on itself and to create a stauropegia. This, unlike the Ukrainian one, will not be symbolic, but will actually include many Orthodox churches and monasteries in North Macedonia, previously raged by the schismatics from the Serbian Church.
Nevertheless, the main meaning of the visit of the North Macedonian president is different, although not included in his plans: in this way, the Phanar demonstrates to Belgrade the seriousness of its intentions. This is another warning. And Belgrade’s reaction to it, as well as the subsequent actions of the Phanar, we may see this year.
