Speaking on a popular TV show in 1990, soon after the collapse of the previous regime, long-time dissident and doyen of Bulgarian historical science, former Dean of the Faculty of History at the University of Sofia, Nikolay Genchev, insisted on putting the ‘Bulgarian national interest’ ‘above all’. Genchev said with regret that ‘the Bulgarian national problem has recently appeared mainly as a Turkish problem’. Irritated, he added that it is talked about ‘only for the Turks . . . [in spite of the fact that there were only] a million [Turkish] people living in this country’. He followed up with apocalyptic predictions that Yugoslavia wanted Pirin (or Bulgarian) Macedonia, Romania longed for Dobrodja (which is split between Bulgaria and Romania), the Turks claimed secession, and therefore only the ‘hard chest of the Balkan’ remained.

1990 年，前政权垮台后不久，长期持不同政见者、保加利亚历史科学界的泰斗、索非亚大学前历史系主任尼古拉·根切夫 (Nikolay Genchev) 在一档热门电视节目中发表讲话，坚持将“保加利亚的国家利益“高于一切”。根切夫遗憾地说，“保加利亚民族问题最近主要表现为土耳其问题”。他很恼火地补充说，“只有土耳其人才谈论这个话题”。。。[尽管事实上只有]一百万[土耳其]人生活在这个国家”。他接着做出了世界末日般的预测，南斯拉夫想要皮林（或保加利亚）马其顿，罗马尼亚渴望多布罗贾（保加利亚和罗马尼亚之间的分裂），土耳其人声称分裂，因此只剩下“巴尔干的坚硬胸膛”。