Original sentence: A political organization of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria – UMO Ilinden-Pirin – claims that the minority has experienced a period of intensive assimilation and repression.In the 2001 census in Bulgaria, 5,071 people declared themselves Macedonians.In the same report Macedonian nationalists  (Popov et al, 1989) claim that 200,000 Macedonians live in Bulgaria.It should be noted though that the Republic of Macedonia banned a similar pro-Bulgarian organization - Radko - as separatist.Krassimir Kanev, chairman of the NGO Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, claimed 15,000 - 25,000 in 1998.Macedonian groups in the country have reported official harassment (see Human rights in Bulgaria), with the Bulgarian Constitutional Court banning a small Macedonian political party in 2000 as separatist and Bulgarian local authorities banning political rallies.Slavic-speaking Macedonians had little or no political national identity of their own until the 20th century.The Encarta Encyclopedia states that Macedonians make up 2.5% of the total population, i.The present-day ethnic Macedonians are primarily the descendants of the Slavic tribes which settled Macedonia during the 6th and 7th century AD It is presumed by some ethnographers such as Vasil Kanchov and Gustav Weigand that these Slavic tribes probably absorbed some indigenous populations such as Greeks, who formed the majority of Macedonia's population before the Slavic arrivals  when they came upon in the area, and mixed with later groups such as Bulgars as stated by the Byzantine chroniclers Theophanes and Nicephorus.approximately 190,000, with no mention of how this figure is obtained, as it is evidently refuted by the latest census figures
Edited sentence: AD It is presumed by some ethnographers such as Vasil Kanchov and Gustav Weigand that these Slavic tribes probably absorbed some indigenous populations such as Greeks, who formed the majority of Macedonia's population before the Slavic arrivals  when they came upon in the area, and mixed with later groups such as Bulgars as stated by the Byzantine chroniclers Theophanes and Nicephorus.Slavic-speaking Macedonians(todays Macedonians)had little or no political national identity of their own until the 20th century.The present-day ethnic Macedonians are primarily the descendants of the Slavic tribes which settled Macedonia during the 6th and 7th century and they don't have any relation with Alexander the Great