Sofia, Bulgaria: The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Kiril Petkov, condemned the arson of the Ivan Mihailov Cultural Club in Bitola, calling it an attempt to provoke. PM Petkov shared his thoughts via tweet.
He stated, “I strongly condemn the arson of the Ivan Mihailov Cultural Club in Bitola, an attempt to provoke and destabilize our relations with our neighbours. The Bulgarian Foreign Minister travels to Bitola to get acquainted with the damage on the spot”.
Adding to the above statement, he affirmed and assured his administration’s will to continue doing work for the protection of the rights of the Bulgaria diaspora or Bulgarian community in Northern Macedonia and to support its activities.
“I thank Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski for the quick response, and I expect the competent services of Macedonia to find and punish the perpetrators of this act of vandalism. The future of the region must not be held hostage to attempts to destabilize malicious marginalized groups”, underscored the prime minister.
The statement of PM Petkov came after the ‘Ivan Mihailov’ Cultural Center in the town of Bitola, in the Republic of North Macedonia, was set on fire on the early morning of June 4, Saturday.
Soon after the incident, the centre stated, “We are expecting every competent institutions to reveal the perpetrators of this act of vandalism as soon as possible”.
The reports are that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodora Genchovska will be paying a visit to the incident place during her official visit to North Macedonia.
The visit was planned on the invitation of Bujar Osmani – Foreign Minister of North Macedonia.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry’s statement says, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Northern Macedonia strongly condemned the act of deliberate burning at the entrance of the “Ivan Mihailov” Association in Bitola. This vandalism is another proof that there are many actors who are against the progress in the relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria and our common European future”.