Bulgarian Club Named After Nazi Ally Outrages North Macedonia

Saturday's opening of a Bulgarian cultural club in the North Macedonia town of Bitola named after Ivan Mihailov, a controversial 20th Century nationalist movement leader who became a Nazi collaborator, has been criticised as a threat to ongoing attempts to achieve a breakthrough in the two countries' dispute over history.

The opening of the cultural club named after Mihailov, which was attended by top Bulgarian politicians, "does not contribute to rapprochement between the two peoples", North Macedonia's President Stevo Pendarovski said at the weekend.

The event in Bitola was attended, in an unofficial capacity, by a spectrum of top Bulgarian politicians, including Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, Vice-President Iliyana Yotova and Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska.

Bulgarian Socialist Party member and MP Dragomir Stoynev, MP Andrei Gyurov and former defence minister and leader of the right-wing IMRO party, Krasimir Karakachanov, were also present, as well as former foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva.

The event was held amid an increased police presence and a nearby protest by outraged locals.

Dragi Gjorgiev, co-chair of the joint North Macedonia-Bulgaria Commission for Historical and Educational Affairs, said it was nothing short of a "deliberate provocation".

"This is a historical figure who, due to his ideas about the non-existence of the Macedonian nation, is extremely negatively perceived by Macedonians," Gjorgiev told Deutsche Welle on Monday.

"And when the name of such a person is imposed as the name of a cultural club on the territory of North Macedonia, and that person has nothing to do with culture, then it can be understood only as an arrogant provocation, or even as an act that leans towards the opposite...