A petition has been launched on social media in Macedonia urging the government to name a street in the capital Skopie after the recently deceased former Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev.

Zhelev, Bulgaria's first democratically-elected President after the fall of communism in 1989, passed away on 30 January.

Reciprocally, Sofia is asked to name a street after late Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski as a symbol of the long-term collaboration between the two countries.

Close to 500 people have expressed their support for the idea online.

Balkan Politics specialist doctor Dimitar Berchev and Macedonian journalist Borjan Jovanovski are among the initiators of the project.

''This is a very noble initative,'' Berchev said in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio. "It was a spontaneous reaction of our Macedonian friends, when they got the sad news of Mr Zhelev's death.''

In his words, both former presidents had a tremendous impact in the pro-European orientation of both Macedonia and Bulgaria.
A day of National Mourning was held in Bulgaria on Sunday on account of the sad event.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov honored the funeral and expressed his condolances to his Bulgarian counterpart Rossen Plevneliev. They both agreed on future cooperation between the two countries.