“The Republic of Bulgaria is our neighbour, we have a lot of things in common and we have to do everything possible for history to draw us closer together rather than set us apart. Macedonia is a place where many significant historical events have taken place before our country was created. The Republic of Macedonia must allow in a constitutional way the Republic of Bulgaria to put up its own plaque at Kaimakchalan, if the Bulgarians wish to do so,” stated the leader of the ruling party in Macedonia VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski.

His comment was made in relation to the desecration of the Kaimakchalan memorial by a Macedonian journalist. Nikola Gruevski adamantly distanced himself from the actions of Milenko Nedelkovski. “We have to take into account the fact that this is a matter of a historical event with the participation of 1.2 million soldiers from two countries – Bulgaria and Serbia and the presence of a huge number of Macedonians.”

Gruevski underlined that since Serbia has set up a plaque at Kaimakchalan, he sees no reason why Bulgaria should not wish to do the same in a legal way.