About 50 organizations for religious freedom and human rights in the world sent a joint letter to Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, asking him to apologize for the deportation of Macedonian Jews, on the occasion of 79 years since their deportation, which is marked on Friday, Voice of America writes.

They demand that Petkov be the first Bulgarian prime minister to officially acknowledge and apologize for the deportation of 98% of the Macedonian Jewish community by the then Kingdom of Bulgaria.

In an open letter to your predecessor, the Macedonian Jewish community, through the European Jewish Congress, said that the current government in the Republic of Bulgaria has a moral obligation to admit the guilt of its predecessors, and to take responsibility, following the example of many European countries that were on the wrong side during World War II. By repealing the 1996 verdicts handed down by the People’s Court in 1945, the Republic of Bulgaria is deliberately erasing its dark history and thus distorting the truth about the Holocaust, reads the letter sent to official Sofia via the global network for religious freedom (IRF Roundtable) based in Washington, DC, whose member is also the United Macedonian Diaspora.

Chairman Greg Mitchell said that “we hope you will do the right thing, and formally apologize to the Macedonian Jewish community that will help heal the wounds of the past.”

In addition to Petkov, the letter was sent to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament and other official institutions.