The Bulgarian nationalist VMRO-BND party announced that it will organize a memorial of the victims of the Yugoslav Communist regime. The party is trying to appropriate all victims of the Communist regime, which killed thousands as it grabbed power in Macedonia after the Second World War.

Officers who sought to fight in Aegean Macedonia, business and political leaders who did not side with the Communists, farmers and clergy were all targeted in the wave of mass killings and imprisonment, especially around Christmas 1944. Some of those killed were targeted as “Bugarashi” – people loyal to Bulgaria.

But, the nationalist party, which fared poorly in the recent elections in Bulgaria, will hold a memorial in the St. Sophia church in Sofia on January 7th, in which it is trying to paint all victims of the Communist regime as ethnic Bulgarians.

Only on January 7th, 1,200 Bulgarians were killed, and in the coming days, additional 23,000 Bulgarians met with death. 130,000 Bulgarians were expelled, persecuted and imprisoned in Tito’s Yugoslavia, the party claims.