VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski called on Bulgaria to send officials to Macedonia to apologize for the occupation during the Second World War – instead of demanding changes to the Macedonian history books.

Zoran Zaev announced that he is prepared to accept some of the Bulgarian demands, such as rewriting history books to remove any mention of the Bulgarian occupation, or removing the “Fascist” designation from the wartime Bulgarian regime.

As soon as there is change in the Government we will show that we are not Talibans, we will not delete historic facts and we will restore the historic narrative to what it was and what is internationally recognized. They were Fascists, we were fighting against Fascism. Instead of asking us to erase our history books, they should come here and apologize to this people, Mickoski said.

Pressed by Bulgaria, which blocks Macedonia’s EU accession talks, Zaev has expressed his readiness to declare the Bulgarian occupation as mere “administration” and most recently tried to shift the blame for the atrocities, which include the deportation of over 7,000 Jews from Macedonia, on local collaborators and away from the Bulgarian wartime regime.