Citizens of Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia in an open letter ask the prime ministers of the two countries to overcome misunderstandings

 

 Civic Association for Bulgarian-Macedonian Friendship "Under One Sky", together with the Institute for Balkan Perspectives, the Bulgarian Cultural Club - Skopje and the Bulgarian-Macedonian Chamber of Commerce sent an open letter to the Prime Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia. The desire of the two prime ministers to change and to use the coming months to achieve positive results, informs the Skopje TV channel "Alsat M".

 According to the correspondent of the Macedonian News Agency (MIA) in Sofia, they welcomed the constructive actions of the new Bulgarian government and personally of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and hoped Dimitar Kovachevski and the new government in the Republic of  Macedonia, if elected, would do the same. According to the authors of the letter, Petkov's demands to expand relations between Sofia and Skopje with joint working groups in various fields are an opportunity to rely on the Neighborhood Agreement, which, according to the letter, should be fundamental to relations between the two countries. This, he added, will enable Bulgaria to regain its useful role in Northern Macedonia's accession to the European Union, as well as strengthen the aspirations of other Western Balkan countries for EU membership.

The authors of the letter, backed by 185 citizens, hope the future prime minister of the Republic of  Macedonia will encourage Macedonian diplomacy and institutions to take a proactive stance in making the necessary decisions in Macedonian society and good neighborly policy with Bulgaria. - through active dialogue and positive exchange of ideas for new relationships and policy changes.

 At the same time, they are concerned about what are said to be persistent attempts by extremist nationalists in both countries to attack the process. Their access to the Bulgarian and Macedonian social media is particularly worrying, where they are constantly sowing mutual mistrust and hatred, seeking to undermine the new nascent efforts for change. The authors of the letter behind such actions see the tentacles of former agents of the State Security and the UDBA (Yugoslav Secret Police), some of whom publicly use old and false ideological slogans that sound tempting but are detrimental to good neighborly relations.

 "We must not be allowed to be deceived by the voices of former agents of the State Security and the UDBA, scientists and public figures who have cooperated with totalitarian regimes acting against the interests of both countries. "Such people involved in imposing opposition and division in politics should not be part of the institutional and social dialogue between the two countries and the two peoples," the letter said.