An unknown person attacked the Bulgarian embassy in Skopje today. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria strongly condemns this act against the building of the Bulgarian foreign mission in Skopje – a symbol of the statehood and official presence of the Republic of Bulgaria in the Republic of North Macedonia.

“This is an unacceptable attack against the status of the diplomatic mission and a gross violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes.

They express deep concern that such a daring act is the result of the systematic lack of reaction from the competent institutions of the Republic of North Macedonia to previous attacks and vandalism against objects related to Bulgaria and the Bulgarian community.

“This institutional passivity, combined with the tolerated and even fueled hate speech against Bulgaria and Bulgarians in our neighbor, created an environment in which such criminal actions are encouraged and escalate. We demand that the competent authorities in the Republic of North Macedonia immediately take all necessary actions to identify the perpetrator and bring him to full criminal responsibility, as well as to guarantee the security of Bulgarian diplomatic and consular missions, their personnel and their property”, reads the position of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Republic of Bulgaria expects the institutions in the Republic of North Macedonia to clearly and unequivocally distance themselves from manifestations of hatred, to effectively counteract such crimes, to work purposefully to create a fundamentally different public narrative about relations with Bulgaria and to unconditionally fulfill their international obligations.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to carefully monitor the development of the case and reserves the right to take additional actions to protect Bulgarian interests.