Krasimir Karakachanov

Saturday's opening of a Bulgarian cultural club in the North Macedonia town of Bitola named after Ivan Mihailov, a controversial 20th Century nationalist movement leader who became a Nazi collaborator, has been criticised as a threat to ongoing attempts to achieve a breakthrough in the two countries' dispute over history.

Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev apologised in a Facebook post on Friday about his controversial remark about the 1903 Ilinden rebellion that caused uproar among Bulgarian politicians on all sides.