site.btaPresident Iotova: Fate of Iva Mihaylova among Issues I Will Raise in Strasbourg in September

President Iliana Iotova told journalists on Saturday that she will raise the case of Iva Mihaylova during a meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in mid-September.

Iotova made the statement in response to a question during commemorations marking the 149th anniversary of the Shipka Epopee at Shipka Peak, Central Bulgaria.

She recalled that doctors in the Republic of North Macedonia had concluded that they were unable to provide Mihaylova with the necessary treatment.

"I wrote a letter to President Gordana Siljanovska proposing two options – a medical consultation by Bulgarian doctors so that we can determine how the young woman should be treated from now on, or for her to receive treatment there," Iotova said.

The President said the letter was officially sent and registered on August 11 but that she had received no response so far. "In that letter, I asked her, as a human being and as a woman, to help this 23-year-old woman so that she does not become disabled," Iotova added.

Asked whether the time had come to remind the Republic of North Macedonia of Bulgaria's key role in recognizing its independence, Iotova said she was strongly opposed to rewriting history, whether recent or more distant.

"These are historical facts, and we must respect the decisions the State has made over all these years," the President said.