The Post of North Macedonia announced that it immediately pulled the postage stamp with the "wrong map of the Republic of Croatia" and apologized for that "unintentional mistake."

On Saturday morning, N. Macedonian media published the information about the commemorative postage stamp through which N. Macedonia wanted to thank Croatia for its support to the country’s European integration process. The media labelled the stamp as scandalous because it showed the image of St. Mark’s Church and the stylized Croatian flag in the form of the Ustasha Independent State of Croatia’s (NDH) Greater Croatia. In it, Bosnia and parts of Serbia and Montenegro would make up the Greater Croatia.

The Independent State of Croatia was a puppet state of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy during World War II. It was formed in parts of occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, after the invasion by the Axis powers. Its territory was made up of most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia, parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia.

The N. Macedonian Post Office said in their statement that they “apologize for an unintentional mistake and technical omission in publishing a commemorative postage stamp from the series ‘North Macedonia in the EU’, which aims to mark Croatia’s presidency of the Union.”

“The wrong map of the Republic of Croatia and other countries in the region was placed on that postage stamp, and because of that, the entire circulation of 6,000 stamps is immediately withdrawn from use,” the N. Macedonian postal company pointed out.

They added that they regretted the unintentional mistake, especially that the issuance of the series of the postal stamp coincided with May 9 – Europe Day, noting that the goal was to express gratitude to the Croatian EU presidency and for Croatia’s support to North Macedonia.

Serbia sent a note of protest to North Macedonia because of this postage stamp, and its Foreign Ministry demanded that the stamp be withdrawn and that North Macedonia apologizes.