“Some 140 years later we have to remember our history because the other people do not forget theirs. Our Bulgarian historical energy is not to be found in the nostalgia for a past grandeur and glory. Instead it is found in the awareness of the value of freedom and in the responsibility towards the martyrs that paid the price for it, and in the noble ideal of “a pure and sacred republic.” The is what Head of State Rumen Radev said in the speech he delivered during the solemn tattoo marking Bulgaria’s National Day – 3 March.
The President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces reviewed the honor formation of the representative units of the Bulgarian army at the National Assembly square.
In the statement he made, the Head of State emphasized that this day some 140 years ago the Treaty of San Stefano was signed. On this day the dreams of our enlighteners to have all Bulgarians live in a free country were materialized. “This was a vision that lasted only a couple of months. The Berlin congress buried it. Throughout Europe the romantic hopes of the 19th century died under the swath of the dramatic 20th century. However, the memory of the spring of 1878 will remain the intransient Bulgarian inspiration,” Rumen Radev said.
In the President’s words, “this is the memory of the valor of the young exiles, ordinary people and teachers, who after many-year fights, in April 1876, sacrificing their lives, brought back the issue of Bulgaria on Europe’s agenda. It is also the memory of Victor Hugo and MacGahan, who heard the moaning of Panagyurishte and Batak.”
“This is the memory of the fraternal impulse of the Russian society which proved that the Orthodox Bulgarians are not alone. We will never forget it. Neither will we forget the great words in the manifesto of Emperor Alexander II, the Tsar-liberator, who declared war to the Ottoman Empire because “this is what the feeling for justice and our own dignity requires.” The people alone started war, headed by the Tsar,” Dostoyevsky wrote in his diary, “and the people read the manifesto and crossed themselves,” the President said in his speech.
Rumen Radev was adamant that these scenes and feelings are deeply imprinted and are not subject to self-seeking political interpretations.
President Rumen Radev voiced our people’s gratitude to the soldiers from different nationalities - Russians, Romanians, Finns, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians, Serbs and Montenegrins and many more that left their bones in the battlefields of the Russian-Turkish liberation war for Bulgaria’s freedom. “For all of them Bulgaria is their last home. We pay tribute to them as our heroes,” the Head of State said.
Among the guests that attended the solemn tattoo at the square were Vice-president Iliana Iotova, National Assembly Speaker Tsveta Karayancheva, Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte, Patriarch of Moscow and the whole of Russia Cyril, Assembly deputies, ambassadors, hundreds of citizens.
Earlier today President Rumen Radev was welcomed with an official ceremony at the historical peak, at which he received the report of the commander of the guard of honor. The Head of State attended a memorial service in memory of the dead Bulgarian and Russian soldiers.