site.btaOhio Senate Adopts Resolution Honouring Bulgarian-American Cultural Heritage

The Ohio Senate adopted a resolution honouring the Bulgarian-American cultural heritage in the state, Bulgarian Consul General in Chicago Svetoslav Stankov said.

The resolution commemorates individual achievements, as well as part of the common history of Bulgaria and the USA. These include the deeds of war correspondent Januarius MacGahan, whose publications on the bloody suppression of the April Uprising by the Ottoman bashi-bazouk (irregular military) in 1876 persuaded the international community to support Bulgaria's struggle for liberation; Macedonian Bulgarians Tom Kiradjieff and John Kiradjieff, discoverers of the famous Cincinnati chilli; scientist Viden Tabakov, whose developments contributed to NASA's first flight to the moon; and the first US senator of Bulgarian descent, Tom Tamas.

The resolution also mentions the work of the thousands of Bulgarian emigrants from the region of Macedonia and the Macedonian Patriotic Organization (MPO) established by them in 1922. MPO is still functioning today to promote the human rights of all people from Macedonia, regardless of their ethnicity.

The in-depth military and strategic cooperation between Bulgaria and the US and Bulgaria's key role to the security of Eastern Europe and the stability of the Balkans and the Black Sea region are also noted.

The resolution commends the Bulgarian community in Ohio and the Bulgarian government for condemning the unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine and expressing support for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, as well as the country's integration into NATO and the EU.

Special attention is paid to the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews and the work of Bulgarian politicians, administrators, officers, clergymen, intellectuals and ordinary citizens who in the spring of 1943 resisted Nazi pressure to deport Bulgarian Jews to concentration camps, thus saving some 50,000 Bulgarian Jews from the worst terrors of the Nazi regime.

The resolution also recognizes the contribution of the two Bulgarian churches in Ohio, the Patriotism Sunday School, and the Bulgarian Association of Cincinnati to the preservation of the Bulgarian-American cultural heritage.

This is а second recognition for Bulgaria and the Bulgarian diaspora in Ohio in 2023, after earlier in the year, the governor of the state, Mike DeWine, declared March 3, 2023 as Day of Bulgaria's Liberation, Stankov recalled.