site.btaConsul General in Odesa to Bulgarian Community: Keep Bulgarian Roots in Your Hearts and Continue Developing Bulgarian Culture, Language

On the occasion of Bulgaria's National Day, March 3, the Bulgarian Consulate General in Odesa in cooperation with the BTA National Press Club in the city organized a meeting with representatives of the Bulgarian community from Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions and a cultural programme on Saturday. Addressing the event, Bulgarian Consul General in Odesa Svetoslav Ivanov said: "Keep the Bulgarian roots in your hearts and continue to develop the Bulgarian culture and language away from the Motherland Bulgaria."

He congratulated the Bulgarian community on behalf of Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev and himself on the National Day. Ivanov went on to recall the events that led to and followed the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule, starting from March 3, 1878. The history of Bessarabian Bulgarians is part of Bulgaria's history, and "as Ukrainian citizens of Bulgarian origin, you can be proud of that," he told those in attendance. "You are currently going through the most difficult part of Ukraine's history, and the public activity you are developing to preserve the old Bulgarian traditions is important for us," Ivanot noted. 

"Today we bow to those revivalists, revolutionaries and awakeners who have given their lives for the freedom of Bulgaria," he added. He stressed the fact that during the Ottoman rule, some of Bulgaria's revolutionaries and awakeners, writers and satirists, such as Hristo Botev, Ivan Vazov, Aleko Konstantinov, lived in Odesa.