site.btaBulgaria Marks Valour and Armed Forces Day

Bulgaria Marks Valour and Armed Forces Day

Sofia, May 6 (BTA) - May 6 was marked countrywide by various events as the Day of Valour and of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.

In the morning, the military standards were blessed and sprinkled with holy water by Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte at a ceremony in front of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

Some 1,200 service members marched past the dignitaries assembled in Sofia's Knyaz Alexander I Square. They represented the National Guards Unit, the G. S. Rakovski National Defence College, the Land Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, the 68th Special Forces Brigade, and the Joint Forces Command. The 2017 parade was commanded by the Commander of the Air Force, Major General Tsanko Stoikov. Before the march-past, a Mi-17 helicopter, escorted by two AS 532 AL Cougars, flew over the square, carrying the national flag. The final display was a fly-past by three MiG-29 jet fighters from the Graf Ignatievo Air Base. This was the only military hardware to be paraded this year.

Addressing the military and the members of the public at this, his first May 6 parade in this capacity, President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Rumen Radev honoured those who laid their lives for Bulgaria's freedom and independence and who perished in overseas missions and acknowledged the veterans and the serving members of the Armed Forces.

"Regrettably, the role and significance of the Armed Forces have been systematically underrated in recent decades," the head of State pointed out. "That is why the Bulgarian Armed Forces now are not only numerically small but also alarmingly undermanned, their members enjoy a low social status, they lack sufficient resources for effective combat training, and their armament is obsolete and badly maintained. The abrupt deterioration of the geopolitical situation and the call of the NATO leadership for greater commitment and rapid achievement of the defence spending target at 2 per cent of GDP put an end to this absurd dilemma," said the President, who until recently was Bulgarian Air Force Commander.

He argued that the acquisition of state-of-the-art armament is a "necessary but insufficient condition" for army modernization. "The complicated processes of modernizing our armed forces will put both politicians and the top military command to a test because the Bulgarian people's money must be invested in up-to-date combat capabilities in the most effective and efficient way, which requires a clear vision and principles in building these capabilities. The system of statutory instruments, which is inadequate to the present security environment, has to be improved. Resources are needed for full-fledged combat training up to Allied standards," Radev pointed out.

Discussing the armed forces modernization projects, the President admitted that the final say in selecting new materiel is always political, but nevertheless called on politicians "to rely more often on military expertise when they make important decisions" because "those who will carry out intricate missions with this new equipment and will risk their lives on land, at sea and in the sky are the people in uniform and not us politicians."

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief stressed the need of resolute action to stop the "alarming outflow of human resources" from the Armed Forces, to raise their personnel fill level, to upgrade their social status and the prestige of the military profession. "Without these measures, we cannot possibly have a respected and combat-effective army," he argued.

National Assembly Chairman Dimiter Glavchev, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov, the Chief of Defence, Lieutenant General Andrei Botsev, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, MPs, Cabinet members, senior military officers, foreign diplomats, military attaches and veterans were among the audience at the May 6 parade.

Interviewed on Nova Television, Karakachanov said that the re-establishment of conscription is inevitable and will happen. He argued that other European countries like France also contemplate this. "I am an advocate of conscription because I believe that young Bulgarians must be trained and brought up in a spirit of patriotism and of readiness to defend the fatherland," the Defence Minister said. He recalled that the Borissov Cabinet's governance programme includes military training at school, voluntary service and development of projects related to conscription.

In Bulgaria, conscription was abolished in 2007. At present, the all-professional armed forces are between 25 and 30 per cent undermanned, with nearly 6,000 vacant positions.

In a Facebook status on Saturday, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov greeted "all boys and girls who guard our sky, sea and borders." "We will do everything possible for an improvement of service members' social status," the head of government pledged.