site.btaBulgaria Marks Symbolic Tsar Samuel Millennium

119 CULTURE-TSAR SAMUEL-ANNIVERSARY

Bulgaria Marks Symbolic
Tsar Samuel
Millennium


Sofia, October 6 (BTA) - Tsar Samuel is a symbolic figure who
headed Bulgaria's resistance in its titanic clash with the
Byzantine Empire, caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki
said Monday. He was addressing the participants in a three-day
international conference on the subject of "The European
Southeast in the Second Half of the 10th - the Beginning of the
11th Century. History and Culture", organized by the Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences.

The conference is part of a national campaign to mark the
millennium of the death of Tsar Samuel (997-1014). The campaign
is organized by a National Committee under the auspices of
Bliznashki. As Samuel struggled to preserve his country's
independence from the Byzantine Empire, his rule was
characterized by constant warfare against the Byzantines and
their equally ambitious ruler Basil II. At the Battle of
Kleidior in the summer of 1014 the Bulgarians were defeated and
14,000 soldiers were taken prisoner. On Basil's orders they were
blinded, one of every 100 men being left with one eye to lead
them back home. The blinded soldiers were sent back to Samuel
who reportedly had a heart attack upon seeing them. He died two
days later, on 15 October 1014.

The participants in the forum, one of the largest for historical
science in Bulgaria in recent years, include 65 scholars from
Bulgaria and abroad, noted specialists in Byzantine and medieval
studies from Europe and the United States. An exhibition
dedicated to the church at the time of Samuel's Bulgaria has
also been organized on the sidelines.

"We pride ourselves with the historic events in Samuel's time,
because it was then that the Bulgarian nation was established
and it proved itself in that giant clash with the powerful
Byzantine Empire, which was on the rise at that time,"
Bliznashki said.

Bulgaria should recall not only the victories and triumphs in
its history, but also the defeats and suffering, because that is
how national self-awareness is forged, the Prime Minister told
journalists later. The conference is central among a series of
events dedicated to the millennium. "We have to honour our great
forebears because the sacrifices and sufferings from the past
give meaning to our present and light the way to our future," he
added.

In their turn, President Rosen Plevneliev and BAS President
Academician Stefan Vodenicharov will pay their respects before
Tsar Samuel's remains in Thessaloniki./LI/BR