site.btaBulgarian War Memorial Restored in Hungary

A Bulgarian military cemetery near the village of Somogycsicso in southern Hungary, renovated with the help of the Hungarian state, was consecrated on November 8, Svetla Kyoseva told BTA. Kyoseva is a translator of Hungarian poetry and prose, a lecturer in Budapest and editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian-Hungarian culture and social life magazine Hemus.

Dancho Musev, Chairperson of the Bulgarian Republic Self-Government in Hungary, said that the ceremony was attended by Bulgarian Ambassador to Hungary Hristo Polendakov, Hungarian Secretary of State for Churches, Minorities and Civil Affairs Miklos Soltesz, parliamentary representatives, magistrates from the Shomod Region and leaders of the Bulgarian community in Hungary. The war memorial was consecrated by Father Tancho of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Budapest, Musev added.

Somogycsicso is located near the Drava River, where fierce fights with retreating German troops took place in the final stages of World War II. The heaviest burden of the so-called Drava epopee (a defensive operation against the troops of the Third Reich) fell on the backs of Bulgarian soldiers and officers. More than 120,000 soldiers took part in the fights. A total of 3,370 of them died in Hungary, 237 of which in Somogycsicso.

Soltesz said that the good relations between Hungary and Bulgaria are based on deep historical ties, although, currently, the relations between the two countries are strained because of Bulgaria's decision to tax the transit Russian gas to Hungary and Serbia.

Musev noted that the message of the fallen Bulgarian soldiers to the great powers was to create a world in which the children are not victims or widows, but parents of their own children.