Bulgarian Leaders Make Statements on National Day

Yoana Vodenicharova

President Rumen Radev addresses the nation on Bulgaria's National Day, Mount Shipka, March 3, 2024 (BTA Photo)

Shipka Mount, Balkan Range,

03.03.2024 15:04

(BTA)

Attending the commemorations of Bulgaria’s National Day at Mt. Shipka on Sunday, President Rumen Radev said: "We should be mindful that March 3 is our memory and tribute to the sacrifice of generations of Bulgarians who kept a glimmer of hope and carried on their struggle in the long winter of slavery. March 3 is our national ideal for a free, united, and European Bulgaria".

"March 3 is our future as a nation with dignity and aspiration for progress," the head of State said.

"Today, thousands of us have gathered from across the country to affirm that March 3 does not only mark the victory on the battlefield or the date of an international treaty, as it is often implied, but it transcends the events of the Russo-Turkish liberation war and is far more than a historic triumph," Radev noted.

The President stressed that there hasn’t been a time in Bulgaria’s modern-day history when Bulgarians have not commemorated the National Day on Mt. Shipka. "Today is a day of national unity. Today is a day to rally around our values and the legacies of our ancestors," Radev added. He thanked all those gathered for "uniting to protect our national holiday from encroachment," hinting at the public controversy sparked by a proposed change of the date of the country’s national holiday to May 24 (Day of Slav Letters and Bulgarian Culture).

"We will continue to defend the freedom of our conscience, the independence of our actions, and the sovereignty and dignity of our fatherland," Radev added.

National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov also addressed the nation from Mt. Shipka, saying that this place is a "symbol of the quest for freedom, unity, and our national pride".

He went on to say that "this land is soaked with the blood of Bulgarian volunteers, Russian soldiers, soldiers from Serbia, Montenegro, Ukraine, Belarus".

Zhelyazkov pointed out that it has been 146 years since the memorable day when Bulgaria was liberated after centuries of Ottoman rule. "There is no other place that so symbolically embodies the national pride, the national ideal, the Bulgarians' willingness to sacrifice their lives for the liberation of our homeland".

/IV/