site.btaBulgarian Rise Leader Stefan Yanev: Underfunding of Bulgarian Army Is Political Class' Biggest Sin

The biggest sin of the political class in the last 20 years is the underfunding of the Bulgarian army, said Bulgarian Rise leader Stefan Yanev here on Wednesday.

"The problems are many and they are related to money. When this money does not enter the system, then the training programmes of the relevant specialties are not conducted in a timely manner, and the training, education and airtime of military pilots is not enough", Yanev stressed.

He expressed his condolences to the families and relatives of Lieutenant Colonel Petko Dimitrov and Captain Vencislav Dunkin, who perished in a training flight crash near the Graf Ignatievo Air Base on September 13. He noted that this is not the first such incident in the last three years.

"Always in my activity, both as a professional military man before and when I took up public and political activities later, I have tried to put the interests of Bulgaria, the interests of the Bulgarian Army first, because the supreme duty of every Bulgarian citizen is to work and take care of the security of his country", Yanev stated. 

He urged all Bulgarian citizens to look at the military uniform as a symbol. "Every single person, man or woman, Bulgarian citizen, who puts on the military uniform, symbolically says that he is ready to give their life for the country," Yanev emphasized.