site.btaBulgaria Marks 187th Birth Anniversary of National Hero Vasil Levski

On Thursday, Bulgaria marks the 187th anniversary of national hero Vasil Levski, who was born in Karlovo on July 18, 1837.

Levski was the ideologue of the Bulgarian national revolution, the organiser and leader of the national liberation movement under Ottoman rule. He was hanged by the Ottoman authorities in 1873. Levski’s nickname "the Apostle of Freedom", or just the Apostle, came into widespread use, for which writer Ivan Vazov is credited.

The anniversary was marked with commemorative ceremonies and military tattoos at different monuments of Vasil Levski across Bulgaria.

The commemorative ceremony in Levski’s hometown Karlovo included a liturgy in the St Nicholas church. Flowers were laid at the grave of Gina Kuncheva, Levski’s mother.

Karlovo Mayor Emil Kabaivanov said that July 18 is the most solemn day in Karlovo. "In a constant political crisis and instability, Levski is needed as a moral pillar and as a statesman and leader," the mayor said. With the revolutionary committees he established, with his strategy of having the centre of the revolution in Bulgaria, and preparing over 10,000 Bulgarians, the Apostle created the future political class that restored Bulgarian statehood after the Russo-Turkish War, Kabaivanov noted.

During a visit to the coastal town of Sozopol, Vice President Iliana Iotova said: "One of the most important messages of Vasil Levski is the unity of our people. Because he knew that when we are together, even though we are different, our strength lies within these differences. Not the strength of the postulates, not the strength of the declarations, not the strength of the bare words, but the strength that is within us - as a people and as a nation," Iotova said. In Sozopol, the Vice President and Sozopol Mayor Tihomir Yanakiev laid wreaths and flowers at the monument to Vasil Levski.

Parliamentary groups also made declarations on the anniversary:

GERB-UDF: With deep adoration and immense respect we pay tribute to the Apostle of Freedom, a symbol of endless devotion to the Motherland. Levski's life and work are not only a memory and a history, they are a mirror in which today's Bulgaria can and must seek answers to the many challenges it faces.

BSP for Bulgaria: Vasil Levski is the only person in Bulgarian history whom the people call the Apostle of Bulgarian freedom. Today we still face the responsibility and the difficult question of whether we are doing everything possible to realise his ideas for the functioning of this democratic republic for which he dreamed and gave his life, this republic which he saw as a temple of truth and freedom.

Caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov and Bulgaria's Deputy Chief of Defence, Lieutenant General Mihail Popov, will participate in a military tattoo on the occasion. The ceremony will take place in Karlovo at 9 p.m. on July 18. Zapryanov will greet the representative companies of the 61st Stryama Mechanised Infantry Brigade and deliver a solemn speech.

Representative military formations also participate in wreath-laying ceremonies at monuments of Vasil Levski across the country, including in the cities of Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol, Pleven, Asenovgrad, Blagoevgrad, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Shumen, Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas.

The football club named after Vasil Levski, PFC Levski Sofia, also marked the 187th birth anniversary of its patron.