site.btaUPDATED CC-DB Parliamentary Group Condemns Atrocities of Former Communist Regime in Declaration

Ahead of the Day of Homage to the Victims of the Communist Regime (February 1), the Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) parliamentary group came up with a declaration saying that they will resist any attempts to downplay, exaggerate or make people forget about the atrocities of the communist regime in Bulgaria between 1944 and 1989. "Without a doubt, communism in Bulgaria was a crime," MP Atanas Atanasov said, presenting the declaration in the National Assembly.

He recalled that on February 1, 1945, the communist People's Court sentenced three regents, 67 MPs, former government ministers, generals, colonels and public figures to death. The sentences were carried out that night. During the four months of its existence, the People's Court issued almost 11,000 sentences, condemning 2,700 people to death and over 300 to life imprisonment. The declaration described the People's Court as "an extraordinary repressive institution established by the will of a foreign state."

After September 9, 1944, Bulgaria was occupied by the Soviet Red Army, and a puppet government was installed. What followed were decades of "politically motivated persecution, murders, executions, torture, forced labour, intentionally inflicted hunger and other forms of mental mass torture," the CC-DB said.

"Today, Europe is where it is because it has drawn lessons from the many cruel bloody events in its history and has firmly condemned and renounced violence as the worst manifestation of political power," Atanassov said.

He argued that Bulgaria has not travelled the path of repentance yet. His remark was addressed mainly to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (former Bulgarian Communist Party).

On behalf of the BSP-United Left, MP Galin Durev reacted to the CC-DB declaration by saying: "We should stop abusing this topic for political gain. I urge you to stop referring to the dead to motivate your political campaigns. Thirty-five years after the Transition [to democracy], it is time to think about Bulgaria's development from a different perspective. Let us hold a minute of silence instead of our two minutes of hatred which we thrust upon the Bulgarian people every year."

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov argued: "Bulgaria needs to observe a day of national reconciliation. This reconciliation should set the beginning of a revival of the Bulgarian nation, because, as long as we keep commemorating the victims on one side while pretending that those on the other side did not exist, Bulgaria will have no future." Kostadinov showed an original photo dated August 28, 1943, showing communist guerrillas executed for their role in the anti-Fascist movement.