Historic Town of Perushtitsa Marks April Uprising Anniversary

Valentin Evstatiev, BTA correspondent Irina Shopova

President Rumen Radev (centre) speaks at a ceremony in Perushtitsa marking 149 years since the April Uprising. May 9, 2025 (Photo: The President's Administration)

Perushtitsa, South Central Bulgaria,

10.05.2025 08:56

(BTA)

A ceremony commemorating the 149th anniversary of the April Uprising against Ottoman rule was held in the historic town of Perushtitsa on Friday evening.

President Rumen Radev said in a speech: “If we are sincere today in our reverence for those who died for Bulgaria, it is our duty not only to keep our national memory of them pure, but also to put our own effort into the building of a free, law-governed Bulgaria. We should resist any backstage attempts at manipulation, because our descendants will judge our actions based on what kind of Bulgaria we have bequeathed to them, and no politician and citizen can evade their responsibility to their own nation and skip the test of history.”

The people of Perushtitsa joined the April Uprising three days after it broke out in Koprivshtitsa on May 5 (old style date April 23), 1876. After resisting the attacks of a 5,000-to-6,000-strong Ottoman force for about a week, the rebels took refuge in a local church, where some 600 women, children and old people were hiding. The Ottoman troops set the church on fire, forcing the rebels to give up their resistance. A total of 347 people in the church lost their lives. The town was looted, and its residents were tortured.

At Friday’s ceremony, President Radev took the salute of a representative military unit in the town square.

The event was also attended by Environment and Water Minister Manol Genov, Plovdiv Regional Governor Hristina Yancheva and other local and central government officials.

/VE/