Bulgaria celebrates 138th anniversary of its Liberation

03/04/16 08:53
(http://www.klassa.bg/)

Bulgaria celebrates 138th anniversary of its Liberation – comments

Bulgaria celebrated the 138th anniversary of its Liberation on March 3. There were different solemn ceremonies organised in the entire country to mark the national holiday.
On 3 March 1878 the Treaty of San Stefano was signed, putting an end to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and re-establishing the Bulgarian state.
Celebratory ceremonies were held in all cities across the country.
Public figures and experts made comments on the anniversary or announced news connected with it, speaking for FOCUS News Agency and Radio FOCUS.

“Bulgarian people’s fight for freedom started in 1860 and achieved full success,” Professor Bozhidar Dimitrov, Director of Bulgaria’s National Museum of History, said.
In his words, March 3 put an end to a centuries-long process of fight for freedom and saw the beginning of a new state.
“This is the end of a process that started in 1860. I wrote in a book of mine “Bulgaria’s liberation 1860-1878”. The Bulgarian nation had to show the world who it was, where it was, where it lived in the world, and what it wanted,” the historian noted.
In his words, this was the legal struggle for a separate Bulgarian church, which started in 1860 and ended in 10 years with full success.
“[This was] a success outlining the boundaries of the Bulgarian exarchate and separate church. This means a separate nation was determined by a sultan’s firman, which said which lands Bulgarians lived in. It covered all lands in Thrace, Moesia, and Macedonia located in the Ottoman Empire,” Professor Dimitrov noted.
He commented the next step was the armed fight for political independence.

“There are underhand dealings and plotted things behind what happened on March 3 138 years ago in an empire’s capital but outside the “political theatre” the date is of great historical significance for Bulgarians,” historian Professor Plamen Mitev said.
As regards the historical interpretation of the date of March 3, 1878, the specialist commented it was among the most important dates in Bulgaria’s national history.
“No one can deny the Treaty of San Stefano, which was inked on March 3, 1878, despite being of preliminary nature and being superseded 4 months later marks the end of five centuries of foreign rule and marks the restoration of Bulgarian statehood,” the historian explained.
“It is true there are underhand dealings, plotted things, and a well-calculated propaganda effect on the part of the Russian diplomacy behind what happened 138 years ago in the vicinity of the then-empire capital. Even the date of March 3, which is the Old Style date of February 18, is not accidental,” Professor Mitev commented.
In his words, all the fuss over the fast signing of the treaty namely on that day was due to the desire of General Ignatiev and Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich to make a symbolic gift to Emperor Alexander II of Russia.
“The reason for this was yet another anniversary of his succession to the throne on February 18, 1855 and of his emancipation manifesto, which proclaimed the emancipation of serfs on private estates and of the household serfs on February 19, 1861, due to which he was called Liberator,” Plamen Mitev remarked.
“Outside the “political theatre”, the date of March 3 is of great historical significance for us, Bulgarians, and no one can deny that. Moreover, lots of blood was shed in the battlefields south of the Danube River to achieve March 3, 1878,” the historian was explicit.

“Division into Russophiles versus Russophobes is unnatural for we should be Bulgarians in the first place,” historian Professor Plamen Pavlov said.
“We should not be Russophobes, especially radical ones,” he commented.
In his words, it should not be also forgotten volunteers as well took part in the war that brought Bulgaria’s liberation.
According to Pavlov, these facts should not be forgotten; otherwise Bulgarians would be ungrateful people.
“On the other hand, we should not be pathetic Russophiles as Russia was after geostrategic goals of its. No one fights a war, which is very costly and difficult undertaking, just in the name of some ideal goals,” Pavlov opined.
He recalled Alexander II of Russia had even himself tried to diplomatically implement the decisions made at the Constantinople Conference.
“What we should not forget is that the participation of our ancestors in this action was highly active; perhaps 25,000 to 30,000 of them directly participated in the war,” the historian explained.
According to him, Bulgarians abroad mark the National Holiday and do not question it, unlike some Bulgarian citizens.

The liberation war made a state out of a territory,” Vasil Vasilev, Chairperson of the Vasil Levski Committee of All Bulgarians opined.
In his words, a part of Bulgarians incorrectly call the foreign rule “cohabitation”.
“It turns out from what we hear the liberation from the “cohabitation” was done by Romanian, Finnish, Ukrainian, and Tatar soldiers, among whom there accidentally happened to be some Russians,” Vasilev noted.
In his view, after the liberation Bulgaria saw both the good and bad sides of each country it had contact with.
Vasilev commented the Bulgarian nation had worked out its own system of assessment.
In his view, Bulgarian people are not ungrateful, know they received on March 3, and what happened.
“Citizens, unlike the ruling, understand history and appreciate it,” Vasil Vasilev added.

“We mark March 3 indoors, in the hall of the Bosilegrad Culture and Information Centre, with the respective cultural and educational programme,” Ivan Nikolov, chair of the Bosilegrad Culture and Information Centre in Bosilegrad, Serbia, said.
“After the Culture and Information Centre was opened in 1998, the first celebrations of March 3 were held at the receptions of the Bulgarian embassy in Belgrade and we put up posters in Bosilegrad. We then decided the Day of Liberation from Ottoman rule should be commemorated in Bosilegrad, […],” Nikolov commented.
“And thus, in 2004 we for the first time hung out the Bulgarian national flag on the balcony of the Culture and Information Centre. Back then, we were unaware the Serbian authorities would interpret this as a violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Serbia and aspiration to the establishment of a San Stefano Bulgaria [Bulgaria according to the Treaty of San Stefano],” Ivan Nikolov pointed out.
“A case was brought and after two years leader of the Democratic Union of Bulgarians Dragolyub Ivanchov was sentenced to a fine of EUR 1,000 under the law on the use of the flag, coat of arms, and anthem of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and the name and deed of Josip Broz Tito,” he added.
In his words, the Bosilegrad Culture and Information Centre has changed since then its tactics and Bulgaria’s National Holiday is commemorated indoors.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 was a conflict between a Russian Empire-led coalition and the Ottoman Empire, which ended with the signing of the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano on March 3, 1878.

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