President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev congratulated Bulgarians on the national holiday, as Bulgarian National Radio reported on March 3.
Thousands of people gathered today on the occasion of the national holiday, Liberation Day from the Ottoman yoke, on the historic peak of Shipka, next to the Freedom Monument, and in its surroundings to pay tribute to those who died for the freedom of Bulgaria.
Also read: Bulgaria celebrated 146 years of its liberation from Ottoman rule
The country’s president, Rumen Radev, gave a speech that was met with applause and cheers. He said he was proud to see so many patriotic Bulgarians at Shipka and thanked those gathered for preserving March 3 as a national holiday:
“Today is a day to unite around our values, around the mandates of our ancestors, but this year, let us not hide, is different from others and therefore I am here to thank you all for jointly protecting our national holiday of attacks. The light of your pure thought has dispelled the sticky political fog from the heights of the Bulgarian past.”
Also visiting Shipka was the Chairman of the Bulgarian People’s Assembly Rosen Zhelyazkov, under whose patronage the national holiday celebrations are held at the memorial peak. However, he was booed and his speech was accompanied by shouts of “Resign!”
Recall that the country’s parliament has repeatedly put forward proposals to cancel this holiday or eliminate its national status. It was proposed to make some other holiday national.
March 3 is revered as a national holiday by the majority of Bulgarian citizens and their compatriots abroad, but several politicians express their discontent because it “divides” the population.
Its opponents clarify that “the principle of this separation is the attitude towards the fact of the country’s liberation from Turkish rule, and the groups into which this holiday divides Bulgarians are the people of Bulgaria and its anti-popular government.”
Source: Rossa Primavera
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