When 150 years of the April Uprising are celebrated, there is no need for pathos, no need for written words, because in Bulgarian history there are events and dates that have been carved so deeply into our memory that the passage of time can never erase.
This was stated by the Head of State Iliyana Yotova in her speech in Apriltsi on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising.
Batoshevo, Novo Selo and Kravenik created a feat that gave birth to that Bulgarian urge towards freedom that no one can ever crush, the President noted. The whirlwinds of time cannot displace it by a centimeter, but turn it into an eternal symbol of patriotism and heroism, Yotova also pointed out.
In her speech, she recalled the April heroes, who guarded the passes in the mountains and did not take a single step back. “Nine days of freedom. Nine days of a pure and holy republic. There is no such intoxication. The patriarch of Bulgarian literature, Ivan Vazov, would later call it the drunkenness of a people. Because followers of Vasil Levski, courageous Balkans, knew that in this way they would turn the uprising into a national uprising, into a national battle, into a national struggle with the enslaver. They knew that many would not return, but they did not hesitate for a moment“, said the president.
Iliyana Yotova also noted that the sacrifice of the heroes is the crown of our common cause.
“The martyrdom of the Novoselsk heroes made this region forever related, forever together with the ominous tragedy of Batak. Many ash heaps, many fires in our thousand-year-old state have passed, they have tried to burn our faith to ashes, to crush humanity and our Bulgarian self-consciousness. They did not succeed. Because in these lands there is one people - the Bulgarians. A people who can build the fortress of the Bulgarian spirit from the ashes, and in the smoldering embers find that spark that will create the Bulgarian future“, pointed out the head of state.
In Yotova's words, nothing can cut down the Bulgarian national dignity and the Bulgarian spirit. Respect for memory is the path to wisdom, to unity, to conscious Bulgarianness and to our prosperity.
“Do not believe those who tell you that the Bulgarian people are divided – there are such wicked people who want to make politics out of this. We have a cause that we want to bequeath to our children. And what the Aprilists bequeathed to us is a pledge to educate them to be together, to be true Bulgarians, to believe in the Bulgarian community, in Bulgarian strength and courage“, the president urged.