We live in a time that is full of contradictions. This was said by Vice President Iliana Yotova at the awarding of the participants in the Third National Student Competition “My Family Roots from Macedonia and Edirne Thrace” today at the Rectorate of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski“.
You will often come across opinions and suggestions that nowadays things like patriotism, like patriotism, like memory, like family memory, are superfluous to us. Because we live in a high-tech age, because we live in a global society where people are better off being citizens of the world. Even these days, in connection with our brightest holiday – On May 24, the holiday of our letters, education and culture, I heard opinions that the Cyrillic alphabet, our beautiful alphabet, is dragging us back, instead of developing us forward. By the way, I heard it from people who claim to determine public opinion. When I read such suggestions, I got goosebumps. Once again, I realize how important competitions like these are. Because they are the best antidote to statements like these, said Yotova.
In her words, reading the texts of the winners of the competition, knowledge, a lot of information, archives and at the same time memory, self-confidence, stability, patriotism shine through.
And surely, if you, who wrote these texts, had the opportunity to line up here next to me, each of you would list at least ten more such words. And she won't be wrong, and she'll leave an ellipsis, because they can be supplemented endlessly, she said.
„I read extremely mature essays. In addition to the facts, these texts have a lot of images, a lot of emotions, a lot of soul and a lot of heart“, said the vice president. She congratulated the participants in the competition for the work and diligence they put into the study of historical documents, photographs and family traditions.
„All this shows a huge amount of work and the great merits of your teachers and parents. Because it is very clear how someone guided this entire flow of information that you have encountered in the right direction without unnecessary details, so that the most important thing can be seen. But what is most evident is the pride in this memory that you have written in these lines and that is really very captivating and I took it very emotionally“, she also said.
Yotova noted that her impressions are that very little is known about the tragic events after the Liberation, the influence of the treaties that Bulgaria signed, about the processes that took place then. According to her, the advantage of this competition is that through the topic that you set, through this effort to search the archives, through what the children have written, they further enrich this picture.
There is something else very valuable with research and investigation work - the love for ancestral memory, for those who are the ancestors of the families, for their connections with other people. One can understand a lot about the mentality and lifestyle of the Bulgarians of that time, the vice president noted.
„Thank you, dear young people, for writing in such a beautiful and fascinating Bulgarian language. You write very richly, with a lot of knowledge of the language, beautiful phrases, complete thought, crystal thought I would say. You write extremely fascinatingly. And never forget where you started from. Only in this way can a person in today's world arrange the big puzzle of the world picture and can find his worthy, stable and secure place in this puzzle“, said Iliana Yotova.
The third national student competition “My family roots from Macedonia and Edirne Thrace“ is organized by the Bulgarian Association of Families from Macedonia in partnership with the Faculty of History of the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski“ and the Macedonian Scientific Institute. Several dozen students from all over Bulgaria take part in the competition, organized with the assistance of the Ministry of Education and Science. They research and present unique family stories about the life of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Adrian Thrace, their migration and adaptation to the state territory of Bulgaria. They show the patriotism of the population of Macedonia and Adrian Thrace and its contribution to the Bulgarian nation during the Bulgarian National Revival, the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising and the wars for national unification. The winners are selected by a scientific jury.