I am probably the only presidential candidate who has been to Tsar Samuil's grave. I first went to this sacred Bulgarian place 21 years ago, when I was filming the film about the Bulgarians in the Aegean Sea "We Are One Nation".
I remember like it was yesterday how after I crossed the pontoon bridge to the island, I was so amazed by the beauty of the place that an old local Bulgarian, grazing his cows by the lake shore, looked at me quite surprised and said - "What's the matter with you, boy, are you good?" "Well, I'm good, grandfather, I like the place, it touches my heart a lot", I answered him. The old man sighed heavily and replied - "The place is nice, but there are no people. They want it, but there are no people, everyone ran away".
As I said, it seems like yesterday. Since then, there has been almost no year in which I haven't been on a pilgrimage to the grave. The island of Saint Achilles is a paradise, tucked away in the heart of Prespa, in the middle of the Small Prespa Lake. Today, Prespa is divided between three countries (Macedonia, Greece and Albania), but 1000 years ago this was the heart of Bulgaria. It is no coincidence that Tsar Samuil chose to be buried here - just a few kilometers away, in the village of German, are the graves of his father, his mother and his eldest brother - Nikola, Hripsimia and David. But the most important thing of all is that even though 1000 years later the heart of the First Bulgarian Kingdom has been torn into three pieces, in each of them Bulgarian is still spoken and the Bulgarian spirit is felt.
That is why I do not accept some statements that Tsar Samuil was returning home. In view of the uncertainties of the times in which we live, it is best that his mortal remains be reburied in Sofia, but strictly speaking he never left his home. Because what is the difference between Sofia and the village of Sveti Ahil? None - both are settlements inhabited by Bulgarians and located on ancient Bulgarian land.
In this regard, we should not forget something else. The church treasures returned to Greece were not stolen by Bulgarian troops from Greek monasteries in 1917, as appeared here and there in the media. I have been to both monasteries. The first of them, the Serian "St. John the Baptist", was built in the 14th century by Tsarina Elena, sister of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander. Her huge portrait still stands in full height at the entrance to the monastery temple. The monastery itself has always been inhabited exclusively and only by Bulgarians, and its buildings are in the architectural style typical of the Rhodopes. The reason - the villages around Syar have always been Bulgarian and even today a part of them continue to be inhabited by Bulgarians. The second monastery, the Kushnitsa "St. Bogoroditsa", is named after the mountain Kushnitsa, which the Greeks today call Pangea. It has also always been Bulgarian. Anyone who has visited these places knows that there is no problem speaking Bulgarian with the local Bulgarians.
To summarize - the monasteries were founded and inhabited by Bulgarians, and after the end of Turkish slavery they were liberated by Bulgarian troops in 1912. Greece occupied them in 1913, but Bulgaria liberated them in 1916. This process was repeated in 1918, 1941 and 1944. So what Greek monasteries and Greek values are we talking about? The Bulgarian authorities evacuated these artifacts to protect them from military action, and succeeded in their intentions.
After today's reburial of Tsar Samuil, something else, equally important, must happen. At the place where the Tsar has chosen to find his eternal rest, our state must take care to place an appropriate memorial sign. Because there is now only a modest inscription in Greek and English, which mentions that the basilica "St. Achilles" was built by the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil, but there is no mention that the legendary Bulgarian ruler was buried there - together with his son Gavril Radomir, his nephew Ivan Vladislav and his son-in-law Ivan Vladimir.
I hope that the bones of the other two Bulgarian kings, Gavril Radomir and Ivan Vladislav, will also receive their due royal sarcophagi in the church "St. Sophia". Information about this has not appeared, or at least I have not seen it, but it is right that it should be so. As for the relics of St. Prince Ivan Vladimir, proclaimed a saint, they are located in the Albanian capital Tirana and it would not be a problem to request parts of them (this is an established Christian practice) to also be placed in "St. Sophia" alongside the Bulgarian kings - just as their sarcophagi have stood side by side, albeit empty, on the island in the Small Prespa Lake for more than 1000 years.