Today we honor the memory of the innocent victims of the communist regime in the camp "Belene" on Persin Island. It was built by order of the Bulgarian Communist Party and functioned, with several interruptions, for 40 years! Thousands of Bulgarian intellectuals, officers, policemen, peasants who disagreed with the looting of their land, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant priests, Russian emigrants - opponents of the Soviet power, died and were tortured there. These people lost their lives or were mutilated physically and spiritually in order not to prevent the bloody regime from imposing its rules, confiscating property, prohibiting freedom of thought, movement and religion, presenting its crimes as an ideology!
SDS leader Rumen Hristov wrote this on his Facebook page. Here's more from his comment:
On June 1st we bow our heads to the memory of the victims in Belene and all the death camps in Bulgaria. And we say that democracy is not a given, but a value that must be constantly protected, because even today, from the rostrum of the highest institution in Bulgaria - the parliament, some self-forgetful politicians threaten with a new "Belene". We will say to them: our grandfathers and fathers were in the communist camps, we, their heirs, are not afraid of these threats, because we know that in Bulgaria the people who want freedom and democracy are much more than those who dream of its return The red boot and to be the Kremlin province again.
We have a duty to the innocent victims of communism - to remember and not allow undemocratic regimes in Bulgaria again!
Salute to their memory and eternal shame to their executioners!