Comment of Georgi Lozanov:
Let's close our eyes and hear the clatter of the royal train, with which on September 22, 116 years ago, the government and Prince Ferdinand I traveled to Tarnovo without fear of the great and not so great powers. In the train, Prime Minister Alexander Malinov wrote a manifesto for the independence of Bulgaria on behalf of the prince, which was signed by the prince and the ministers. Later that day in the church "Holy 40 Martyrs" the prince read the manifesto and independence was declared, which in a political sense means that all power in the country is now exercised by the people. Bulgaria ceases to be a vassal principality of the Ottoman Empire and becomes a kingdom – The Third Bulgarian Kingdom. The city and the church were chosen for the event to emphasize the connection of the Third with the First and Second Bulgarian kingdoms.
Since next year, September 22 is solemnly celebrated as Independence Day. After the Ninth of September, as may be supposed, the holiday was dropped as too regal, and was restored after the Tenth of November – in 1998. Today it is one of the most inspiring public holidays, far more suitable for a national one than the Third of March, on the occasion of which Prof. Milko Palangurski said that “no country celebrates its vassalage”. Bulgaria became a country like the others precisely from the declaration of its independence in 1908. The very word “independence” as if it “sews wings”, lifts us up, gives a European sky to our national feelings. At the same time, unlike other bright dates, freedom and death are not tied in a knot, no blood was shed, no one died heroically, and we have the rare historical chance to remember the victory of our independence with joy, without pain.
The dream of generations of Bulgarians
However, independence is not arrogance and disregard for others, but the opposite – dialogue with them of a “state worthy of being an equal member of the family of civilized nations”, as the manifesto says. You are geopolitically independent when you can choose your friends and enter into alliances with them on your own, and not under coercion. And when you do, it's not so much for interests as for shared values that express your own national identity. In this sense, Bulgaria became an independent country for the second time, already according to the modern understanding of the concept, since it is a member of NATO and the European Union, which is the dream - first kept silent, then revealed - of generations of Bulgarians after the Second World War.
King Ferdinand reads to the majority in the “Holy 40 Martyrs”: “Always peaceful, My People today yearn for their cultural and economic progress; nothing should hinder Bulgaria in this direction; nothing should stand in the way of its success. Such is the desire of My People, such is their will – to be according to what he wants“.
Three propaganda absurdities
These words have not lost their relevance in the least, and, unlike then, we are not in isolation and we have a tool with which to succeed – our belonging to the Euro-Atlantic community. Because of the significant economic support from her side and because of the military protection from our self-proclaimed “big brother” in the East, whose appetites for Bulgaria never diminish. After he couldn't reassert his friendship on us, he declared us an enemy state, but his proxies keep spinning the propaganda mantra that whoever protects his interests is independent, and whoever is loyal to our partners from the democratic world (nothing that we chose them ourselves) is dependent.
This absurd equation of independence rests on two more absurd mantras. The first is that our national identity continues to be threatened, as if the Revival did not take place, but is yet to come, so that Kostadinov and others, who have appropriated his name for their pro-Russian party, can carry it out today.
And the second is that the one who threatens us is the West - as if it did not create liberal democracy, which precisely allows you to be the author of your own identity by your own will.
The desired result of the three propaganda absurdities is that, by activating provincial complexes, anachronistic prejudices and conspiracy theories, we will not feel how Putin's Russia is gradually returning to our country its influence from Soviet times. Salvation is, instead of propaganda from the East, to hear the train of our independence traveling in the West.
Happy holiday!