Only united will we preserve Bulgaria in the global turmoil. That bright Bulgaria of Levski, which relies on its own strength. Ancient Bulgaria, which feels equal to the European peoples. Fraternal Bulgaria of free people, which has been defending its place in imperial battles for a century and a half. This was said by President Rumen Radev, who attended the memorial ceremony on the occasion of the 152nd anniversary of the death of the Apostle of Freedom Vasil Levski, BTA reports.
We need wisdom and unity and that faith of Levski that no matter how severe the trials, no matter how harsh the time, not only does it turn us around, but we also turn it around, added the head of state. He also said that with pain we must admit that we are a divided people in a divided time, and this is dangerous. In Radev's words, we live on the rift between the old and the new world. The world, Europe and even the human race are transforming before our eyes and again the Apostle points out the way out of the ordeal. He is in our joint forces, against them not even the strongest element can resist, added the president.
Radev also said: "In this place, 152 years ago, Vasil Ivanov Kunchev was hanged on the gallows. The people called him Levski, Deacon, Apostle, and even during his lifetime this man from Karlovo grew into a myth, the head of state recalled. In his words, for the enemies, Levski is an elusive spirit that stirs up the enslaved and undermines the empire. The monks know him as a deacon. In the First Bulgarian Legion, they baptize him Levski. The awakened slaves follow him as an Apostle who baptizes them in the revolutionary faith, and Botev himself remembers him as an indomitable character, a songwriter, a comrade shadowed from above, who lives above the cold, misery and adversity".
In the words of the president, Levski is a man ready to lose himself in order to win for an entire people. Dedicated to his great work, he leaves us few words, but every line in his notebook, every letter brings enlightenment even a century and a half later, Radev believes. “It is as if the Apostle said for us “all the misunderstandings, envy, reproaches that arise, most of them from stupidity, are the reason for the division of a people“, the head of state added in his speech.
Among those present at the memorial ceremony are the Speaker of the National Assembly Natalia Kiselova, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, Vice President Iliyana Yotova, His Holiness the Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil, ministers, members of parliament, military and clergy.