site.btaBelgrade Conference Marks 150 Years Since April Uprising

The April Uprising ultimately succeeded because it led to Bulgaria’s liberation, participants in a conference marking its 150th anniversary agreed at the BTA National Press Club in Belgrade on Friday.

The conference was opened by BTA correspondent in Belgrade Teodora Encheva and moderated by Bulgarian National Television’s Panorama host Boyko Vassilev. Speakers included historian Petko Petkov, a lecturer at St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo; historian Diana Miteva, a researcher of the Bulgarian National Revival; and Sts Cyril and Methodius High School Director Bratislav Stamenov. Bulgarian Ambassador to Serbia Angel Angelov attended as a special guest.

“One of the few achievements of young Bulgarian historians in the 1990s was that we managed to prove the April Uprising was not a failure, since its main objective was to force the Great Powers to intervene through this bloodshed (...),” Petkov said. “The 1876 uprising was not an isolated event or an outburst of spontaneous revolutionary impulses, but the culmination of a long history of Bulgarian national liberation efforts that began in the early 19th century,” Petkov added.

Miteva discussed the support provided by Bulgarian migrant market gardeners in Serbia to the two Bulgarian Legions in the Serbian capital, the gardeners’ participation in the April Uprising and the links between Bulgarian revolutionaries and Serbia, particularly Belgrade. “These people were here in Belgrade, gathered in one place and receiving military training so that our statehood could exist today,” Miteva said.

Vassilev discussed journalism’s role in Bulgaria’s revolutionary movement and said the April Uprising’s ultimate success, namely Bulgaria’s freedom, was also due to three journalists: Hristo Botev, Januarius MacGahan and Zahari Stoyanov. “We know about the April Uprising, and the world knows about the April Uprising, thanks to three journalists. In this way, our mission has been crowned with success,” Vassilev said in conclusion.

Angelov welcomed the decision to hold Friday’s conference at the BTA National Press Club and noted the importance of the agency’s correspondent bureau for maintaining ties with the Bulgarian community. “I am very glad that we held it here, and very glad that BTA has a correspondent bureau. We will continue helping one another,” Angelov said.

The Bulgarian-language class at Sts Cyril and Methodius High School in Tsaribrod will be retained after eight pupils enrolled to study in Bulgarian, Stamenov said during Friday’s conference. Angelov added that considerable efforts had been made to retain the class and that the issue will remain among the priorities of Bulgaria’s diplomatic missions.