site.btaIliana Iotova: Anyone Who Dares Close Bulgarian Community Centre Commits National Treason

"I am one of the people who rebel against any attempt to destroy a Bulgarian community centre - this is an attack on our past and our future", Vice President Iliana Iotova said during the 36th Congress of the Union of National Community Centres on Wednesday. She rendered as "national treason" any act of closing an institution with a history as long as that of Bulgarian liberty and longer than the life of the third Bulgarian state. "It is a pity when people without or with a false biography, but with fleeting power, try to erase the work of generations back", she said and assured the attendees of the Presidency's unwavering support for the development of the work of community centres.

Iotova added that the community activists and personnel are the pillars of spirituality, education and culture, that helped preserve the Bulgarian people, built the Bulgarian nation and resurrected the Bulgarian state.

The Vice President also pointed out that there are nearly 4,000 community centres in Bulgaria, which she described as strong antidotes to ignorance and stagnation. "This impressive number clearly shows the need for the community centre and refutes all those who claim that it is wrapped in spiderwebs and belongs to the past", she stressed, pointing out the importance of community centres for a small towns or villages.

Iotova called for more funds for the development of culture, pointing to the danger of long-term consequences of the crisis of meaning, values and spirituality. She thanked the chairman of the Union of National Community Centres Nikolay Doynov for his dedication and active work, for the successful building and maintenance of a good team.

Last year, the Vice President was awarded the honorary title "Follower of the National Enlighteners" for 2022 of the Union of National Community Centres. The award was bestowed on her for "the outstanding contribution of the Vice President in upholding the heights of the Bulgarian spirit and the ideals of the national awakeners."