site.btaPresident Radev Hosts National Day Reception

President Rumen Radev gave a formal reception at Sofia's Central Military Club on National Day, March 3, the President's press secretariat reported.

He said in an address: "March 3 is a reminder of our duty to remember the cost of freedom and to be grateful every time a friend reaches out their hand or someone makes a self-sacrifice for the sake of our freedom."

Referring to the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano on March 3, 1878, at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 which brought about Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman Turkish rule, Radev said: "We remember that the road to San Stefano was illuminated by the sacrifice of generations of Bulgarian enlighteners, National Revival activists and revolutionaries. The blaze of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation claimed the lives of tens of thousands of worthy sons of sisterly nations. Without the support of public figures, intellectuals, the brightest minds at the time such as Hugo, Dostoyevsky, Gladstone and McGahan, without their strong voices in favour of the Bulgarian cause, our fate would have been different nowadays."

"With concerted efforts, with the devotion of our whole nation, with the support and the help of our friends and partners, we will continue to build the Bulgaria of the future which is worthy of the glorious history we have inherited," Radev said.