PATRIARCH KIRILL CONDEMNS ATTEMPTS TO HUSH UP RUSSIA'S ROLE IN LIBERATION OF BULGARIANS
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill, at a meeting with the president of Bulgaria, declared that he is disappointed by attempts at an incorrect interpretation of common history and the silencing of the role of Russia in the liberation of Bulgarians from the Ottoman yoke and the praise of Poland and Lithuania as liberating nations.
Every year at holiday events in Bulgaria the nations who participated in its liberation from Turkish occupation are enumerated. In particular, on Saturday at a review parade at the monument of the Tsar Liberator, at the top of the list were Pole, Finns, and Lithuanians.
"Russia liberated Bulgaria. Not Poland, not Lithuania, and not other countries. It was Russia. I will say frankly that for me it was difficult to listen to references to the participation of other countries. Neither the Polish Sejm nor the Lithuanian Sejm made a decision regarding the start of the war with Ottoman Turkey," the patriarch said.
"I ask news media to convey the patriarch's disappointment. He heard an incorrect historical interpretation of events connected with the liberation of Bulgaria. We are for historical truth, Mister President. We won it with our blood. And there can be no reasons to hush it up or to interpret it falsely," the primate of the RPTs noted.
The patriarch hopes that the people of Bulgaria and political elites of the country maintain respect for the "great sacrifices that were made in a completely disinterested way and despite all political considerations." (tr. by PDS, posted 10 March 2018)
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