On the Day of Bravery and the holiday of the Bulgarian Army, a requiem prayer was served in memory of the Bulgarian soldiers who died in the wars for national unification at the military memorial in Novo Selo, Strumica region, Republic of North Macedonia, dariknews.bg reported.
The ritual, organized for the 20th time in a row by the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Skopje, jointly with the Ministry of Defense and the “Bulgarian Memory“ Foundation, was attended by a delegation led by Lyudmil Mihaylov – Director of the “Social Policy and Policy on Military-Patriotic Education“ Directorate and by the Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces Command, Fleet Admiral Galin Manev.
To pay homage to the feat of the heroes in Novo Selo, Strumica, many representatives of the Bulgarian community in the Republic of North Macedonia and over 200 students from the Blagoevgrad region came.
On behalf of the Minister of Defense, the Director of the Directorate “Social Policy and Military Patriotic Education Policy“ Lyudmil Mihaylov delivered a welcoming speech. It says: “After the end of the First World War, this sacred place for us, where the mortal remains of over 70 Bulgarian servicemen lie, remains outside the borders of the Motherland, but not outside the borders of Bulgarian memory. Let us not forget that here, amidst the silence of history, our heroes rest and their fate is a piece of the turbulent Bulgarian history. Their sacrifice should always remind us not only of war as a social phenomenon, but also of the strength of spirit, of honor and love for the Motherland“.
Over the past decades, the war memorial near Novo Selo, Strumica, has experienced periods of oblivion and destruction, but today it is maintained with respect and veneration for the heroes, as a place of memory and a historical connection between generations, an example of affirming European values and norms.
Military honors as a sign of veneration for the fallen Bulgarian soldiers were paid by servicemen from the National Guard unit and officers and cadets from the Higher Naval School “N. Y. Vaptsarov“.
In the war memorial in Novo Selo, Strumica, over 70 servicemen, originally from all regions of Bulgaria, who died in the Inter-Allied War and during the First World War, are buried.