Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who was on an official visit in Bulgaria on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the signing of the 1878 San Stefano Treaty that ended the war and proclaimed Bulgaria’s independence after five centuries of Ottoman rule, said he was aggrieved by what he called the Bulgarian government’s attempts to undermine Russia’s role during the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has written to his counterparts in Poland, Romania, Montenegro, Moldova and Ukraine, and also called the presidents of Finland and Serbia thanking all of them for the participation of people from those countries during the war.
“I was very aggrieved by the fact that, according to state representatives’ official rhetoric, Poland, Lithuania and Finland had played almost the same role as Russia. No political correctness can justify a false historical interpretation,” Kirill said, adding that Russian regiments stationed in countries such as Finland and Poland took part in the war.
Bulgaria is considered as an anomaly inside the European Union and NATO military alliance, as it still feels close to Russia. The state’s relationship with its communist-era masters contrasts with much of the former Soviet bloc, which saw Moscow as an occupier, not a friend.
(SNA)
Political Analysis by Plamen Assenov.
