Full statement of Bulgarian President Radev on eve of Slavonic Alphabet Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture 2022

Sofia, Bulgaria: The President of Bulgaria – Rumen Radev addressing the general public on the eve of the Day of Slavonic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture 2022, stated that native language is the thread via which compatriots by blood can always find their way home.  

Full statement of President Radev is as below – 

“Today, Bulgarians are everywhere, & our children & grandchildren often speak several languages. But the native language, as I have had occasion to say before, is the thread through which our compatriots by blood can always find their way back to home”. 

“On May 24, we all are Bulgarians. In the hierarchy of spirit & culture, neither wealth nor power is authoritative. The nobility of the spirit is important here. And it is worn and radiated by every awake child”. 

“Today, there are seven million Bulgarians in Bulgaria. Millions of others are outside the Fatherland. But there is always an invisible homeland which everyone takes with them wherever they go. This is the Bulgarian language. From birth, we are destined to think and feel beautiful, rich, sonorous, nuanced and expressive native speech. Language inspires us; language comforts us. Language is our home & trust in difficult and lonely moments, especially far from Motherland. In difficult years, language is the banner of satire, rebellion and freedom. When the spirit fades, language is the most accurate epicrisis – it suffers from our spelling, impoverishes its active vocabulary, and its grammar disintegrates. Even our pronunciation is careless”. 

“But the language of Vazov and Dalchev, of Zahari and Yavorov, of Petar Uvaliev and Valeri Petrov will not perish. It will survive all sorts of gloomy times of stupidity, rudeness, and foreign worship & the experiments of the ‘foolish fools’ who arbitrarily handle their words. The Bulgarian language will outlive the intrigues of its deniers and its prodigal relatives who do not recognize their origin or kinship with our speech. The complexes of those who allow us to abandon the Cyrillic alphabet will also survive”.