In front of the Freedom Monument on Mount Saint Nichola (Shipka peak), at the solemn ceremony on the occasion of the 146th anniversary of the epic battles at Shipka peak during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation, Bulgaria's President and supreme commander of the Bulgarian armed forces, Rumen Radev, paid tribute to the Bulgarian rebel fighters and the soldiers of the imperial army of Tsar Liberator Alexander II. In his official speech, the Bulgarian head of state pointed out that thanks to the feat of the heroes, the resurrected Bulgaria has been for a century and a half now again on the map of Europe. 

"All of us at this peak, the millions of citizens of the Republic, are Bulgarians and Europeans by birth, history and culture. Those who never come to Shipka believe that being European means renouncing being Bulgarian. It's a self-destructive complex. It is a pernicious fallacy that to be European is to scratch history, to mock tradition, to be ashamed of your national flag and to mock patriotism."

"Here, in front of the Freedom Monument, we have gathered to declare that after the 'epic of the forgotten', we will not allow those who are always missing here at this peak to force an epic of the crossed out on us. To manipulate historical memory, to encroach on Bulgarian holy places and to wonder over the years how to throw Vazov out of the textbooks.