24.05.2013 We should respect our nation, we should know our people, language and culture!

At this time of the year we reflect on the long traditions of our nation and our roots. It is time to think to what extent we use and enrich the language we have inherited from those before us and whether we can manage to pass on our language and culture to those future generations after us. Language is not only a communication tool. Language is what defines us and helps us understand the world around us.

In times, when we all love to use the word ‘international’, there is a day in our calendar, when it is important – and it is a great honour for me to do this – to pay attention to the following: you cannot be international, if you are not in the first place a national. You cannot compete internationally, if you have not realised the power of your own people, your own culture, to embrace your tradition and pass it on to future generations.

The challenges – as we know them and experience them today – are not new. Bulgarians have experienced challenges for a very long time. And long before us there have been larger states, stronger states and languages, which have had much wider use. But the fact that our ancestors have managed to resist those challenges and to preserve our culture and that of other nations, gives us the feeling that we have a duty. We should not undermine the long history and traditions of our culture, we should not allow the strong of the day to make us forget that we have the duty and honour to continue developing the language and culture which our ancestors have preserved for centuries.

I would like to congratulate all colleagues, all students with this special day, where we celebrate the language, the letters and the symbols given us by the Sts Cyril and Methodius!