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Extremist Govt Allies Mar Commemoration of Bulgarian National Hero Levski

Politics » DOMESTIC | February 19, 2011, Saturday // 19:21

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Organized members of the far-right nationalist party Ataka gathered and chanted slogans at the official commemoration of the death of Bulgaria's Apostle of Freedom, Vasil Levski.

Thousands of ordinary people and Bulgaria's most high-ranking state officials honored Saturday evening the 138th anniversary of the death of the national hero.

Just minutes after the official program of the solemn event ended, Ataka supporters started to chant "Attack, Victory!", after which their leader Volen Siderov, who was also present, went on to deliver a nationalistic speech.

Vasil Levski was put to death in 1873 by Ottoman authorities for creating a network of revolutionary committees intended to liberate Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.

Levski was inspired by the freedom struggles of fellow Balkan peoples, and unlike many of the national liberation leaders at the time, his political ideas were free of all nationalism.

Among his most famous teachings is the determination to create a Bulgarian republic that observes the rights of all humans, and in which all ethnic groups - among them Turks and Jews - can live freely.

With 20 MPs, nationalists Ataka have the fourth-largest group in Parliament. They have been loyal supporters of the center-right GERB cabinet, which can rely on 117 MPs out of 240, and after the withdrawal of backing from rightist Blue Coalition have remained the sole secure GERB ally in Parliament.

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