Bulgaria launches Tuesday the national celebrations to mark the 135th anniversary of the heroic Shipka Pass Battle during the 1877-1878 Liberation War.

The event will be held under the patronage of President, Rosen Plevneliev, who will deliver a keynote address at 12:30 am and will lay flowers at the monument on the historic peak. Before the ceremony, Plevneliev will award the winners of the contest to select the fastest climbers of the steps leading to the same monument.

Later in the afternoon, Plevneliev will visit the Sokolovo monastery to take part in the unveiling of a memorial plaque dedicated to hero Captain Dyado (Grandfather) Nikola.

After a 35-year break, the eternal flame on the peak will be lit once again Tuesday. A national flag will be raised on a 22-meter-high pole under the initiative of the Gabrovo regional administration and the Initiative Committee for the national celebration.

The festivities will culminate in the week of August 21-26 when the historic battle of the Russian-Turkish War took place.

The Shipka pass turned out to be of strategic importance for the outcome of the twelfth war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire but it was initially guarded mostly by the regiments of the Bulgarian "opalchentsi" or volunteers, as well as smaller numbers of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Finnish soldiers from the Russian Empire's army.

This force of a total of about 7 000 armed forces faced almost 40 000 Ottoman Turkish troops, but managed to hold its critically important positions until the arrival of the Russian army of General Radetski.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 ended with the San Stefano Peace Treaty of March 3, 1878, which liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman Turkey.

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