Bulgaria is marking Saturday for the third time the official Day of Gratitude and Homage to the victims of the totalitarian Communist regime (1944-1989).

President Rosen Plevneliev and Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova will be among the officials that will attend a solemn ceremony at the memorial of the victims of the Communist regime in Sofia.

The date February 1 was chosen because on this day, in 1945, the so-called People's Tribunal sentenced to death 3 regents, 67 members of the parliament, 22 ministers, 40 generals and colonels of the royal army and a number of other public figures.

The sentences were executed on that same day.

The date was proposed by two former Bulgarian Presidents – Zhelyu Zhelev (1990-1997) and Petar Stoyanov (1997-2002) back in 2011.

"This day will not only honor the victims, it will give us a starting point for a better understanding of the events of our recent history, without which it is impossible to progress as a democratic and dignified European country," Zhelev and Stoyanov wrote in their letter to then Prime Minister Boyko Borisov three years ago.

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