"In Bulgaria, nihilism works, and in Serbia, chauvinism from A to Z. The Western Provinces are a colony of Belgrade". Dimitar Dimitrov, who is a defender of the rights of the Bulgarian national minority in Serbia, said this to BGNES.
The "Holy Trinity" church in the Bosilegrad village of Izvor, located in the Western regions, which were separated from Bulgaria by virtue of the Nyoi Dictate, began to be built in 1832. The beautiful "vilayet" church (editor's note: "vilayet" means "district" or "province" in the Ottoman Empire) has no analogue in today's Serbia in terms of its architecture, but it is very similar to the church of the same name in the centre of Bansko.
The church in Izvor was completed in 1835 and illustrated by the master from the Samokov School, Dimitar Zograf. He is the older brother of Zachary Zograf. In less than 20 years, he painted 58 icons from the iconostasis. The icons of St. John the Baptist, of St. Anastasius, of St. John of Rila - Miracle Worker, of St. Andrei Parvozvani are unique!
"At that time, the village of Izvor was the centre of the district, while Bosilegrad had fewer inhabitants," said Dimitrov.
"We are proud of this church. After a while, the walls on the right and left sides had collapsed. We called ambassadors, journalists, and politicians to come and see it. And we managed to save it somehow", shared our eloquent interlocutor.
"Half of the wall in front of the entrance door of the church is richly decorated with icons, but the second part is smeared with white paint by Serbian soldiers. For the Serbs, it would be a great pleasure for this church to fall, because they don't have such a temple," said Dimitrov.
The church has not worked for more than 10 years and is closed, one of the local residents takes care of it. Only a few elderly people remain in the village, located in the Kraishche district separated by the Bulgarian-Serbian border.
"We see a tray with donations, on which Bulgarian money has also been left, from which we understand that the temple is also visited by tourists from the Motherland".
"This is a shame for our politicians, they are nihilists. I don't want to offend anyone, but the Bulgarians in the Western Regions suffer from the Bulgarian political elite, and not at the level of ordinary people", Dimitar Dimitrov is categorical and cut off:
"Nihilism will ruin us!" As in Bulgaria, so here. But here people do not dare speak up, out of fear. What are they afraid of in Bulgaria? I just keep hearing Serbian chalga (editor's note: Serbian folk music) there and see a Serbian grill, and in Serbia, it is boiling with chauvinism. How long will it be like that? God help to fix something..., but I don't know!"
The Bosilegrad region is the most underdeveloped in today's Serbia. It is rich in many natural resources and useful minerals - beautiful nature and forests, which are favourable for the development of bio-agriculture and tourism; ores from which gold can be obtained. None of this can be developed since 1919 when it fell under the Serbian boot. As a result of this purposeful Serbian policy, for 100 years, out of 120,000 Bulgarians in Tsaribrod and Bosilegrad, a little over 20,000 remained in the two municipalities.
"We are a colony and reserve of Serbia. Everything - mining resources, forestry, water potential - they take 300 million cubic meters each from ours, that is your river, which rises above one of the lakes. Tourism is developing there - guests come from Sofia, Pernik and Kyustendil. They leave their money there, while we, the Bulgarians, watch and pray that a better time will come for us... In 1968 In the entire municipality of Bosilegrad, we were 33 thousand people, and now the Bulgarians are under 2000. What does that tell you? We're disappearing! That's it, unfortunately," said Dimitrov.
The only thing he wants from the government in Sofia is to be nationally responsible.
"As soon as you are nationally responsible, you think about every Bulgarian, wherever they live. We are not cut off through no fault of our own. Shame and shame both for our politicians and for those on this side of the border. In Bulgaria, nihilism works, and in Serbia - chauvinism from A to Z. The Bulgarians in the Western regions are between a rock and a hard place," summed up Dimitar Dimitrov desperately. /BGNES
