Bulgaria Marks 136th Anniversary of Heroic Shipka Pass Battle

Bulgaria launches Saturday celebrations to mark the 136th anniversary of the heroic Shipka Pass Battle during the 1877-1878 Liberation War.

A memorial liturgy will be served at the Sokolovo monastery. From there, from the Uzana site in Stara Planina and from the "Nativity" monument-temple three groups of people (about 300) will march to the Shipka peak.

President, Rosen Plevneliev, will take part in the march.

He will deliver a keynote address and will lay flowers at the monument on the historic peak. The ceremony there starts at noon.

There will be a solemn roll call of the National Guard and a reenactment of the epic battle, organized by the national association "Tradition."

The historic battle of the Russian-Turkish War took place between August 21 and August 26, 1877.

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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