I actually forgot that it was National Liberation Day. We had the day off from school, but because I usually have Fridays off anyway I forgot. But when I got to Sofia, I rounded a corner that leads to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral and saw this. There were representatives from each branch of the military in dress uniforms doing a traditional parade march.
You can say what you want about communist governments, but they sure knew how to do military displays. The former communist military history was very apparent in this march, from the high goose-stepping to the running marches to guy with the bullhorn.
Then the climax came and they raised the flag at the eternal flame. I got a picture of the President examining the troops but I erased later in the day when I needed to free up some memory because I walked right into the middle of...
A BULGARIAN NATIONALIST RALLY!!!That's right. As I was leaving Sofia in mid-afternoon, I crossed back through the center, and ran smack dab into a huge Ataka meeting. For those not in the know, Ataka is the Bulgarian far-right nationalist party whose platform consists primarly of blaming everything on the Turks and Roma.I don't know how many of you have been in the middle of a huge nationalist rally but I've been to two and they were both scary (I admit I was a bit more frightened at this one. The Republicans don't have quite the same fear Ataka has, though they are working on it...)
There was a lot of booing, and cheering "Ataka!" and playing of that Ataka Charge! song. One of the people who got up to speak greeted the crowd by saying "welcome to those who truly love Bulgaria!" which was followed quickly by "Ataka! Ataka! Ataka!" and lots of "Down with Gypsies, Down with Turks!" Surrounded by the thousands of people, a simple thing as a "boo!" can turn into a very ugly, and hateful thing. Especially being a foreigner. I was thinking of asking people why they were supporting a party that offers little beside scapegoating but I realized that the middle of a xenophobic political rally was not the ideal place for a foreigner to be asking a lot of questions. I just imagined someone shouting "Foreigner" and beating this little liberal to a broken pulp. I was able to smile, however, at a sign someone was holding. It was a movie poster from a movie called "Age of the Han," a movie about the founder of Bulgaria, Han Asparuh (see previous post). Under the picture of the actor was written, "a true Bulgarian." The irony, of course, is that the movie is English, the dialogue is all in English and I think even the actor who played the "true Bulgarian" is, you guessed it, English. But Ataka, like most far-right parties, can't be tripped up by a little thing like the truth...Moral of the story: (Former) Communists can make a good military parade, but no one throws a rally like Fascists.
3 comments:
Ahhh, Ataka. We had a rally in Yambol last week, but I didn't go (for pretty obvious reasons). People in my area are really racist, so I try to steer clear of the whole thing.
Glad you had fun.
G'day Andy! That moral cracked me up. Love your work.
hey there! sorry ive been crap at being in touch/calling you! terrible bad cousin i know! btw i do have your birthday pressie but have not managed to get to the post office but expect in the post next month (as will be hideously broke this month). i try to keep up with your blog and must say it's brilliant so far! will try ringing you soon!
your mad cousin in glasgow
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