The Association “6 Dorobanţi” – Bucharest
"Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The members of the “6 Dorobanti” Association, the oldest reenactment group in Roumania, learned with a great surprise about the arrest of several members of the National Society “Traditsia” of Bulgaria, such as Mr. Varban Minev, of Veliko Turnovo and Mr. Martin Angelov Kalendgiev, of Ruse. We are absolutely astonished about this awful situation as we know them as good citizens and active Bulgarian patriots.
Mr. Varban Minev particularly impressed us as a very nice and enthusiastic person, with a lot of merits concerning the traditional co-operation between Romania and Bulgaria. As far as we know, Mr. Varban Minev is the person who gave a new impulse to the military historical reconstruction in Bulgaria and, as a President of the Veliko Turnovo branch of “Traditsia”, played an important role in all the military-historical events organized in Bulgaria and Romania. We remember with pleasure our first meeting during the reconstruction of the WW1 battle of Argeş River, in September 2006, organized by the National Military Museum of Bucharest. From 2007 Mr. Varban Minev, had an important contribution at all the traditional events organized by the National Military Museum of Bucharest and every year he coordinated the coming of the Bulgarian delegation who represented the Bulgarian military traditions in front of the Romanian public. Mr. Varban Minev also had great merits in organizing the participation of Bulgarian delegation of “Traditsia” at the commemoration of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, at Ploiesti, in 2007 and 2008, and at the first two editions of the International Historical Festival “The Name of the Rose”, organized in 2009 and 2010, at the Fortress of Râşnov, in the Carpathians.
Our Association was invited by “Traditsia” to attend several important historical events in Bulgaria: the commemoration of the battle of Shipka Pass (August 2005-2010), the reconstruction of the battles of Pleven (December 2007) and Tutrakan (September 2008), and we saw that Mr. Varban Minev, beside the “Traditsia” leadership, had a great contribution in organizing all these events.
We know our colleagues of “Traditsia” National Society - an important organization that preserves and spreads the Bulgarian military traditions - as honest and very friendly people. They impressed us by their patriotism and comradeship, that’s why we are shocked to learn that some of them were arrested.
We hope that the Bulgarian authorities will act with caution and responsibility, only for motivated reasons, respecting the presumption of innocence of our colleagues and friends of “Traditsia” Society, according the rules of the European Union, assumed by Bulgaria and Romania as members with fully rights and obligations, since January 2007.
With all our best wishes,
Horia-Vladimir Şerbănescu
Vice-President of “6 Dorobanţi” Association, Bucharest
Bucharest, 3rd of October, 2010"
