Bulgaria has marked the 118^th anniversary of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. On this occasion, a national commemorative meeting took place in Petrova Niva area located in Strandzha Mountain. At this place in 1903, a group of Bulgarian Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization delegates announced the outbreak of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising aimed at liberating Southern Thrace from Ottoman rule.

The meeting was held under the auspices of President Rumen Radev who was official guest at the celebrations together with this country’s Vice President Iliana Yotova.

“The Edirne Revolutionary District rose together with their brothers from Macedonia,” the President said. "The moral covenant left to us by our ancestors is that freedom is only possible when you are ready to embed yourself in its foundations." In his speech, the head of state also pointed out that the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising will forever connect the Bulgarians from the regions of Thrace and Macedonia.

In 1926, the heirs of the participants in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising attended the first commemorative meeting in Petrova Niva. The program of the celebrations this year included a folklore competition, a traditional horo dance, as well as a scientific conference dedicated to the events surrounding the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.