Tsar Samuel’s remains arrive in Sofia with anthem and 21-gun salute; Mickoski: I see the transfer through the Bled Agreement

The remains believed to belong to Tsar Samuel arrived today from Greece in Bulgaria and were received with a state ceremony in Sofia, where they were displayed before thousands of citizens, according to reporting by the portal Sloboden Pečat. The reception was accompanied by the anthem and a 21-gun salute, before the remains were placed in the “Sveta Sofija” basilica.

According to the portal Kolegium, the remains were loaded onto the “Spartan” military transport aircraft, which in Bulgarian airspace was escorted by two pairs of MiG-29 and F-16 fighter jets. The five aircraft flew at exactly midday over “Knez Aleksandar I” square and landed at Sofia’s “Vasil Levski” airport, from where Bulgarian army soldiers carried the remains to the square.

The handover ceremony took place at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, in the presence of Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Radev thanked Mitsotakis for the “statesmanlike vision, political courage and will” to reach the agreement, which he called historic for both countries. “In the past Tsar Samuel divided us; today he unites us,” Radev told Mitsotakis, as the portal 4NEWS reports. In return, Bulgaria hands Greece 48 objects, mainly church items from several monasteries in Aegean Macedonia, rescued by Bulgarian scholars during the First World War, according to the portal 360 Stepeni.

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, commented on the transfer today: “I see it through the Bled Agreement,” expressing regret that, in his view, few mention this agreement today and what was agreed with it — “not long ago, but several decades ago,” the portal 360 Stepeni reports.

The remains, discovered in 1969 by Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos in the basilica of Saint Achillius on the island of the same name in Lake Small Prespa, are believed to belong to Tsar Samuel and his family; along with them, remains from two other sarcophagi were also handed over, thought to belong to Tsar Gavril Radomir and other members of the royal family.

Meanwhile, several Bulgarian experts express reservations: no DNA analysis has been carried out to confirm that the remains belong to Tsar Samuel, Professor Milko Palangurski of the University of Tarnovo told Bulgarian television Nova TV, adding that “Pandora’s box has been opened” and that the problem is not what is being returned, but that there is no list and nobody knows how much and what is being returned, Kolegium writes.