More than 1,000 years after his death, the
\nremains of what may be Tsar Samuel, one of the last major rulers of the First
\nBulgarian Empire, are returning “home” on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Greece and Bulgaria reached an agreement on their return this week, with
\nBulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev hailing the accord as “historic”.<\/p>\n
The remains “belong to our two peoples”, Radev said as he attended a ceremony
\nto mark the return alongside Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.<\/p>\n
Greece will in return receive 48 objects pillaged by Bulgarian troops from
\nchurches and monasteries in northern Greece during World War I.<\/p>\n
Samuel, who reigned from 997 to 1014, led several campaigns against the
\nByzantine Empire with his brothers, one of whom he later executed.<\/p>\n
He gradually extended his authority over a swathe of the Balkans, making the
\nLake Prespa and Lake Ohrid region, now mostly in North Macedonia, his
\npowerbase.<\/p>\n
But the Byzantines regained the upper hand after 1001, soundly defeating
\nSamuel’s army in 1014.<\/p>\n
Samuel is said to have died of shock when he saw thousands of his defeated
\nsoldiers returning home blinded by order of Byzantine emperor Basil II, known
\nas the “Bulgar Slayer”.<\/p>\n
Samuel’s state fell under Byzantine rule four years later.<\/p>\n
While Radev said future generations would now be able to pay homage to their
\nancestors, Mitsotakis hailed the remains as having “incalculable cultural and
\nspiritual but also emotional value”.<\/p>\n
– Bones of contention –<\/p>\n
But Bulgaria is not the only country to have claims on Samuel, with a huge
\nstatue of the tsar gracing the North Macedonian capital Skopje.<\/p>\n
His legacy has become a bone of contention between the two neighbours, with
\nMacedonians claiming him as “their” ruler.<\/p>\n
The Skopje daily Sloboden Pechat called the handover another battle over
\nhistory, with the Albanian-language daily Koha declaring: “The bones return,
\nthe conflict remains! Samuel once again (contested) between Skopje and
\nSofia.”<\/p>\n
Some historians have likened the dispute to the French and German tug-of-war
\nover Charlemagne.<\/p>\n
In 2022, a bilateral commission recommended to present Samuel as the head of
\na state that “most contemporary historiographers consider to be the Bulgarian
\nEmpire”, based in what is currently North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
“Samuel occupies an important place in the historical narrative both in
\nBulgaria and in North Macedonia,” Dimitar Bechev, a researcher at the
\nCarnegie Europe think tank, told AFP.<\/p>\n
“This initiative aims to underline the Bulgarian character of the Slavic
\npopulation of Macedonia.”<\/p>\n
The supposed remains of Samuel were discovered by Greek archaeologist
\nNikolaos Moutsopoulos in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Moutsopoulos led excavations on the Greek island of Saint Achilleios on
\nLittle Prespa Lake near the border between Greece and Albania and not far
\nfrom the frontier with North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
They found the skeleton of a man measuring about 1.6 metres (5 feet 3
\ninches), along with remnants of a rich silk fabric edged with gold and
\ndecorated with bird motifs.<\/p>\n
The attribution to Samuel is based on clues including the location of the
\ntomb, the sumptuousness of the garment, the age of the deceased and an old
\nfracture.<\/p>\n
– Decades of negotiations –<\/p>\n
Bulgaria officially opened talks on the return of the remains in 2007, and
\nthey became a major issue in relations with Greece.<\/p>\n
The deal this week also sparked a row in Bulgaria over who should claim the
\ncredit, with history playing a major role in this month’s presidential
\nelection.<\/p>\n
Incumbent Iliana Iotova, backed by Radev and promoting ties both with Moscow
\nand the EU and NATO, is playing the patriotic card, having launched her
\ncampaign in Veliki Preslav, former capital of the First Bulgarian Empire.<\/p>\n
“Radev seeks to attract the patriotic electorate,” said analyst Bechev, with
\nthe message that unlike other nationalist parties, “he delivers results”.<\/p>\n
Free trains are being laid on to the capital for the occasion, with some 750
\npolice guarding the centre of Sofia during the handover ceremony.<\/p>\n
The remains attributed to Samuel will be laid in a white sarcophagus made
\nfrom marble quarried in the Prilep region of North Macedonia, public
\nbroadcaster BNT said.<\/p>\n
They will rest in the Church of Saint Sofia, a sixth-century basilica that
\ngave its name to the Bulgarian capital.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-BSS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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