"Of the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, the Bulgarians fought the most. No Bulgarian Kingdom has lasted more than 100 years... The land occupied by the Bulgarians on the peninsula forced them to fight very often. This process has heightened their willpower, and taught them self-sacrifice. But Bulgarians must quit their self-centeredness... Are the Greeks or Serbs better than us? Not your concern... that just applies to them not you. You, yourselves as a nation, must develop noble traits in you. To strengthen your will power as needed for your own future development... Without willpower, the mind and the heart cannot harmonize... no other peoples in the world have suffered as much as the Slavs. God says, that something good must become of us. Every good father punishes the son he loves. And the Slavs are children of the Lord whom he loves, so he punishes them... If you do not heed God's laws, you will see, it won't be 10 or 20 years before a whip is sent on you." (Dunov, 1920)

The Crusade of Varna

In the 14th century, the Ottomans invaded the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Varna fell in 1389. On January 1, 1443, Pope Eugene IV published a crusading bull, following the temporary Union of the Greek and Latin Churches in 1439. "The aim of the crusade was not to liberate the Holy Land, but to end [Islamic] Ottoman rule in the Balkan peninsula" (Imber, 2008). A multinational army of Hungarian, Polish, Bohemian, German, Bosnian, Wallachian, Lithuanian, Ruthenian, Croatian, and other crusaders marched into Ottoman Bulgaria in 1444, determined to defeat the Ottoman army. The opponents met at the Battle of Varna. No clear winner emerged during the first part of the battle; however, in the second part, King Władysław III of Poland fell from his horse during a charge and was slaughtered by a janissary. The Crusader forces retreated soon after. He has been honored with the noscript "Vladislav of Varna."

"The massacres of the Bulgarian population by the Turkish authorities in Stip and Kocani roused public opinion in Bulgaria.. In early Sep 1912 [the Ottomans] ordered the mobilisation of 100000 reserves in Adrianople Thrace and their concentration at the Bulgarian frontier. The imminent danger made the Bulgarian government declare nationwide mobilisation of the armed forces on 17 Sep 1912 which aroused unprecedented support.. Those wishing to participate in the liberation march far exceeded the quantity of available weapons. A total of 600000 men marched under the banners.. Bulgaria bore the brunt of the First Balkan War for it had mobilized more forces and sustained losses equal to those of all its allies. At the main Thracian theatre of war the enemy admitted its defeat and fled to the capital.. a peace treaty was signed by virtue of which the new border between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire followed the straight line from the town of Midye on the Black Sea to the town of Enos on the Aegean" (Markov, 1987)

Wunder Des Segelfluges "The Wonders of Gliding" (1935).