We must think about cultural heritage in its entirety and comprehensiveness. The total is much bigger than the mechanical sum of the individual pieces, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) chairman Mustafa Karadayi told a meeting in parliament with Piet Jaspaert, vice president of Europa Nostra. Europa Nostra is recognised as the largest and the most representative cultural heritage network in Europe. It is regarded as a top contributor to the preservation and popularisation of the cultural and historical heritage of the continent.
Piet Jaspaert is in Bulgaria at the invitation of Standard Media and the Wonders of Bulgaria campaign it has been running for 12 years. The Belgian expert arrived in Sofia to participate in the international media forum Brand Bulgaria - Touch the Wonders, which is held in partnership with the National Board of Tourism. Jaspaert was expected to introduce the European experience in creating national brands. The international specialist was to acquaint the participants in the forum with the two cultural and historical hubs of Europa Nostra - in Krakow and in Athens. Mustafa Karadayi also participated in the conference held after the meeting in parliament.
The leader of the European liberals Ilhan Kyuchuk, the vice-president of the world liberals Hamid Hamid, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary group of the MRF, the vice-chairmen of the Movement Stanislav Anastasov and Halil Letifov, and almost all the members of parliament from the MRF, also took part in the meeting.
MRF is the third largest political force in Bulgaria, the first party founded in our country after the arrival of democracy, Karadayi said while presenting the Movement. MRF has its roots in the philosophy of togetherness and embodies the unity in diversity principle. Its creator is Dr. Ahmed Dogan, who is now the honorary chairman of the MRF, Karadayi explained. He emphasised that the party always gives way to the young in order to achieve continuity of generations and transfer of experience.
While introducing the MRF MPs, Mustafa Karadayi pointed out that this is the only parliamentary group in which many of the different ethnic groups in Bulgaria are represented.
The experience of Europa Nostra is crucial in advising the creation of Brand Bulgaria, the editor-in-chief of Standard Media and head of the Wonders of Bulgaria campaign Slavka Bozukova said. She stressed that Piet Jaspaert had asked for a meeting with the MRF because the Movement is the party that works hard to preserve and develop the Bulgarian cultural code. She also recalled that the member of the European Parliament Iskra Mihailova, who is also the vice-president of the Renew Europe group in the EP, is the author of the initiative "Bulgarian cultural heritage - part of the European cultural heritage". The local mayors from the MRF have also taken the preservation and popularisation of our rich cultural heritage as a cause, allocating all the available funds for excavations and socialisation of historical artifacts.
The multiculturalism of MRF is fantastic, it is particularly important for Brand Bulgaria, Piet Jaspaert said. And he clarified that successful national brands bet precisely on the unity made up of the wealth of different ethnicities.
For cultural and historical tourism to be developed it is important that the respective place is good to live in, good to do business in, easy to visit and developed in a way that secures its future, Jaspaert said. And he made clear that cultural and historical heritage represents identity. If we lose it, we lose everything.
Europe must know that Brand Bulgaria is a narrative not about division, but about unification, and we must do it with the means of expression with which we will be understood, said Polina Karastoyanova, executive director of the National Board of Tourism.
