On 21st September, the Municipality of Kaynardzha, Bulgaria, a member of ENPP since 2015 will organized a Bicycle Tour, coinciding with the UN World Day of Peace according the UN General Assembly declaration and resolution taked in 1981. For the first time this day is celebrated on the initiative of UNESCO in 1984.
Under the motto “Keeping the Peace and Remembering the Good Works of Our Ancestors”, the Bicycle Tour started at 9.30 am near the Historical Fountain Park in the village of Kaynardzha, where the Peace Treaty ending the Russian-Turkish War 1768/1774 was signed in 21st July 1774, after the greetings of the Mayor, Mr. Lyuben Sivev, about this World Peace Day but also about 22 September – the Bulgarian National Holiday commemorating the declaration of the independence of Bulgaria. The Bicycle Tour passed on the previously announced route through the village of Kaynardja, the village of Svetoslav and reached the fountain near the village of Svetoslav, where the peace talks took place in July 1774, before the Kaynardzha Peace Treaty was signed. There the particpants planted a tree wishing for a Peaceful and Independent Bulgaria.
With this Tour it was also intended to recreate the environment of the Kaynardzha Peace Treaty negotiations, since the fountain near the village of Svetoslav was located at equal distances from the military camps of the two negotiating countries in 1774 – Russia and the Ottoman Empire; According the local tradition, the Russian Army’s headquarters were in the village of Kaynardzha (Little Kaynardzha) and the headquarters of the Ottoman army was in today’s village of Svetoslav, which in 1774 was called Large Kaynardzha. Every day both parts went to this fountain to hold the Peace negotiations. After reaching the peace agreement, Russian General Piotr Rumyantsev invited the cook of the Turkish army to prepare a solemn table to suit the visiting Turkish generals and the representatives who signed the peace treaty. They also decided that their Ottoman guests would be decorated with distinctive signs and officers to wear medals which were obtained for heroism, transforming the signature of the Treaty into a manifestation of peaceful and benevolent relations.
On their return the participants took photos of the PLACE OF PEACE (Kaynardzha) and received gifts for their participation in the tour from the Deputy Mayor of Kaynardzha, Ms. Valentina Tokushheva.
This Tour was also the start for the development of a “peace site” around the fountain near the village of Svetoslav, so that it can be visited by pedestrians or cyclists in the future.
