The president of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva has opened on 3 October 2012 the documentary exhibition “Moments behind the front line” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Balkan Wars. Organizers of the exhibition are the Archives State Agency, the National Charity Fund “13 Centuries Bulgaria” and the National Assembly.

The hundred years since the Balkan War give us reason to be proud and to bow before the feat of our ancestors and to keep our faith in the future of Bulgarians, straggled around the world in bigger or smaller groups, stated at the opening the president of the National Assembly. Tsetska Tsacheva underscored that during the war in 1912 in the fields of Lozengrad, Thessaloniki, Boulair, Lule Burgas, on the peaks of Pirin, Rhodopes and Stranja mountains the awareness and urge of generations of Bulgarians to get free from the power of the Sultan the remaining one and a half million of their compatriots who were away from free Bulgaria was triggered.

The chair of parliament noticed that the revivalist flame burning in the heart of every Bulgarian could be seen not only in the battles on the front line but also behind it, in moments of rest and while honoring the killed comrades in the trenches before the battle. Hundred of photos, letters, military diaries, notes of people of different military ranks and occupations make us witness their daily life on the battle field, their joy from the victory and their grief from the loss, their homesickness, the hugs and tears of the freed – all the ordinary human feelings and emotions, which unveil the soul of the Bulgarian against the background of the war, added Tsetska Tsacheva.

“Senior men, underage school boys, men deemed unfit to serve, all were crowding and wanted to be somehow helpful…The whole country has raised in defense of the national cause” – that is how James Bourchier describes the war in his report to The Times, recalled Tsetska Tsacheva.

Tsetska Tsacheva also mentioned that the events of the Balkan war had reflected profoundly on the work of the National Assembly at that moment. The latter had adopted a number of laws directed at strengthening the Bulgarian army and the international legal status of Bulgaria as a state. In the summer of 1911 the Fifth Grand National Assembly undertakes a complete editing of the Tarnovo Constitution and replaces everywhere the word “principality” and “prince” with “kingdom” and “king” and widens the powers of the Bulgarian monarch and government”, she pointed out. The XVth ordinary National Assembly adopts at its first regular sitting the Act amending and supplementing the Structure of the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Bulgaria Act, as well as the Military Academy Act.

In the Balkan Wars took part many members of the parliament like Andrey Liapchev – member of 8 parliaments, who enlisted himself as volunteer  in October 1912 and served in the General Staff of the Macedonian – Odrin volunteer corps. Mihail Takev, another deputy in 8 parliaments served as officer from the reserve of the First Army, said Tsetska Tsacheva. She also mentioned the name of Ivan Momchilov, member of the parliament from 1901 to 1908 and in 1911 - 1919, who served as physician in the Balkan Wars. Momchilov had been deputy chairman from the 13th all through the 17th National Assemblies. 

“Besides heroism, the exhibition “Moments behind the frontline” shows the daily life of the military, the care of the wounded and the sick, regardless of their nationality – Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Montenegrins or Turkish soldiers”, noted Tsetska Tsacheva. Hundred years past the war, it is time for all Balkan countries to make the effort to preserve the memory of their ancestors, to unravel their known and unknown graves and pay them the respect they deserve”, she stressed.

The exhibition consists of 24 panels of documents, maps and photographs depicting the war declaration, the war efforts and military chronicle and records.