Svilengrad History Museum held a round table on "The fate of Western Thrace and the First World War", which closed the programme for the town's holiday. The main speaker was Prof. Svetlozar Eldarov, and an eighth-grade pupil also presented his own research.

Pupils, teachers and local people filled the museum hall. Museum director Elena Miteva opened the talk by recalling the fate of the Thracian Bulgarian refugees from Eastern and Western Thrace. The people of Svilengrad are their descendants.

Miteva said their history must be remembered. She said their ancestors left behind homes, land, property and the graves of their loved ones "to start life again here, in Svilengrad, on a bare meadow, but within the borders of the Motherland". "They wanted only bread and land, to build anew," she said.

Eldarov gave a talk on "The fate of Western Thrace during the First World War". He examined the Bulgarian-Turkish talks, which involved official representatives of both states, activists of the IMARO (Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation) and the Gumuldjina Turkish autonomy, also known as the "Provisional Government of Thrace" or the "Independent Western Thracian Government".

He also spoke about the creation of the 10th Aegean Division, its fighting and the defence of the Aegean coast. He dedicated the lecture to the memory of Prof. Staiko Trifonov and highlighted his contribution to knowledge about Thrace and the Thracian Bulgarians, saying no new study can be made without him.

Eldarov said three events in 1913 changed Bulgaria's course and sealed the future of Western Thrace. They were the "Criminal Madness" of 16 June, the Second Balkan War, which he called a catastrophe, and the Treaty of Istanbul of 16/29 September.

He called the Bulgarian-Turkish talks the decisive step that lined Bulgaria up with Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, and placed it among the losers of the First World War. He said the poor geopolitical choices of Vasil Radoslavov's government led to Bulgaria's second national catastrophe: the country lost its access to the open sea, and the suffering of the Thracian Bulgarians dragged on.

Miteva introduced the eighth-grader as Svilengrad's youngest historian and chess player. He spoke about the medieval roads and settlements around Svilengrad, which had strategic and trade importance. He drew on publications by modern historians and on medieval sources, and also based his conclusions on walking the land himself.

Miteva said the pupil's work will go into the collection on the Bukelon fortress and the area around the village of Matochina.