On July 20, the Orthodox Church revers the memory of the Holy Prophet Elijah, one of the greatest Old Testament righteous men, alongside Moses and St. John the Forerunner. On St. Elijah Day Bulgarians also celebrate the anniversary of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising- a mass revolt of the Macedonian and Thracian Bulgarians against the Ottoman rule, organized by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Organization in 1903.

The MPs marked the 120^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising with declarations. "Today, the Bulgarian national idea has a new dimension and it is very clear- Bulgaria and North Macedonia to be part of one geopolitical and civilizational zone after 200 years of division. The Bulgarian state has systematically made efforts in this direction over the past 30 years. This is part of our identity. There is no need to try to solve the problem by force, as it was 100 years ago. It is enough to remove the border between the two countries", GERB MP Toma Bikov said in Parliament.