Batak and what happened there 131 years ago has the same emotional resonance for Bulgarians as the events at the Bastille have for the French.

Every April, the small town of Batak commemorates the death of close to 5000 people (out of Batak's population at the time of 6000) who died in the final days of the April Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1876.

Most tragic was the fate of 2000 Bulgarians, many of them women and children, who were slaughtered in the town's Sveta Nedelya church after a three-day siege. They were barbarically murdered by Ottoman irregular troops from nearby Muslim villages.

The fate of Batak today is a synonym for Bulgarian sacrifice in the face of the enemy. It is so sacred that even the name of the town Batak is used in the modern Bulgarian language to symbolise a great tragedy and severe difficulties.

The tragedy of Batak has a place of honour in Bulgarian literature and folklore, with many poems dedicated to the massacre, the most famous of which was written by Bulgaria's greatest writer Ivan Vazov.

For this reasons, media reports about a project by a German researcher Ulf Brunnbauer and his Bulgarian associate Martina Baleva caused strong nationalistic emotions among all circles of Bulgarian society.

On April 24, Bulgarian-language media, both press and electronic, reported on a project by the Institute for East European Studies at Free University of Berlin (FUB) called Batak as a Place of Bulgarian Memory.

The project had to do with a painting of Batak, done by Polish artist Antoni Piotrowski 16 years after the event. According to initial Bulgarian-language media coverage, Brunnbauer and Baleva claimed that the Batak atrocities were a myth, that the number of victims had been exaggerated, and that talk of 500 years of Ottoman rule was actually fake. "The Batak myth reportedly generates hate between Bulgarians and the Muslim community and harms present-day relations between Bulgaria and Turkey," the media quoted the report as saying. The news emerged because Brunnbauer and Baleva wanted to hold a scientific conference in Sofia on May 18 to present their project as part of events commemorating the April Uprising.

The media reports were followed by angry reactions throughout Bulgaria. Historians and public figures were denying the report's findings calling it "a fake". People from all around the country began to collect signatures demanding the revocation of Baleva's Bulgarian citizenship. People in Batak threatened to march on Sofia and held a protest in front of Parliament.

Bulgaria's ambassador to Germany Meglena Plougchieva demanded an explanation from FUB. Nationalists were quick to act and ultra-nationalist party Ataka tabled a bill in Parliament amending the Penal Code, according to which "professing of an anti-democratic ideology which calls into question or attempts to deny in any way whatsoever the genocide of the Bulgarians in the lands historically inhabited by them during the Turkish yoke" would be punishable by a term of imprisonment from one to five years or by a fine of 5000 to 50 000 leva.

President Georgi Purvanov issued a statement calling the project "a gross provocation to Bulgarian history and national memory".

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev also reacted, saying that the Batak massacre was "a very sad fact in Bulgaria's national history, which should not be used to divide the public".

On April 25, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAN) said they were not partners in the project and would not agree to Brunnbauer's request for a presentation on the project.

"The theses of the project are quite primitive and without foundation from a scientific point of view, and therefore do not require discussion," BAN said.

Baleva could not be reached for comment. Reports said that she was in Germany, too scared to come to Bulgaria.

However, in an open letter sent to Bulgarian-language media on April 26, Brunnbauer and Baleva said that they very much regretted the fact that media coverage in Bulgaria of their project had created the impression that they denied the Batak massacre. "This is the result of completely incorrect information," the letter said.

The two said that the project did not deny the tragic events that took place in Batak in 1876, but dealt with the depiction of the Batak massacre in pictures, and specifically in a picture by Piotrowski, and with the role of Batak in Bulgaria's collective memory.

"This is a research project which does not pursue any political goals," the letter said.

True or false, one thing is clear: even the slightest deflection from the line of cherishing and venerating the memory of the Batak massacre in Bulgaria will eternally provoke a harsh and united reaction by Bulgarians.