On Sunday, Bulgaria marked the 141st anniversary of its Unification. Solemn rituals, military tattoos, prayer services, floral tributes and cultural events were held across the country throughout the day.
In Sofia, Unification Day was marked at the mausoleum and ossuary of Prince Alexander of Battenberg, with the participation of the National Guards Unit. Attending the event were Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev, members of parliament, cabinet ministers, Municipal Council Chair Tsvetomir Petrov, councillors, and members of the public. The National Museum of Military History hosted thematic museum tours tracing the road to the Unification.
The high point
The main ceremony was held in the evening in the southern city of Plovdiv, where the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia was officially announced on September 6, 1885.
The commemorative ceremony was attended by President Iliana Iotova, National Assembly Chair Mihaela Dotsova, Prime Minister Rumen Radev, Chief of Defence Emil Eftimov, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan Nikolay of Plovdiv, Regional Governor Georgi Yanev, Municipal Council Chairman Atanas Uzunov, members of parliament, commanders of military formations, representatives of local government and civic organizations, and members of the public.
Wreaths and flowers were laid at the Unification Monument by state institutions, patriotic organizations and members of the public. A military tattoo was held, featuring representative units from the Land Forces, the Air Force and the Joint Special Operations Command, and the Air Force Representative Brass Band. The ceremony was led by Brigadier General Bozhidar Boykov, commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. A fireworks display was held.
In a speech, President Iotova said: “There are few dates like this in Bulgarian history. From this day, Bulgaria returned to the geographical map of the world; from this day, the name Bulgaria returned — a name that the Bulgarian people have never lost or changed from the establishment of the state to the present day.”
Iotova said that years after the Unification, Simeon Radev, author of The Builders of Modern Bulgaria, described it as one of the happiest days — a day of revolution and of happiness for the Bulgarian people.
Plovdiv Mayor Kostadin Dimitrov said: “141 years ago, the people of Plovdiv changed history. What kind of history we write today is up to us.” Dimitrov recalled the difficult decisions of the 1878 Congress of Berlin, which left the Bulgarian land divided.
Plovdiv in those years was a city of educated and enterprising people, with a European outlook and a strong Bulgarian identity. Despite its achievements, however, the people of Plovdiv did not forget the great national goal – Unification, the mayor stressed. “An artificial division was rejected by the will of the Bulgarian people,” Dimitrov said.
Background
Eastern Rumelia was established on May 19, 1879, by the Treaty of Berlin as an Ottoman autonomous province (vilayet) on 35,208 sq km of Bulgarian lands south of the Balkan Range, with Plovdiv as its administrative centre. In a bloodless military coup, local irredentists, organized in a Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee, ousted the provincial government and reunited the territory with the Bulgarian Principality on September 6, 1885 in defiance of the Great Powers’ settlement of the Eastern Question.
The de facto annexation of Eastern Rumelia by Bulgaria was eventually recognized by the Ottoman Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy and Russia by the April 5, 1886 Convention of Tophane. The Governor-Generalship of Eastern Rumelia was entrusted to the Prince of Bulgaria to preserve the nominal Ottoman suzerainty required by the Berlin Treaty. The integration process was completed by the September 22, 1908 declaration of Bulgaria’s independence, repudiating the country’s vassalage status.