Four Steps of Getting to Know Bulgaria ? SOFIMUN News Network 2011

in Neda's Guide to Bulgaria by Neda Eneva, Co-Editor in Chief ? July 8, 2011 at 3:36 pm | 0 comments

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Number 1: A Zoom on the Map

Yes, it all starts and ends with geography? And, yes, you are all here so I am sure you have an idea on your place on the map, but here is your very own virtual Google Earth zoom of your SOFIMUN stay?

Europe. The thing that stretches out of Asia. With the old kings and queens and the blue flag with the stars? Zoom in?Bulgaria. Situated on the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. It borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the River Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east?.And in a very Balkan manner, of course,? we love our neighbors very much, with the Black Sea perhaps a bit too much?

Sofia. The capital ?and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with almost 2 million people living in the Capital Municipality. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha, and is the administrative, cultural, economic, and educational centre of the country.

Zoom. National Palace of Culture on Bulgaria square, center district of Sofia. This is where you will all work in your committees or media agencies.

Left click. Hotel Hemus.? Five, ten minutes away walking from the conference center. You will sleep here. Well at least in theory, in between the partying that is.

Zoom out. Dinners, museums, partying in various locations. Fun guaranteed. Exit.

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Number 2: The Republic of Bulgaria, a Summary

The Republic of Bulgaria is a parliamentary democracy. Constitution adopted in 1991. Legal system: civil and criminal law based on Roman law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations. Population: a bit more than 7 million.

The Executive structure is as follows: chief of state: President Georgi PARVANOV; head of government: Prime Minister Boyko BORISSOV; Cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and elected by the National Assembly

The Legislative: unicameral National Assembly or Narodno Sabranie (240 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)

Judicial Branch: independent judiciary comprised of judges, prosecutors and investigating magistrates who are appointed, promoted, demoted, and dismissed by a 25-member Supreme Judicial Council; 182 courts of which two Supreme Courts act as the last instance on civil and criminal cases (the Supreme Court of Cassation) and appeals of government decisions (the Supreme Administrative Court)

Legal system: civil and criminal law based on Roman law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations.

Sources: CIA World Factbook, Wikipedia, Official Website of Bulgarian Presidency, Official Website of Council of Ministers

Number 3: Bulgaria, A Short History

Bulgaria is one of the oldest states in Europe, with more than 1400 years of history.

The prehistoric civilization of Bulgaria includes the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinca culture, and the Bronze Age Ezero culture. The Thracians are the earliest well-known identifiable people to live in what is now the present Bulgaria. A number of eastern South Slavs, one of the main groups of Slavs that spread throughout Eastern Europe, Central Europe and the Balkans, became ancestors of the modern Bulgarians. In the late 7th Century a Central Asian Turkic tribe under the ethnic group called the Bulgars got together with the local Slavic population and formed the first Bulgarian state. It is from this time that Bulgaria was named and first realised. In 681, the First Bulgaria Empire was established as the result of a peace treaty with Byzantium.

For centuries beyond this there were a major struggles with the Byzantine Empire who tried to assert their presence in Bulgaria. This was eventually overrun during the 14th Century with the coming of the Ottoman Empire which occupied Bulgaria for 500 years. The Ottoman Empire began to weaken in the 17th century and finally collapsed by the end of 17th century. The Treaty of Berlin afforded Bulgaria key sovereignty encompassing Moesia and the region of Sofia. The North area of Bulgaria attained self control in 1878. Eventually all of Bulgaria became an independent state and free from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. The five centuries of rule they were had left a legacy of influence in the country.

Bulgaria took part of the Balkan Wars at the start of the 18th century. It also allied with the Central Powers throughout World War I. During World War II, the country joined with Germany resulting to an attack from USSR in September 1944. After the war ended, the country became a People?s Republic and one of USSR?s staunchest cronies; the republic ended in 1989.
Bulgaria was the last of the Communist Soviet dominated countries and this finally ended in 1990 when Bulgaria held its first multi-party election since the 1940s. After this, the country began moving toward political democracy and into a western style market economy whilst at the same time trying to combat inflation, corruption, unemployment, and crime.

With the country now becoming reformed and steadily moving ahead trying to shake off a post communist hangover Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004. This now brought in more confidence and stability to the world looking in Bulgaria?s window.

As from 1st January 2007 Bulgaria became full member of the EU and a new chapter is beginning in Bulgaria?s history.

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Number 4: Bulgaria and Its Religions

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Eastern Orthodox Christianity

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the law prohibits the public practice of religion by unregistered groups. The Constitution also designates Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the ?traditional? religion of Bulgaria.

Christianity was established in the First Bulgarian Empire under Boris I in the middle of the 9th century, although it has had its roots in the Balkans since the 1st century and the mission of Apostle Paul. The rise of the Bulgarian Empire made the Bulgarian Orthodox Church autocephalous in 919, becoming the first new Patriarchate to join the initial Pentarchy. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the oldest among the Slavic Orthodox churches and has considerably influenced the rest of the Slavic Orthodox world by means of its rich literary and cultural activity in the Middle Ages, as well as by the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria.

Islam

Islam is the largest minority religion in Bulgaria. It is professed by the Turkish minority, the Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks) and most of the Roma. Islam arrived with the Ottoman Turkish conquest of the Balkans in the 14th-15th century. Turkish notables settled in the larger cities (Plovdiv, Sofia, Varna, etc.), while peasants from Anatolia arrived in the Ludogorie and the Rhodopes. Many Orthodox Christians and Paulicians converted to Islam, often voluntarily due to the peculiarities of the Ottomanmillet system, but sometimes forcefully. After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 many of the Muslims left Bulgaria, but others chose to remain.

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Catholicism

Roman Catholicism ?in Bulgaria has its roots?in the Middle Ages. It was spread among the Bulgarians by Bulgarianized Saxon ore miners in northwestern Bulgaria (around Chiprovtsi) and by missionaries among the Paulician and Bogomil sectarians, as well as by Ragusan merchants in the larger cities.

Today the bulk of the Roman Catholic population ?lives in Plovdiv Province, centred around Rakovski, as well as in some villages in northern Bulgaria; among the Roman Catholics are also many foreigners. The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church, a Byzantine Rite church united with Rome, was formed in the 19th century as part of the Bulgarian church struggle in order to counter the influence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and has some 10,000 members today.

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Judaism

Despite its low number today (1,363), Bulgaria?s Jewish population has exerted considerable cultural influence on the country in the past and is still of importance today. The Jews in Bulgaria are concentrated in the larger cities, mostly in the capital Sofia.

Despite this plurality of religions, unlike the Western Balkans, Bulgaria has not experienced any significant-scale confrotation between Christianity and Islam (as was the case in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia in the 1990s and 2000s). The religious communities in the country coexist peacefully. The freedom of religion and the religious equality are included in the Constitution of Bulgaria as inalienable rights of every citizen.

Sources: CIA World Factbook, Wikipedia, Official Website of Bulgarian National History Museum

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More posts by Neda Eneva, Co-Editor in Chief ?

Author: NedaEneva, Co-Editor in Chief

Co-Editor in Chief SNN 2010, SNN 2011

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Source: http://snn.sofimun.org/2011/?p=77

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