site.btaBulgaria Celebrates Anniversary of Unification

ESD 06:30:01 06-09-2019
LN1837ES.104 06:30
104 POLITICS - BULGARIA - UNIFICATION - ANNIVERSARY

Bulgaria Celebrates Anniversary of
Unification of Bulgarian Principality
and Eastern Rumelia


Sofia, September 6 (BTA) - On September 6, Bulgaria celebrates the 134th anniversary of the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia in 1885. It is a public holiday, with observances held countrywide.

The 1879 Treaty of Berlin, which finalized the settlement after the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, established Eastern Rumelia as an Ottoman autonomous province (vilayet) on 35,208 sq km south of the Balkan Range, with Plovdiv as its administrative capital. The same Treaty constituted Bulgaria as an autonomous and tributary principality under the suzerainty of the sultan.

In a nearly bloodless military coup, local irredentists in Panagyurishte, Chirpan, Pazardjik, Golyamo Konare and other Eastern Rumelian settlements ousted the provincial government and reunited Eastern Rumelia with the Principality of Bulgaria on September 6, 1885 (New Style September 18) in defiance of the Great Powers' settlement of the Eastern Question. The Union was eventually recognized by Turkey, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy and Russia by the March 24/April 5, 1886 Convention of Top-Khane. Under the Convention, the Prince of Bulgaria was appointed Governor General of Eastern Rumelia, thus keeping de jure the status of Eastern Rumelia as an Ottoman province despite its de facto administrative merger with the Principality. The Unification was legally finalized as late as in 1908, when Bulgaria declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Even without the drama of bloodshed, the Unification opened up a new chapter in the development of the Bulgarian nation by bringing divided territories back together into a single state. It remains a symbol of an independent national cause which succeeded despite unfavourable circumstances in a world dominated by foreign influences and the diktat of external powers. RY, LN, LG





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