site.btaSofia Supports Five Community Projects in Banat Bulgarian Village of Ivanovo, Northern Serbia

The Bulgarian state has supported five projects in the village of Ivanovo in Northern Serbia, home to Banat Bulgarians, it emerged on Friday during farewell meetings of Bulgarian Ambassador to Serbia Petko Doykov with the local community before his departure from the country.

The Banat Bulgarians, who call themselves Pavlikyans, are descendants of settlers who moved in the 17th century to the historical and geographical region of Banat, now divided among three modern states: Serbia, Romania and Hungary. The main wave of migration followed the suppression of the 1688 Chiprovtsi Uprising against Ottoman rule in the Bulgarian lands. The Banat Bulgarians in Serbia are Roman Catholic, speak their own dialect, use the Latin alphabet and live in the autonomous province of Vojvodina in the north of the country.

During his visit to Ivanovo, Ambassador Doykov met with Sanja Simic Mijatovic, head of the local primary school, and Marko Guran, director of the Zarko Zrenjanin Cultural Centre, both long-term partners of the Bulgarian state.

Over the past five years, the primary school in Ivanovo has been supported through Bulgaria’s official development assistance programme via a project for the reconstruction and expansion of the preschool and nursery facilities, worth BGN 49,661. The project is now in an advanced stage of implementation. At the Cultural Centre, Bulgaria has provided assistance for the installation of an air-conditioning system in the main hall, worth BGN 47,509.

During the talks, participants reviewed the results achieved so far, discussed opportunities for future joint initiatives, and reaffirmed their commitment to continuing their fruitful cooperation.

Also attending the meeting was Ognyan Tsvetkov, a Bulgarian language teacher in Ivanovo and the neighbouring village of Omoljica, who also chairs the Ivanovo-Banat Association. He is currently teaching their mother tongue to 26 children from both villages.

Earlier in the day, the Bulgarian diplomat met with representatives of the Bulgarian minority in the town of Pancevo, also in the north of Serbia.