Category Archives: Bulgaria

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Bango Vasil, and Politics

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Bulgaria, Bango Vasil, and Politics

The leader of the MRF and the PG of “DPS – New Beginning” Delyan Peevski congratulated Roma for the Bango Vasil (or Vasilica), the old New Year according to the orthodox calendar, which is celebrated by all Roma in Bulgaria. He said: “I congratulate all Roma on the biggest Roma holiday Bango Vasil or also called Vasilitsa”. And he added: “Be healthy, be worthy Bulgarian citizens and know that you are not second-class people and I will continue to fight for a decent life for all people in Bulgaria. Believe in the new beginning and be confident that the best is yet to come! Happy Bango Vasil!”

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bango Vasil in Bulgaria

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Bango Vasil in Bulgaria

Bulgarian Police and gendarmerie were stationed at the entrances of several settlements in the Sliven region. The Roma neighbourhood in Sliven was sealed by the police and a checkpoint set up  in the Sliven “Nadezhda” neighbourhood. It was for a special operation aimed at combating drug trafficking and domestic crime. Public order was also being monitored on the eve of the Bango Vasil holiday which the article deems to be the Roma New Yea which is in fact the old new year according to the orthodox calendar.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian Roma Songs

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Bulgarian Roma Songs

A published Bulgarian textbook contains 99 Roma songs, collected from the territory of present-day Bulgaria between 1950 and 1975. Songs about love, family songs, songs about heroes have been preserved. The man who preserved this for generations is Mustafa Aliyev, better known by his Bulgarian name Manush Romanov. Mustafa Aliyev dedicated his life to the development of the culture of his community. He belonged to the group of Sofia “Jerli”

He participated in the anti-fascist resistance. He was the editor-in-chief of the newspapers “Romano Esi” (Romanian) and “Nevo Drom” (New Road). He was the director of the “Roma” theatre, which was closed by the communists.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Stolipinovo

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Stolipinovo

The vlogger is the American Drew Goldberg, known by his online pseudonym Drew Binsky, with more that 5 mio followers visited the Stolipinovo Mahala in Plovdiv.

It is considered the largest in Bulgaria with over 40,000 Roma residents. To date, the problems in this district are many, the main ones being the problem with garbage, crime and drugs. Some people even describe the place as a “city within a city”.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Schools, and Roma

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Bulgaria, Schools, and Roma

Dimitrinka Georgieva, the principal of the “Lyuben Karavelov” school in the Varna Asparuhovo district in Bulgaria was awarded in the “Person of the Year” competition of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in the Inspiration category.

There are 400 children at the “Lyuben Karavelov” school at the moment. Of these, 121 are children from Ukraine from preparatory classes to grade 11. Of the remaining less than 280 children, about 90 percent are students of Roma and Turkish origin, and the rest are Bulgarians.

Sounds like a segregated school …

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Weird

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Bulgaria: Weird

Really weird Bulgarian news … A prisoner behind bars in Plovdiv posts a video on TikTok declaring his love for his girlfriend, rapping it in Romanes. Well, mobiles phones are officially not allowed in prisons in Bulgaria … Maybe only if you don’t pay the guards …

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, School, and Roma

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Bulgaria, School, and Roma

An outraged teacher sent an anonymous letter to Nova TV complaining that students are doing belly dances in the assembly hall of the “Vasil Levski” vocational high school in Ihtiman. The young people are drinking beer and dancing instead of being in class and studying. The teacher says he was shocked.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Protests

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Bulgaria: Protests

Residents of the Roam neighbourhood of Fakulteta in Sofia have been protesting against Kiril Kirov – known as Kiro the Japanese. The protestes claim that for years Kirov and his family have been harassing the residents of the neighbourhood, extorting them and forcing them to leave their homes, even to emigrate abroad. According to the protesters, the Japanese’s associates were distributing drugs in the neighbourhood, beating and even raping women.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Arrest

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Bulgaria: Arrest

The police searched the properties of Kiril Kirov, nicknamed the Japanese. The police presence in the capital’s “Faculty” Roma district was increased since early in the morning.

At this point, official information on the case is scarce. The Ministry of the Interior only confirms that there were searches. The reason for them, however, remains unclear. It’s not about drug crimes.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

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Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

An article which states that “Roma neighbourhoods in Petrich, and the neighbourhoods in Bulgaria in general, are a huge prerequisite for a threat to national security, since the state institutions have abdicated long ago from the problems of the neighbourhoods, relying mainly on mediators, and this creates a situation in which we do not know what and how exactly happens there.”

It adds that “Illegal buildings and electricity, accompanied by Roma raids and beatings with axes, knives, stones and wooden sticks, as well as lack of any kind of responsibility and integration, are only a small part of the words that can describe the illegal life of the Roma neighborhoods in Petrich.”

Bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

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Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

The Centre for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” organizes the fourth National Roma Women’s Meeting “Girls with dreams – let’s be more than three!”, which was held on November 14-15, 2024 in Dryanovo.

The meeting was attended by women and girls from all over the country who are actively working to change the situation of Romnja. These are mostly female students, educational mediators, active girls and Romnja working to improve living and learning conditions in the Roma community.

  • “Момичета с мечти – нека сме повече от три!” – ромските жени и пътят към успеха. In: BNR. 14.11.2024. https://bnr.bg/varna/post/102074690
Bulgaria News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Elena Marushiakova

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Elena Marushiakova

Prof. Elena Marushiaková-Popová received the Slovak Science and Technology Award 2024 in the category Personality of Science and Technology for international successful scientific research in the field of Roma studies, the history of Roma as an ethnic minority in Europe.

Shee is currently continuing his work at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The cooperation of Professor Elena Marushiaková-Popová with experts and institutions in Slovakia dealing mainly with Roma studies has been ongoing since the eighties. Its scientific contribution is considerable, it helps to get to know the Roma living in Slovakia and to understand them in a wider pan-European context.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Roma, and Health

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Bulgaria, Roma, and Health

The regional health inspectorate in Pernik organizes free preventive examinations for children of Roma origin with a mobile office – the institution reports. The purpose of these examinations is to improve the health status and access to medical care of people from vulnerable groups, as well as those living in areas far from medical facilities.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Brawl

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Bulgaria: Brawl

A fight between two Roma families in the village Mikrevo, Strumyani municipality, required the intervention of the police of Sandanski. Apparently, neighbours drank all day in the yard of one of the houses yesterday and after a decent amount of alcohol got into a fight.

This is bad, as such brawls regularly make it in the press in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria’s Vote

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Bulgaria’s Vote

Delyan Peevski’s “DPS-New Beginning” gathered the most votes in the large Roma neighborhoods in Sofia – “Filipovtsi” and “Hristo Botev”. In Plovdiv and Varna, the populist GERB party apprently won in the Roma neighbourhoods in Plovdiv and Varna.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Vote Buying and Threats

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Bulgaria: Vote Buying and Threats

An article whereby a Romano “baron” threatened the journalist Maria Tsantsarova from B TV after she had been investigating vote buying.

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