Category Archives: Bulgaria

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Stolipinovo: Cleanup

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Stolipinovo: Cleanup

Georgi Kochev and Sasho Chirkov – two young representatives of the Roma community – organized a campaign to clean up the Plovdiv Roma neighbourhood of Stolipinovo on July 5, The initiative was open to anyone who wanted to get involved in creating a cleaner and more welcoming urban environment.

Bulgaria Greece News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

Greece and Bulgaria: Traffic

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Greece and Bulgaria: Traffic

A lengthy article about a traffic of cheap Chinese ware landing in Greece and being sold in Bulgaria. It seems that most of the drivers who pass this across the border are Roma.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Outrage

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Bulgaria: Outrage

The recent attack by a Roma youngster resulted in outrage. This editorial basically says that Roma are being treaded to kindly. The journalists Anton Stefanov says “There is no age to be a freak – how long will being a minor protect you?!”

“It is precisely because of the powerlessness of the state that there should be no mercy after this case! Because tomorrow there will be fists for other children too”

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Another one of those

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Another one of those

Another case of a Romano child who beat up a non-Roma Bulgarian, this time unconscious. According to the newspaper, “Everyone in Vidin knows him – a 13-year-old child, already “known” to the police, with a diagnosis of “mental retardation” and dozens of incidents behind him. He went through a Crisis Center, bullied his peers, threatened teachers, was a bully on TikTok. And yet he was left to move freely. While beating another child unconscious on the street.”

Summary: Roma are retarded violent people, and they are left free by justice. This is really bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Religion and School

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Religion and School

Bulgaria introduced a mandatory religion subject with two options “Orthodoxy” and “Islam”. According to the Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” (a Roma organisation), this may cause tension in ethnically mixed areas and deepen educational segregation. Additional tension may also arise in communities that follow forms of Christianity other than Orthodoxy and Islam other than Orthodoxy, for example, various Protestant denominations, Catholicism.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Beating

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Bulgaria: Beating

Two articles in the Bulgarian press about the attack by a 13-year-old Roma boy of another non-Roma Bulgarian. Apparently the young Roma boy was not unknown to the educational system, having been already flagged as violent.

What is bad is that both articles flag this are Roma vs. Bulgarians (Roma there are in the region before the Bulgarians arrived), and pander to stereotypes. This is bad and dangerous.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Politics, Religion, and Elections

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Bulgaria, Politics, Religion, and Elections

In this article, a “Gypsy” pastor agitates his people from the Druzhba district to vote in the by-elections for Yasen Rusev the PP-DB mayoral candidate. Marin Tikhomirov became famous after a pre-election event in the “Filipovtsi” district, to which he personally invited several politicians.

  • Цигански пастор агитира “неговите хора” от кв. “Дружба” да гласуват на частичните избори за кандидата за кмет на ПП-ДБ. In: Tribune. 23.06.2025. https://tribune.bg/bg/obshtini/tsiganski-pastor-agitira-negov/
Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Zaharna Fabrika

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Zaharna Fabrika

Two months after the demolition of the illegal buildings in the capital’s “Zaharna Fabrika” district, a flash mob was held in support of the evicted Roma families. The organizers of the peaceful protest demand that the Bulgarian authorities provide all those affected with suitable alternative housing, medical care and social support.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Zaharna Fabrika, and Art

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Bulgaria, Zaharna Fabrika, and Art

The interdisciplinary cultural project “Dom” presents the reality of marginalized children in Bulgaria through the means of painting and video. The project is of a documentary nature, and the goal is to draw attention to the impact of the social environment on children and the place they occupy in it.

Initially, the fields of research were the Roma Mahalas in Svoge and Stolipinovo in Plovdiv, but after the events surrounding the destroyed houses in the “Zaharna Fabrika” district in Sofia, where Roma houses were recently destroyed, they decided to include them in their project.

Bulgaria Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Hristo Kjučukov

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Hristo Kjučukov

Last week, a number of prominent Roma personalities came to Prague thanks to the Khamoro festival. Among the guests was linguistics professor Hristo Kjučukov, who comes from Bulgaria. He has struggled with discrimination since childhood, not only as a Rom, but also as a Muslim. And this is what he tried to overcome with education and success.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria and Roma

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Bulgaria and Roma

Bulgaria’s Roma community continues to face widespread discrimination and is seeking to leave the country en masse. However, Roma could fill the dramatic labour gap created by the exodus, provided they have access to quality education. An interview with the founder of the Amalipe Center in Veliko Tarnovo.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Romani Children Festival

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Romani Children Festival

The Bulgarian children’s Roma Festival “Open Heart” gathers over 1,500 children from all over Bulgaria. The program includes exhibitions, music, theatre, crafts, and traditions. The main emphasis this year is the desire to give a voice not only to children, but also to Romnja, cultural figures and community leaders.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Child Poverty

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Bulgaria: Child Poverty

Almost every third child in Bulgaria lives in material deprivation, according to data from the National Statistical Institute for last year. The most affected by the phenomenon are Roma children – over 2/3 of them, while for Bulgarians the indicator is below 1/5, and for children of Turkish origin – nearly 1/3.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Sofia: Brawl

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Sofia: Brawl

Another news we do not really need. Romnja fought each other in the centre of Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. The action took place near St. Peter’s Park, around Konstantin Velichkov Blvd. in Sofia.

According to a wtiness, Romnja literally grabbed each other by the hair in a mass melee. However, he was unable to count how many women participated in the fight. “They were like wild animals. Imagine animals in a zoo fighting for prey. The sight was just like that. They just made my eyes water,” he says on Facebook.

According to him, police arrived at the scene in a flash, and some of the brawlers quickly spat on their heels. The police are currently searching for the attackers.

Bulgaria France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

France, Roma, and Bulgaria

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France, Roma, and Bulgaria

The French Institute of Bulgaria is opening its doors to Roma culture from June 2 to 5, 2025. Through screenings and evenings of discussions, this series will highlight their history, creativity, and the diversity of their artistic expressions across Europe.

Unfortunately, being French, they bring a baggage of stereotypes starting with the names of “Roms, Tsiganes, Manouches, Bohémiens, Romanichels, Sintis, Gitans…” And then go on with saying that Roma reside in Europe since the XVth century.  This in Bulgaria, one of the cradles of Roma culture as part of the Byzantine Empire where Roma have been for more than a thousand year.

One can only wish that journalists manage to learn something at some point …

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Vote Buying

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Bulgaria: Vote Buying

The Burgas District Court has overturned a verdict issued by the Pomorie District Court, by which the mayor of the Pomorie village of Bata, Georgi Georgiev, was found not guilty. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to ten months in prison, postponing the execution of the imposed sentence for a probationary period of three years.

Georgiev was found guilty of giving sums of money in the amount of 50 leva to S.R., I.Ch., Z.B. and M.S. in Bata in early April 2021, in order to persuade them to exercise their right to vote in the parliamentary elections in favour of a certain political coalition.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian Roma Food

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Bulgarian Roma Food

Spring Roma dishes arepresented at the Ethnographic Museum in Burgas, Bulgaria for an unconventional offer – the Week of Roma Spring Feasts.

Cooking will be done in front of the general public by residents of the village of Rusokastro. They are old friends of the Burgas Museum, and during the summer months they work on the excavations of the medieval town of Rusokastro. Here, they will work as master chefs, and will reveal to us the secrets of Roma cuisine and more precisely – of spring Roma dishes.

On Wednesday (May 21), the recipe Ribnik without fish will be presented, which is prepared with the first spring green beans. On Thursday (May 22) we will enjoy lean sarmi from duckweed with an appetizing sauce, and on Friday (May 23) we will be able to try the unique lapadnik – bread with duckweed, green onions and gyozu.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Bulldozed

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Bulgaria: Bulldozed

The Roma neighbourhood of Zaharna Fabrika is currently being destroyed. The houses were deemed illegal. This occurred in spite of a ruling by the European Court of Human Right from April 11th asking for a delay until the ongoing law case is solved.

Shame.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian Politics, Roma, and Mahalas

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Bulgarian Politics, Roma, and Mahalas

Kiril Petkov, a former Bulgarian prime minister and candidate in the upcoming elections is defending the rights of a Mahala (a Roma neighbourhood) in Sofia. He is not alone in defending the “Zaharna Fabrika” which has who has called for manifestations in front of the parliament.

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