Bulgaria country profile

Bulgaria, situated in the eastern Balkans, has been undergoing a slow and painful transition to a market economy since the end of Communist rule.

A predominantly Slavonic-speaking, Orthodox Christian country, Bulgaria was the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet, which was created there towards the end of the 9th Century.

It was long influenced by Byzantine culture then was part of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years before gaining its independence in the 19th Century.

After World War Two it became a satellite of the Soviet Union, but is now a member of the EU and Nato.

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REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA: FACTS

• Capital: Sofia

• Area: 110,913 sq km

• Population: 6.3 million

• Language: Bulgarian

• Life expectancy: 77 years (men) 69 years (women)

LEADERS

President: Rumen Radev

Rumen Radev became Bulgaria's fifth democratically elected president when he was sworn in for a five-year term in January 2017.

A former air force commander, Mr Radev is a relative newcomer to politics who ran as an independent candidate with the backing of the opposition Socialists.

Mr Radev pledged to maintain Bulgaria's position as a member of the European Union and Nato, while also improving historically important ties with Russia.

Caretaker prime minister: Dimitar Glavchev

Dimitar Glavchev is currently serving as Bulgaria's caretaker prime minister.

Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party won the October 2024 parliamentary elections but without a clear majority and will have to seek a coalition partner to form a government.

GERB won 26% of the votes, the reformist We Continue the Change (PP) party came second with 14.7%, while the nationalist Revival party came third with 13.8%.

Bulgaria's seventh election in four years, was triggered by the failure to form a coalition government after an inconclusive election in June 2024.

Following the announcement of the results, GERB leader Boyko Borissov said his party would form a new government. "We will work together with everyone except Revival," he said.

Bulgaria has been run by short-lived governments since 2020, when anti-corruption protests helped to end a GERB-led coalition.

Observers says the prolonged political impasse makes Bulgaria - one of the EU's poorest countries - vulnerable to Russian influence and weakens Nato's eastern flank.

The democracy advocacy group, Freedom House, has reported a continuing deterioration of democratic governance, citing reduced media independence, stalled reforms and abuse of authority.

MEDIA

Global media giants have a stake in Bulgaria's lively broadcasting market. TV is the most popular medium.

International media group CME runs bTV, Bulgaria's most-watched channel. Scandinavian company MTG operates national station Nova TV.

There are several private regional TVs and many private radio stations. Cable and satellite are the main distribution platforms. Media ownership is concentrated among a handful of individuals.

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TIMELINE

Bulgaria's Rila Monastery. Founded in the 10th Century, it has played a key role in the country's cultural and national identity

Some key dates in Bulgaria's history:

500BC - Thracian tribes settle in what is now southeast Bulgaria. They are subsequently conquered by Alexander the Great and later the area becomes part of the Roman Empire.

4th Century AD - Goths migrate to northern Bulgaria. The Gothic bishop Ulfilas translates the Bible from Greek to Gothic, creating the Gothic alphabet in the process - the first book written in a Germanic language.

632 - Khan Kubrat unites the three largest Bulgar tribes, forming Old Great Bulgaria in what is now southern Ukraine and southern Russia. After his death and military defeat, many Bulgars move west into the Balkans.

681-1018 - First Bulgarian Empire. Bulgaria becomes an important regional power. Bulgarians besiege Constantinople in 923 and 924. In 1014, under Byzantium's Basil II "the Bulgar Slayer", the Bulgarians are decisively defeated at the Battle of Kleidion.

890s - Earliest form of the Cyrillic alphabet - later versions of which are now used in dozens of Slavonic languages - is created by Bulgarian scholars.

1018-1185 - Bulgaria comes under Byzantine rule.

1185-1396 - Second Bulgarian Empire. A dominant power in the Balkans, defeating the Byzantine Empire in several major battles, it reaches its peak under the 12th and 13th Century Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before being conquered by the Ottomans.

1396-1878 - Ottoman occupation: often referred to as the "Turkish yoke". Ottoman system declines in 17th Century and largely collapses by the end of the 18th Century. In first decades of the 19th Century there is widespread anarchy in the Balkans.

1876 - Nationwide uprising against Ottoman rule is violently suppressed, Turkish forces kill thousands. Massacres arouse broad public reaction among liberal Europeans such as William Gladstone, who launches a campaign against the "Bulgarian Horrors".

1876-77 - Constantinople Conference: following the 1875 Herzegovinian uprising and Bulgarian 1876 uprising, the Great Powers call for political reforms in Bosnia and Ottoman territories with a majority-Bulgarian population. Ottomans refuses to accept this.

1877-78 - Russo-Turkish War: Russian forces invade, with Bulgarians fighting alongside the advancing Russians - decisively defeating Ottoman forces at the Shipka Pass and Pleven.

1878 - Treaty of San Stefano: Russia and Turkey recognise an autonomous Bulgaria.

1878 - Treaty of Berlin: fearing a large Russian client state in the Balkans, the other Great Powers are reluctant to accept San Stefano and create a much smaller Bulgarian principality. Eastern Rumelia remains under Ottoman rule.

1886 - Eastern Rumelia is merged with Bulgaria.

1887 - Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha elected prince.

1908 - Bulgaria declares itself an independent kingdom. Ferdinand assumes title of tsar.

1912-13 - First and Second Balkan Wars: keen to revise the Treaty of Berlin, Bulgaria allies with Serbia, Greece, Montenegro to partition Turkish territory in Europe. After gains in the first war, Bulgaria is attacked by its former allies in the second and forced to concede some territory.

1914-18 - World War One: Bulgaria allies itself with Germany. Significant fighting in northern Greece and in Macedonia against Allied armies. Some 100,000 Bulgarian troops are killed, one of the most severe per capita losses of any country involved in the war.

1939-45 World War Two: Soviet army invades German-occupied Bulgaria in 1944. Soviet-backed Fatherland Front takes power.

1946 - Monarchy abolished in referendum and republic declared. Communist Party wins election. Georgi Dimitrov elected prime minister.

1954 - Todor Zhivkov becomes Communist Party general secretary. Bulgaria becomes staunch USSR ally.

1971 - Zhivkov becomes president.

1978 - BBC World Service journalist and Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov dies in London after apparently being injected with poison from an umbrella tip.

1984 - Bulgaria tries to force Turkish minority to assimilate and take Slavic names. Many resist and in 1989 some 300,000 flee the country.

1989 - Reforms in the Soviet Union inspire demands for democratisation. Zhivkov ousted. Multiparty system introduced.

1991 - Bulgaria becomes a parliamentary republic.

1993 - Mass privatisation programme.

2000 - Post-communist prosecutors close file on Georgi Markov case. In December Markov is awarded Bulgaria's highest honour, the Order of Stara Planina, for his contribution to Bulgarian literature and opposition to the communist authorities.

2004 - Bulgaria joins Nato.

2007 - Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union.

2008 - European Commission suspends EU aid after reports criticise Bulgaria for failing to act against corruption and organised crime.

2010 - Boris Tsankov, a prominent crime journalist who specialised in reporting on the mafia in Bulgaria, is shot dead in Sofia.

2012 - Suspected suicide bomber kills five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver on a bus in the Black Sea resort of Burgas.

2013 - Government says Burgas suicide attack most likely the work of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Hezbollah denies this.

Weeks of protests over official corruption culminate in a blockade of parliament and clashes with police.

2015 - Bulgaria says it will extend a controversial fence along its border with Turkey by 80km to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

2022 - EU interior ministers accept Croatia into the 26-nation, border-free Schengen zone, but reject Romania and Bulgaria amid concerns over illegal migration.

2024 - Bulgaria and Romania join the EU's Schengen zone for air and sea travel.

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world