1.
Kosovo Vilayet
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Uskub functioned as the capital of the province and the mid way point between Istanbul and its European provinces. Uskubs population of 32,000 made it the largest city in the province, followed by Prizren, the province was renowned for its craftsmen and important cities such as İpek, where distinct Ottoman architecture and public baths were erected, some of which can still be seen today. The birthplace of the Albanian national identity was first articulated in Prizren, before the First Balkan War in 1912, the provinces shape and location denied Serbia and Montenegro a common land border. After the war, the part of the vilayet was divided between Montenegro and Serbia. These borders were all ratified at the Treaty of London in 1913, the Ottoman Empire finally recognised the new borders following a peace deal with the Kingdom of Serbia on 14 March 1914. Between 1881 and 1912, it was expanded to include other regions of present-day Republic of Macedonia, including larger urban settlements such as Štip. These regions had belonged to the former Eyalet of Nis, the Eyalet of Skopje and, after 1865, in 1868 the Vilayet of Prizren was created with the sanjaks of Prizren, Dibra, Skopje and Nis, but it ceased to exist in 1877. In 1878, the League of Prizren was created by Albanians from four vilayets including the Vilayet of Kosovo, the Leagues purpose was to resist Ottoman rule and incursions by the newly emerging Balkan nations. With the Serbian Armys liberation of Niš and Vranje, the rebellion had been activated during the event with guerrilla fighting. The rebels received aid from the Serbian government, though the uprising only lasted four months. Two major administrative changes happened in 1880 and 1902, in 1902, kazas of Mitrovica and Novi Pazar were transferred to Sanjak of Pristina, and kazas of Berane and Rožaje to Sanjak of Ipek. In the same time, Sanjak of Sjenica was created with kazas, Sjenica, Nova Varoš, Bijelo Polje, in 1901, massacres of Serbs were carried out by Albanians in North Kosovo and Pristina. In 1910, an Albanian-organised insurrection broke out in Pristina and soon spread to the vilayet of Kosovo. The Ottoman sultan visited Kosovo in June 1911 during peace settlement talks covering all Albanian-inhabited areas, there have been a number of estimates about the ethnicity and religious affiliation of the population of the heterogeneous province. The Muslims were primarily Albanians and the Christians were mostly Serbs, british journalist H. Brailsford estimated in 1906 that two-thirds of the population of Kosovo was Albanian and one-third Serbian. The most populous districts of Đakovica and Peć were said to have between 20,000 and 25,000 Albanian households, as against some 5,000 Serbian ones. A map of Alfred Stead, published in 1909, shows that similar numbers of Serbs, sûreti defter-i esami vilayeti Dibra, f. 124-176, Başbakanlık Arşivi, maliyeden müdever, nr.508, regjistri turk i vitit 1485* - Prof. As
2.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
3.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
4.
Bulgarian language
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Bulgarian /bʌlˈɡɛəriən/, /bʊlˈ-/ is an Indo-European language, a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Bulgarian became one of the official languages of the European Union. Development of the Bulgarian language may be divided into several periods, prehistoric period – occurred between the Slavonic migration to eastern Balkans and the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia in the 860s. Old Bulgarian – a literary norm of the southern dialect of the Common Slavic language from which Bulgarian evolved. It was used by Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples to translate the Bible, Middle Bulgarian – a literary norm that evolved from the earlier Old Bulgarian, after major innovations were accepted. It was a language of literary activity and the official administration language of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Modern Bulgarian – dates from the 16th century onwards, undergoing general grammar, present-day written Bulgarian language was standardized on the basis of the 19th-century Bulgarian vernacular. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing, as Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language was initially referred to as языкъ словяньскъ, the Slavic language. In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was replaced by the name языкъ блъгарьскъ. In some cases, the name языкъ блъгарьскъ was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system, today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in the latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот, непонятен, ядро and others. As usual in cases, many other loans from French, English. Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of the language, between 1835–1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and linguistic chaos ensued. Eventually the eastern dialects prevailed, and in 1899 the Ministry of Education officially codified a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography, the language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Common Slavic yat vowel. This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgarias, E. g. млеко – milk, хлеб – bread. This rule obtains in most Eastern dialects, although some have ya, or an open e sound. The literary language norm, which is based on the Eastern dialects
5.
Macedonians (Bulgarians)
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Today, the larger part of this population is concentrated in Blagoevgrad Province but much is spread across the whole of Bulgaria and the diaspora. The Slavic-speaking majority in the Region of Macedonia had been referred to as Bulgarians, however one basic distinction between the political agendas of local intelligentsias was clear. The Balkan Wars and World War I left Ottoman Macedonia divided between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania and resulted in significant changes in its ethnic composition. As a consequence a sizable part of the Slavic population of Greek, the Bulgarian population in Vardar Banovina was regarded as Southern Serbs and a policy of Serbianization was implemented. Within Greece, the Southern Macedonians were designated Slavophone Greeks, pro-Bulgarian feelings among the local Slavic population prevailed, including Greece and Serbia. After the Second World War and Bulgarian withdrawal, on the base of the strong Macedonian regional identity a process of ethnogenesis started, as a whole an appreciable Macedonian national consciousness prior to the 1940s did not exist. The nation-building process was motivated and later reinforced by strong Bulgarophobia. The new authorities began a policy of removing of any Bulgarian influence, with the proclamation of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia, there were started measures that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feeling among the population. It has been claimed that from 1944 till the end of the 1940s people espousing a Bulgarian ethnic identity had been oppressed, according to Bulgarian sources more than 100,000 men were imprisoned and some 1,200 prominent Bulgarians were sentenced to death. Practically as a consequence the rest of people, with exception of Bulgaria proper, were eventually macedonized, hellenized or albanized. Nevertheless, people with Bulgarian consciousness or Bulgarophile sentiments still live in the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, during the last years the EU membership of Bulgaria has seen around 60,000 Macedonians applying for Bulgarian citizenship. In order to obtain it they must sign a statement declaring they are Bulgarians by origin, about 50,000 Macedonian nationals have already received Bulgarian citizenship. Macedonian Bulgarians have been influential in every field in Bulgarian society, including culture, science, literature, architecture, industry, sports, entertainment, government, some, such as Central Sofia Market Hall architect Naum Torbov, left behind visible landmarks. Others, including Baba Vanga and Mikhael Aivanhov, set intellectual landmarks, Bulgarians in the Republic of Macedonia Bulgarians in Albania Slavic-speakers of Greek Macedonia Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Macedonia Macedonian nationalism
6.
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
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The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was a revolutionary national liberation movement in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1893 in Salonica, its aim was to gain autonomy for Macedonia, According to some authors later it became an agent serving Bulgarian interests in Balkan politics in struggles against the Ottoman Empire. Starting in 1896 it fought the Ottomans using guerrilla tactics, and in this they were successful, even establishing a state within state in some regions and this effort escalated in 1903 into the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising. The fighting involved about 15,000 IMRO irregulars and 40,000 Ottoman soldiers, after the uprising failed, and the Ottomans destroyed some 100 villages, the IMRO resorted to more systematic forms of terrorism targeting civilians. In this period autonomism as a tactic was abandoned and annexationist positions were supported. After the First World War the combined Macedonian-Thracian revolutionary movement separated into two detached organizations, IMRO and ITRO, after this moment the IMRO earned a reputation as an ultimate terror network, seeking to change state frontiers in the Macedonian regions of Greece and Serbia. They contested the partitioning of Macedonia and launched raids from their Petrich stronghold into Greek, in 1925 the Greek army launched a cross-border operation to reduce the IMRO base area, but it was ultimately stopped by the League of Nations, and IMRO attacks resumed. In the interwar period the IMRO also cooperated with the Croatian Ustaše, after the Bulgarian coup détat of 1934, their Petrich stronghold was subjected to military crackdown by the Bulgarian army, and the IMRO was reduced to a marginal phenomenon. The organization changed its name on several occasions, after the fall of communism in the region, numerous parties claimed the IMRO name and lineage to legitimize themselves. Among them, in Bulgaria a right-wing party carrying the prefix VMRO was established in the 1990s, in practice, IMRO was established by Bulgarians and most of their followers were Bulgarians. The organization was a revolutionary society operating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the goal of autonomous Macedonia. Initially, they were against the aspirations of neighboring states in the area and saw the future autonomous Macedonia and it appears likely that at the early stages of the struggle, a desired outcome of the autonomy was unification with Bulgaria. This aim was changed later with the idea of transforming the Balkans into a state, in which Macedonia. The idea of autonomy was strictly political and did not imply a secession from Bulgarian ethnicity, even those, who advocated for independent Macedonia and Thrace, never doubted the predominantly Bulgarian character of the Slavic population in both areas. The organization was founded by Hristo Tatarchev, Dame Gruev, Petar Pop-Arsov, Andon Dimitrov, Hristo Batandzhiev, most of them were closely connected with the Bulgarian Mens High School of Thessaloniki. According to Hristo Tatarchevs Memoirs IMRO was first called simply the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, Ivan Hadzhinikolov in his memoirs lists the five basic principles of the MROs foundation, According to Dr. e. Most of it, where the Bulgarian element predominated in the mixed population, the organized revolutionary movement in Thrace dates from 1895, when Dame Gruev recruited Hristo Kotsev, born in Shtip, who was then a teacher in the Bulgarian Mens High School of Adrianople. Acting in the name of the Central Committee, Kotsev set up a committee in Adrianople
7.
Skopje
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Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia. It is the political, cultural, economic, and academic center. It was known in the Roman period under the name Scupi, the territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC, remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans, when the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992. From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire, in 1392, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks who called the town Üsküp. The town stayed under Turkish control for over 500 years, serving as the capital of pashasanjak of Üsküb, at that time the city was famous for its oriental architecture. In 1912, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars and after the First World War the city part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats. In the Second World War the city was conquered by the Bulgarian Army, in 1944, it became the capital city of Democratic Macedonia, which was a federal state, part of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. The city developed rapidly after World War II, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake, in 1991, it became the capital city of an independent Macedonia. Skopje is located on the course of the Vardar River. It is a center for metal-processing, chemical, timber, textile, leather, industrial development of the city has been accompanied by development of the trade, logistics, and banking sectors, as well as an emphasis on the fields of transportation, culture and sport. Skopje is located in the north of the Republic of Macedonia, in the center of the Balkan peninsula, the city is built in the Skopje valley, oriented on a west-east axis, along the course of the Vardar river, which flows into the Aegean Sea in Greece. The valley is approximately 20 kilometres wide and it is limited by several mountain ranges to the North and South and these ranges limit the urban expansion of Skopje, which spreads along the Vardar and the Serava, a small river which comes from the North. In its administrative boundaries, the City of Skopje stretches for more than 33 kilometres, Skopje is approximately 245m above sea level and covers 571.46 km2. The urbanised area only covers 337 km2, with a density of 65 inhabitants per hectare, Skopje, in its administrative limits, encompasses many villages and other settlements, including Dračevo, Gorno Nerezi and Bardovci. According to the 2002 census, the City of Skopje comprised 506,926 inhabitants, the City of Skopje reaches the Kosovo border to the North-East. Clockwise, it is bordered by the Macedonian municipalities of Čučer-Sandevo, Lipkovo, Aračinovo, Ilinden, Studeničani, Sopište, Želino
8.
Kratovo, Macedonia
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Kratovo is a small picturesque town in Macedonia, one of the regions living museums. It is the seat of Kratovo Municipality and it lies on the western slopes of Mount Osogovo at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level. Having a mild and pleasant climate, it is located in the crater of an extinct volcano and it is famous for its bridges and towers. Tetradrachmas of Philip II of Macedon found in Kratovo might suggest that there was a settlement here in antiquity, in the Roman period there was a settlement called Tranatura located within the modern city municipality. There was a nearby and the town was the seat of local authorities. No remains of the settlement has been found, however, remnants of Roman fortification were found on Zdravče kamen hill above the town, the golden age of Kratovo started after 1282 when it became part of the Kingdom of Serbia. In all probability the wealth of the came from its mines. Saxon miners and Ragusan merchants who already had worked in other parts of Serbia settled here, the town was first mentioned under its current name in 1330. Gold, silver, lead, iron and copper were mined in the immediate vicinity, during the reign of Emperor Stefan Dušan the mines of Kratovo were the prime source of wealth of despot Jovan Oliver. After his death, during the fall of the Serbian Empire under Stefan Uroš V, konstantin Dejanović minted his silver coins here. The Ragusan merchant colony grew larger and took over the best part of trading with ores, in 1389, during his attack on Prince Lazar, Ottoman sultan Murad I stopped in Kratovo to gather information and hold a war council. Next year, in 1390, his son, Bayezid, captured it from the Dejanović and put his official to reside here. Kratovo was the seat of a nahiya, as a part of the sanjak of Velbužd, as well as a kaza, seat of a kadi/judge, engulfing not only the towns vicinity but also Štip, Kočani and Nagoričani. In 1484 Jovan Konić and Stepan, son of Branko, both from Kratovo, paid an amazing 16,424,000 akçe for a rent of mints in Novo Brdo, Skopje. As a trade center Kratovo was also settled by Sephardic Jews, Kratovo was an important stop for Ottoman sultans, in 1455, before an attack on Novo Brdo, the Ottoman army regrouped here. In the 16th century Kratovo ranked among the most important mining towns in the European part of the Ottoman Empire. However, from 1520 to 1540 minting and mining were in crisis and many of the tenants, all of them local Christians. Also, between 1519 and 1530 the number of Christian households dwindled from 982 to 606, after the reform and codification of the craft, the mining and minting recovered around mid-century
9.
Vinica, Macedonia
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Vinica is a town in Macedonia, in the Eastern Statistical Region of the country. The town of Vinica is the seat of Vinica Municipality, the name Vinica is derived from word vine, since the city was formerly noted for its vineyards. On terracotta icons found in Viničko Kale, the name of town is noted as Vinea or Vince, the town is located under the mountain of Plačkovica, in the southeastern part of the Kočani Valley. It covers the part of the river Bregalnica sinks. There are also several rivers that flow through Vinica, like the Vinička, Gradečka. The town is known for its historic Roman fortress, Viničko Kale, the territory of Vinica was inhabited in neolithic times. More recent evidence of habitation comes from findings on Viničko Kale from the 6th to the 12th century AD, the original settlement was a fort from the time of Byzantium, when it was a centre of wine production. The city was nahiye and governed by Ottoman Empire with Kaymakam between the 14th and 20th centuries, before 1980, on the hill where the fortress was found, there were many vineyards, which were abandoned after excavations. The town has two music groups, Raspeani Viničani and Jana, and one folklore group Kitka. There are several sites in and around Vinica, Vinica. Vinica Fortress, fortified settlement from late ancient times, gorica, settlement and early Christian basilica from late ancient times. Ila, necropolis from the Iron Age, one of the major activities in Vinica is agriculture. Farmers engaged in the production of rice, which is characteristic of the basin in which Vinica is located. The town also has industrial activities, among which is the best represented the textiles, the major companies are, Makprogres, Viničanka, Vinka, Triko, Treska, Mebel-Vi. The city has many shops, bars, restaurants, two clubs, and three major hotels, which are offering a broader range of services. The leading sport in Vinica is soccer, the town formed its first football club in 1934 called Plačkovica, later renamed Sloga Vinica, now FK Sloga 1934 Vinica. There is also a basketball club Slavčo Stojmenski, a karate club Blatec, as of 2002, the municipality had 10,863 inhabitants and the ethnic composition was the following, Macedonians 9.706 Roma 809 Turks 216 Aromanians 101 Others 31 Official municipal site Vinica on net
10.
Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki
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The Sts. Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Mens High School of Thessaloniki was the first Bulgarian high school in Macedonia. One of the most influential Bulgarian educational centres in Macedonia, it was founded in autumn 1880 in Ottoman Thessaloniki, the first Bulgarian language school in Thessaloniki was founded in 1871 next to the church of Agios Athanasios. As a result, part of the Bulgarian intelligentsia emigrated to the Principality of Bulgaria and they did, however, manage to continue their work, supported by local municipalities, the Bulgarian Exarchate, and the newly created Bulgarian state. The situation in Thessaloniki remained relatively calm, given the situation elsewhere. The presence of consuls and representations was putting some limitations on the Turkish regime. This fact is asserted by some scholars as the reason behind the opening of a Bulgarian secondary school in Macedonia resembling the ones in Sofia. In 1880 the Ottoman Empire adopted an Act on Vilaets which limited Greek bishops’ control over Bulgarian churches, taking advantage of these developments, revivalist Kuzman Shapkarev prepared a whole plan for Bulgarian education in Macedonia, centred on the region’s capital – Thessaloniki. The city ought to host one men’s and one girls’ gymnasium with boarding schools attached to each, prior to their opening, there was a total of 667 Bulgarian basic schools in Macedonia with 949 teachers and 36,623 students. The main obstacle before Shapkarev’s plan was the Exarchate’s objection to Thessaloniki hosting the gymnasiums, dragan Tsankov, who favored the idea in principle, proposed another town situated in Central Macedonia and inhabited by a purely Bulgarian population to host the schools. The high school began holding classes in 1880 in a building in the same neighborhood, in 1910, the school had eight classrooms, twelve teachers, and 133 students. Following 1913, the school was moved to the Bulgarian town of Gorna Dzhumaya in Bulgaria. On 5 March 2014 the Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris unveiled a plaque at the site of the high school,99 Olymbou St. together with Petar Stoyanovich. Bulgarian Mens High School of Adrianople Vanchev, Yordan, Българската просвета в Македония и Одринска Тракия 1878-1913. Sophia, Izd-vo na Bŭlgarskata akademii︠a︡ na naukite, topographia tēs Thessalonikēs kata tēn epochē tēs Tourkokratias, 1430-1912. Salonica, city of ghosts, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950, Vintage Series, Mark Mazower,2006, Balkan Studies, Biannual Publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies, volume 42, Hidryma Meletōn Chersonēsou tou Haimou The Institute,2001
11.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
12.
Burgas
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It is the capital of Burgas Province and an important industrial, transport, cultural and tourist centre. The city is surrounded by the Burgas Lakes and located at the westernmost point of the Black Sea, the LUKOIL Neftochim Burgas is the largest oil refinery in southeastern Europe and the largest industrial enterprise. The Port of Burgas is the largest port in Bulgaria, Burgas is the center of the Bulgarian fishing and fish processing industry. A similar literal composition have the cities Burgos in Spain and numerous cities containing the Germanic burg city such as Hamburg,15 centuries later, the settlement was mentioned by the Byzantine poet Manuel Phil as Pyrgos, a word identical in meaning with the Greek word for tower. There are several explanations for the names origin. By one of them, the name comes from Gothic name baurgs as meaning signified consolidated walled villages. Kiril Vlahov, the name of the city comes from the Thracian word pyurg as meaning fortification of wooden beams and it is also suggested that the name ultimately comes from the name of khan Burtaz. Burgas is situated in the westernmost point of the bay of the same name, Burgas is located 389 kilometres from Sofia,272 km from Plovdiv, and 335 km from Istanbul. To the west, south and north, the city is surrounded by the Burgas Lakes, Burgas, Atanasovsko and Mandrensko, pan-European corridor 8 passes through the city, the European routes E87 and E773, and the longest national rout I/6. The St. Anastasia Island is a part of the city, Burgas has a humid subtropical climate, with some continental influences. The summertime in Burgas lasts about five months from mid-May until late September, average temperatures during high season is 24 °C. Summertime sea temperatures stay around 23 °C-24 °C at sunrise and go up to 29 °C-30 °C at dawn, winters are milder compared with the inland part of the country, with average temperatures of 4 °C-5 °C and below 0 °C during the night. Snow is possible in December, January, February and rarely in March, snow falls in winter only several times and can quickly melt. The highest temperature was recorded in August 2003, at 42.8 °C, the Burgas Wetlands are highly recognized for their significance to biodiversity and as a resource pool for products used by people. Lake Burgas is Bulgarias largest lake and is in the middle of the city and it is important for migrating birds. Over 250 species of birds inhabit the area,61 of which are endangered in Bulgaria and 9 globally. The lakes are home to important fish and invertebrates. In the site have been recorded several IUCN Red-Listed species of animals —5 invertebrates,4 fish,4 amphibians,3 reptiles,5 birds and 3 mammals
13.
Macedonia (region)
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Macedonia /ˌmæsᵻˈdoʊniə/ is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, however it came to be defined as the geographical region by the mid 19th century. Nowadays the region is considered to include parts of six Balkan countries, Greece and it covers approximately 67,000 square kilometres and has a population of 4.76 million. Its oldest known settlements date back approximately 9,000 years, from the middle of the 4th century BC, the Kingdom of Macedon became the dominant power on the Balkan peninsula, since then Macedonia has had a diverse history. The definition of Macedonia has changed several times throughout history, expansion of Kingdom of Macedon,1. Kingdom of Perdiccas I, Macedonian Kingdom of Emathia consisting of six provinces Emathia, Pieria, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, Eordea, Kingdom of Alexander I, All the above provinces plus the eastern annexations Crestonia, Bisaltia and the western annexations Elimiotis, Orestis and Lynkestis. Kingdom of Philip II, All the above plus the appendages of Pelagonia and Macedonian Paeonia to the north, Sintike, Odomantis and Edonis to the east. In the 2nd century, Macedonia covered approximately the area where it is considered to be today, for reasons that are still unclear, over the next eleven centuries Macedonias location was changed significantly. The Roman province of Macedonia consisted of what is today Northern and Central Greece, much of the area of the present-day Republic of Macedonia. Simply put, the Romans created a larger administrative area under that name than the original ancient Macedon. In the Byzantine Empire, a province under the name of Macedonia was carved out of the original Theme of Thrace and this thema variously included parts of Thrace and gave its name to the Macedonian dynasty. Hence, Byzantine documents of this era that mention Macedonia are most probably referring to the Macedonian thema, during medieval and modern times, Macedonia has been known as a Balkan region inhabited by ethnic Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs, Serbs, Bulgarians, Jews, and Turks. Today, as a region where several very different cultures meet. Macedonian Greeks self-identify culturally and regionally as Macedonians and they form the majority of the regions population. They number approximately 2,500,000 and, today, smaller Greek minorities exist in Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, although their numbers are difficult to ascertain. Ethnic Macedonians self-identify as Macedonians in a sense as well as in the regional sense. They are the second largest ethnic group in the region, because of their primarily Slavic origin they are also known as Macedonian Slavs and Slav Macedonians. They form the majority of the population in the Republic of Macedonia where according to the 2002 census, according to the latest Bulgarian census held in 2001, there are 3,117 people declaring themselves ethnic Macedonians in the Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria
14.
Kilkis
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Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2011 there were 22,914 people living in the city proper,28,745 people living in the municipal unit and it is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis. Kilkis is located in a region that was multi-ethnic in the recent past and is known by different names. The name of the city in early Byzantine times was Kallikon, in church Codix of 1732 it is mentioned as Kilkisi. In the South Slavic languages it is known as Kukush, while it was called Kilkitsi or Kılkış by the Ottoman Turks.604 km2 and its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Kilkis, and the municipal unit Polykastro. Findings dating back to as early as the Bronze and Iron Age have been excavated in the vicinity of Kilkis, in classical antiquity, the wider region of Kilkis was ruled by the kingdom of Macedon. At the time, Kilkis was in the center of a region called Krestonia, when Phillip II of Macedon visited Krestonia, the locals offered him olives from Krestonia valley, something that he had never eaten before. In 148 BC, the Romans took over the area, in late antiquity the area of Kilkis saw invasions of different tribes, such as the Goths, the Huns, the Avars and the Slavs, some of whom gradually settled in the Balkan Peninsula. In the Middle Ages, Kilkis changed hands several times between the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires, in the 10th century, it was sacked by the Bulgarians, and some of the inhabitants moved to Calabria, in southern Italy, where they founded the village of Gallicianò. During the reign of the Palaeologus dynasty, the saw the completion of a number of important infrastructure works. The period of prosperity ended in 1430, when Thessalonica and the region of Macedonia came under Ottoman rule. After 1850, there was one Greek church, Panagia tou Kilkis, at the foot of Saint George hill, by the mid-19th century Kilkis was a primarily Bulgarian-populated town. According to one estimate, there were about 500 Greeks,500 Turks and 4500 Bulgarians in the town at the time. An 1873 Ottoman study concluded that the population of Kilkis consisted of 1,170 households of which there were 5,235 Bulgarian inhabitants,155 Muslims and 40 Romani people, a Vasil Kanchov study of 1900 counted 7,000 Bulgarian and 750 Turkish inhabitants in the town. Another survey in 1905 established the presence of 9,712 Exarchists,40 Patriarchists,592 Uniate Christians and 16 Protestants, in the late 19th and early 20th century, Kilkis was part of the Salonica Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. In 1904-1908, the Greek inhabitants of Kilkis participated in the Macedonian Struggle, the leaders of Greek efforts were Georgios Samaras, Ioannis Doiranlis and Petros Koukidis with their armed corps. Evangelia Traianou-Tzoukou and Ekaterini Stampouli were the leaders for the Greek education and hospitalization of Macedonian fighters, great support to the Greek efforts was given by the Chatziapostolou family. The Chatziapostolou family owned a farm in Metalliko, the field crop of which was almost completely given to fund the Greek efforts
15.
Thessaloniki
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Its nickname is η Συμπρωτεύουσα, literally the co-capital, a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα or co-reigning city of the Eastern Roman Empire, alongside Constantinople. The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general, Thessaloniki was the 2014 European Youth Capital. The city of Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, an important metropolis by the Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire. It was conquered by the Ottomans in 1430, and passed from the Ottoman Empire to modern Greece on November 8,1912, the citys main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans. Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination in Greece, among street photographers, the center of Thessaloniki is also considered the most popular destination for street photography in Greece. All variations of the name derive from the original appellation in Ancient Greek, i. e. Θεσσαλονίκη. The alternative name Salonica derives from the variant form Σαλονίκη in colloquial Greek speech, in local speech, the citys name is typically pronounced with a dark and deep L characteristic of Macedonian Greek accent. The name often appears in writing in the abbreviated form Θεσ/νίκη, the city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon, on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessalonike, a half-sister of Alexander the Great, under the kingdom of Macedon the city retained its own autonomy and parliament and evolved to become the most important city in Macedon. After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, the city later became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia. Later it became the capital of all the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire because of the importance in the Balkan peninsula. At the time of the Roman Empire, about 50 A. D. Later, Paul wrote two letters to the new church at Thessaloniki, preserved in the Biblical canon as First and Second Thessalonians. Some scholars hold that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians is the first written book of the New Testament, in 306 AD, Thessaloniki acquired a patron saint, St. Demetrius, a native of Thessalonica whom Galerius put to death. A basilical church was first built in the 5th century AD dedicated to St. Demetrius, in 379, when the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloniki became the capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum. In 390, Gothic troops under the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, led a massacre against the inhabitants of Thessalonica, by the time of the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki was the second-largest city of the Eastern Roman Empire. From the first years of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki was considered the city in the Empire after Constantinople. With a population of 150,000 in the mid-12th century, the city held this status until its transfer to Venetian control in 1423. In the 14th century, the population exceeded 100,000 to 150,000
16.
First Balkan War
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The First Balkan War, lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and comprised actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, as a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albania, despite its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the start of the Second Balkan War. By 1867, Serbia and Montenegro had both secured independence, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin, the question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, which compelled the Sultan to restore the suspended Ottoman constitution. Serbias aspirations to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina were thwarted by the Bosnian crisis, the Serbs directed their expansionism to the south. Following the annexation, the Young Turks tried to induce the Muslim population of Bosnia to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire and those who took up the offer were re-settled by the Ottoman authorities in districts of northern Macedonia where there were few Muslims. The experiment proved to be a catastrophe for the Empire since the immigrants readily united with the population of Albanian Muslims. They participated in the series of Albanian uprisings before and during the spring Albanian Revolt of 1912, some Albanian government troops switched sides. Serbia, which had helped arm the Albanian Catholic and Hamidian rebels and sent secret agents to some of the prominent leaders, things got so far out of hand that no one was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks and for the Albanians, by the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to ensure a better future. To all of them we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality, in a search for allies, Serbia was ready to negotiate a treaty with Bulgaria. The agreement provided that, in the event of victory against the Ottomans, serbias expansion was accepted by Bulgaria as being to the north of the Shar Mountains. The intervening area was agreed to be disputed, it would be arbitrated by the Tsar of Russia in the event of a war against the Ottoman Empire. After the successful coup détat for unification with Eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria began to dream that its national unification would be realized, for that purpose, it developed a large army, and identified as the Prussia of the Balkans. But Bulgaria could not win a war alone against the Ottomans and they also wanted to reverse their defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 by the Ottomans. An emergency military reorganization led by a French military mission had been started for that purpose, in the discussions that led Greece to join the Balkan League, Bulgaria refused to commit to any agreement on the distribution of territorial gains, unlike its deal with Serbia over Macedonia. Bulgarias diplomatic policy was to push Serbia into an agreement limiting its access to Macedonia, Bulgaria believed that its army would be able to occupy the larger part of Aegean Macedonia and the important port city of Salonica before the Greeks. In 1911, Italy had launched an invasion of Tripolitania in present-day Libya, the Italians decisive military victories over the Ottoman Empire encouraged the Balkan states to imagine they might win a war against the Ottomans
17.
Serbs
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The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group that formed in the Balkans. The majority of Serbs inhabit the state of Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. They form significant minorities in Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, there is a large Serb diaspora in Western Europe, and outside Europe there are significant communities in North America and Australia. The Serbs share many traits with the rest of the peoples of Southeast Europe. They are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christians by religion, the Serbian language is official in Serbia, co-official in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is spoken by the majority in Montenegro. The modern identity of Serbs is rooted in Eastern Orthodoxy and traditions, in the 19th century, the Serbian national identity was manifested, with awareness of history and tradition, medieval heritage, cultural unity, despite living under different empires. When the Principality of Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Orthodoxy became crucial in defining the national identity, instead of language which was shared by other South Slavs. The tradition of slava, the family saint feast day, is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity, the origin of the ethnonym is unclear. Serbia has among the tallest people in the world, after Montenegro and Netherlands, Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. Up until the late 560s their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, the Danube and Sava frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century. What is today central Serbia was an important geo-strategical province, through which the Via Militaris crossed and this area was frequently intruded by barbarians in the 5th and 6th centuries. The numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population, numerous small Serbian states were created, located in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. With the decline of the Serbian state of Duklja in the late 11th century, Raška separated from it, prince Stefan Nemanja conquered the neighbouring territories of Kosovo, Duklja and Zachlumia. The Nemanjić dynasty ruled over Serbia until the 14th century, over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire, the medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of Stefan Dušan, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included Macedonia, northern Greece, Montenegro, when Dušan died, his son Stephen Uroš V became Emperor. With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, and with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo on the plain of Kosovo Polje, both Lazar and Sultan Murad I were killed in the fighting
18.
Greeks
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The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Turkey, Sicily, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world, many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Greek colonization. The cultural centers of the Greeks have included Athens, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Smyrna, most ethnic Greeks live nowadays within the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. The Greek genocide and population exchange between Greece and Turkey nearly ended the three millennia-old Greek presence in Asia Minor, other longstanding Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic. They are part of a group of ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an archetypal diaspora people. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and, by the 15th century BC, had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC, the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus, the Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible. The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as an era of heroes, closeness of the gods. The Homeric Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past, as part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece became major figures of the Olympian Pantheon of later antiquity. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC, the works of Homer and Hesiod were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established in this period, the classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras, the Peloponnesian War, the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states Athens and Sparta and their allies, left both greatly weakened. Many Greeks settled in Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia, two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers. The Hellenistic civilization was the period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexanders death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures and this age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi, Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with barbarian peoples and this led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic paideia to the next generation
19.
Aleksandar Stamboliyski
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Aleksandar Stamboliyski was the prime minister of Bulgaria from 1919 until 1923. Stamboliyski was a member of the Agrarian Union, a peasant movement which was not allied to the monarchy. He opposed the participation in World War I and its support for the Central Powers. This statement relates to his belief in a Balkan Federation which would unite the region and he was court-martialed and sentenced to life in prison in 1915. In 1918, with the defeat of Bulgaria, Tsar Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son Tsar Boris III who released Stamboliyski from prison and he joined the government in January,1919, and was appointed prime minister on October 14 of that year. On March 20,1920, the Agrarian Union won national elections, during his term in office, Stamboliyski made a concerted effort to improve relations with the rest of Europe. This resulted in Bulgaria becoming the first of the states to join the League of Nations in 1920. Though popular with the peasants, he antagonized the middle class, many considered him to be a virtual dictator or a peasant thug. He was ousted in a coup on June 9,1923. However, before this grand counter-insurgence was to transpire, Stamboliyski had to work himself up the ranks of the political scene as the leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian Peoples Union. Until the mid 20th century Bulgaria was primarily a land of small, the proportion of the population who were peasants was roughly the same in 1920 as it had been in 1878. By 1911, as the leader of the BANU, Stamboliyski was the a notorious anti-monarchist, lasting from only 28 September until 2 October, the rebellion although short-lived found some early success. The mutineers managed to enter Bulgarias capital where tsarist forces, led by general Alexander Protogerov, crushed the rebellion killing an estimated 2000 soldiers, Ferdinand was to be succeeded by his son, Boris III, with the approval of the Allied Powers. After Tsar Boris III took the throne, the political factions in Bulgaria were the Agrarians, the Socialists. As the general election of 1919 approached, Stamboliyski came out of hiding, however, because the election was so close, Stamboliyski was forced to form a government coalition between the agrarians and the left-wing parliamentary parties. By March 1920, however, Stamboliyski was able to form a solely BANU government with another election victory. This is in spite of his electoral successes and his goal was to transform the political, economic, and social structures of the state while at the same time rejecting the rhetoric of radicalism and its Bolshevik associations. He aimed at establishing the rule of the peasant, which comprised over 80% of the population of Bulgaria in 1920, part of his objective was to offer each member of the dominant group an equitable distribution of property and access to the cultural and welfare facilities in all villages
20.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
21.
Communist International
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The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization that advocated world communism. The Comintern had seven World Congresses between 1919 and 1935 and it also had thirteen Enlarged Plenums of its governing Executive Committee, which had much the same function as the somewhat larger and more grandiose Congresses. The Comintern was officially dissolved by Joseph Stalin in 1943, while the differences had been evident for decades, World War I proved the issue that finally divided the revolutionary and reformist wings of the workers movement. The socialist movement had been historically antimilitarist and internationalist, and therefore opposed workers serving as fodder for the bourgeois governments at war. This especially since the Triple Alliance comprised two empires, while the Triple Entente gathered France and Britain into an alliance with Russia, karl Marxs The Communist Manifesto had stated that the working class has no country and exclaimed Proletarians of all countries, unite. Massive majorities voted in favor of resolutions for the Second International to call upon the working class to resist war if it were declared. Nevertheless, within hours of the declarations of war, almost all the socialist parties of the combatant states announced their support for the war, the only exceptions were the socialist parties of the Balkans. To Lenins surprise, even the Social Democratic Party of Germany voted in favor of war credits, Socialist parties in neutral countries mostly supported neutrality rather than total opposition to the war. The International divided into a left and a reformist right. Lenin condemned much of the center as social-pacifists for several reasons, Lenins term social-pacifist aimed in particular at Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Independent Labour Party in Britain, who opposed the war on grounds of pacifism, but did not actively resist it. Discredited by its passivity towards world events, the Second International dissolved in the middle of the war in 1916, the victory of the Russian Communist Party in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 was felt throughout the world. An alternative path to power to parliamentary politics was demonstrated, with much of Europe on the verge of economic and political collapse in the aftermath of the carnage of the Great War, revolutionary sentiments were widespread. The Bolsheviks believed that required a new international to ferment revolution in Europe. The Comintern was founded at a Congress held in Moscow March 2–6,1919, there were 52 delegates present from 34 parties. They decided to form an Executive Committee with representatives of the most important sections, the Congress decided that the Executive Committee would elect a five-member bureau to run the daily affairs of the International. However, such a bureau was not formed and Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev was assisted by Angelica Balabanoff, acting as the secretary of the International, Victor L. Kibaltchitch and Vladmir Ossipovich Mazin. Lenin, Trotsky and Alexandra Kollontai presented material, the main topic of discussion was the difference between bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The central policy of the Comintern under Lenins leadership was that Communist parties should be established across the world to aid the international proletarian revolution, in this period, the Comintern was promoted as the General Staff of the World Revolution
22.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
23.
Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
24.
Balkan Federation
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The Balkan Federation was a project about the creation of a Balkan federation or confederation, based mainly on left political ideas. The concept of a Balkan federation emerged at the late 19th century from among left political forces in the region. The central aim was to establish a new unity, a common federal republic unifying the Balkan Peninsula on the basis of internationalism, socialism, social solidarity. The underlying vision was that differences among the Balkan peoples the historical need for emancipation was a common basis for unification. This political concept went through three phases in its development, in the first phase the idea was articulated as a response to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. In the second phase, mostly through the period, the idea of the Balkan federation was taken up by the Balkan communist parties. The third phase is characterized by clash between Balkan communist leaders and Joseph Stalin as an opponent of the idea during the post-World War II period. They confirmed their adherence to the ideals of French Revolution in the line of Saint-Simons federalism, the next attempt came immediately after the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. The following year, in Salonika the Socialist Workers Association merged with two Bulgarian socialist groups and the Socialist Workers Federation of Ottoman Workers was founded, on January 7 and 9,1910, the First Balkan Socialist Conference was held in Belgrade, capital of the Kingdom of Serbia. The main platforms at the first conference were Balkan unity and action against the impending wars, another important aspect was the call for a solution to the Macedonian Question. Initially headed by Christian Rakovsky, it had Vasil Kolarov and Georgi Dimitrov among its prominent activists, in 1915, Dimitrov wrote that Macedonia. Which was split into three parts, reunited into a single state enjoying equal rights within the framework of the Balkan Democratic Federation. This independent and united Macedonia would have consisted of the corresponding geographical departments of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, the Federation was repressed by national governments at different intervals. After the October Revolution in Russia, a Balkan Communist Federation was formed in 1920–1921 and it was a communist umbrella organisation in which all the communist parties in the Balkans were represented. It was dominated by the Soviet Union and Comintern requirements and it advocated a Balkan Federative Republic that would have included Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey, some projects also involved Romania, but most of them only envisaged its fragmentation. From the beginning, the Bulgarians assumed a role in the BCF. In Sofia, May–June 1922, the question of the autonomy of Macedonia, Dobruja and Thrace was raised by Vasil Kolarov and was backed by Dimitrov, the Greek delegate asked for a postponement as he was reluctant to approve a motion that was not on the agenda. In December 1923, Balkan Communist Federation held its 5th Conference in Moscow and this wings militated for a Soviet Republics, which would either be part of a Balkan Communist Federation
25.
Aleksandar Protogerov
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Alexandar Protogerov was a Bulgarian general, politician and revolutionary as well as a member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia, Thrace and Pomoravlje. He was among the leaders of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee and later joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and he was a volunteer in the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885. Protogerov took part in the Gorna Djumaya uprising in 1902 and in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, in the Balkan Wars, Protogerov was one of the organizers of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps and Assistant Commander of this military unit. During the First World War, he commanded the Third Infantry Brigade of 11th Macedonian division, there he suppressed the Toplica Uprising, commanding an army that has made large number of war crimes, including cruel murders of thousands of women, children and the elderly. Later, as commandant of Sofia, Protogerov suppressed the Bulgarian soldiers uprising, after World War I, Protogerov was elected as one of the leaders of IMRO. In 1924, IMRO entered negotiations with the Comintern about collaboration between the communists and the Macedonian movement and the creation of a united Macedonian movement, Protogerov and Petar Chaulev probably signed the so-called May Manifesto about forming a Balkan Communist Federation and cooperation with the Soviet Union in Vienna. Later, Protogerov denied through the Bulgarian press that they had ever signed any agreements, shortly after, Todor Alexandrov was assassinated in unclear circumstances and IMRO came under the leadership of Ivan Mihailov, who became a powerful figure in Bulgarian politics. The result of the murder was further strife within the organisation and several high-profile murders, Животописни бележки, София,1992, Военноиздателски комплекс „Св. Георги Победоносец“, ISBN 954-509-002-2, с.123 Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
26.
Pirin
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The Pirin Mountains are a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, with Vihren the highest peak, situated at 41°45′50″N 23°25′30″E. The range extends about 40 km northwest-southeast, and about 25 km wide, most of the range is protected in the Pirin National Park. The mountain is named after Perun, the highest god of the Slavic pantheon, to the north Pirin is separated from Bulgarias highest mountain range, the Rila Mountains, by the Predel saddle, while to the south it reaches the Slavyanka mountain. To the west is located the valley of the Struma and to the east of the Mesta Rivers, Pirin is noted for its rich flora and fauna. Much of the area is forested, with the best conifer woods in Bulgaria, holding important populations of the Balkan endemic species Macedonian pine, Bosnian pine, animals include the wolf and the brown bear. The town of Bansko, an important tourism and winter sports centre, is situated on the northeast slopes of the Pirin Mountains, the town of Razlog lies in Razlog Valley between Pirin Mountains to the south and the Rila Mountains to the north. It has an area of 2,585 km2 and an height of 1,033 m. Pirin is set in the southwest of the country between the Struma and Mesta Rivers, bordering Rila to the north at the Predel Saddle and Slavyanka to the south at the Parilska Saddle. The distance between two points is 60 km from the northwest to the southeast and the maximum width of Pirin is 40 km from the town of Sandanski to the village of Obidim. Other neighbouring mountains include Vlahina, Maleshevo, Osogovo and Ograzhden to the west, geologically and geographically Pirin is divided into three parts, a north, central and south one, which are however not equal in size and tourist attractivity. North Pirin is the largest of the subdivisions and the mountains downright part and it takes up 74% of the whole ranges territory, being about 42 km long and ranging from Predel to the north to the Todorova Polyana Saddle to the south. It is further subdivided into parts due to its size, Mramor Part, North Central Part, South Central Part, Polezhan Part, Kamenitsa Part, Sinanitsa Part. Central Pirin extends between the Todorova Polyana Saddle and the Popovi Livadi Saddle and it constitutes the smallest and shortest part, being only 7 km long. The highest peak is Orelyak, while the peaks are under 2,000 m and heavily forested. There are only two resthouses, Popovi Livadi and Malina, South Pirin is the lowest and most round part, the highest peak being Svesthnik at 1,975 m. It occupies 17% of Pirin and is about 11 km long, well forested with coniferous and deciduous trees, it is the most rarely visited part of the mountains and thus lacks any resthouses. By its geological structure Pirin is an elevation with granite nucleus covered mainly with ancient metamorphous rocks. It forms as a mountain during the Tertiary and its hoisting alternated with long tranquil periods
27.
Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
28.
Veles, Macedonia
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Veles is a city in the central part of the Republic of Macedonia on the Vardar river. The city of Veles is the seat of Veles Municipality, vilazora was initially the Paeonian city Bylazora from the period of early Classical Antiquity. The citys name was Βελισσός Velissos in Ancient Greek, under Turkish rule it became a township called Köprülü in the Üsküp sanjak. From 1877 to 1912 the sandjak was part of the Kosovo vilayet, from 1929 to 1941, Veles was part of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, the city was known as Titov Veles after Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito, cars registered in Veles were identified by the code TV, which was changed as late as 2000 to VE. The area of present-day Veles has been inhabited for over a millennium, in antiquity, it was a Paionian city called Bylazora, and contained a substantial population of Thracians and possibly Illyrians. It was then part of the Byzantine Empire, and at times the First, before the Balkan Wars, it was a township with the name Köprülü, part of the Sanjak of Üsküp. Some identify Veles with the Velitza of which Saint Clement of Ohrid was bishop and it is probably in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Through Macedonia Veles is known as center and recently, as a leader in the implementing of IT in the local administration in Macedonia. Veles is a place of poetry, culture, history and tradition, as well as a town with plentiful and precious cultural heritage, Veles is a municipality of 55,000 residents. The geographic location of the city of Veles makes it suitable for hiking and camping, one such location is the tranquil village Bogomilja. Nearby there is the man made lake Mladost, which is known as the recreational centre. Two TV stations operate in Veles -Channel 21 & Zdravkin- and many radio stations
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Georgi Parvanov
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Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov is a Bulgarian historian and politician who was President of Bulgaria from 2002 to 2012. He was elected defeating the incumbent Petar Stoyanov in the second round of the November 2001 presidential election. He was reelected in a victory in 2006, becoming the first Bulgarian president to serve two terms. Parvanov was a supporter of Bulgarias membership in NATO and the European Union, according to Bulgarian law, a Bulgarian president is not allowed to be a member of a political party, thus Parvanov left the Bulgarian Socialist Party after his election in 2001. Although he identified as a socialist, Parvanov often called himself a social president, after completing his second term as President, Parvanov returned to the Socialist Party, prompting a dispute over the party leadership. In January 2014 Parvanov restarted his Alternative for Bulgarian Revival project, on January 15,2017 he stepped down as party leader and was replaced by Konstantin Prodanov. Georgi Parvanov was born in the village of Sirishtnik, Pernik Province on 28 June 1957, in 1988 Parvanov defended his doctoral thesis in history, which is titled Dimitar Blagoev and the Bulgarian national question 1879-1917. Parvanov joined the Institute for History of the Bulgarian Communist Party as a researcher in 1981 and his main interest was the Bulgarian national issue and the early history of social democracy in Bulgaria. In 1989 he was promoted to a research associate. In May 2001 he became a member of the Internet Society of Bulgaria, in 1981 Parvanov joined the Bulgarian Communist Party. In April 1990 the party was transformed into the Bulgarian Socialist Party, in 1989 Parvanov formed the nationalist organization Nationwide Committee for the Defense of National Interests. In 1994 he became Deputy Chairman of the BSP national Council and it was also in that year that he was elected to the National Assembly, he was reelected in 1997 and 2001. Parvanov was chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Friendship with Greece and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Radio, because of a severe financial crisis, the Prime Minister and leader of the BSP, Zhan Videnov, resigned in December 1996. Georgi Parvanov was elected as his successor that month, however, after large protests against the socialist government in January 1997, Parvanov and Nikolay Dobrev returned the mandate to form a government. In the early elections that ensued, the Socialist Party went into opposition. In 2000 Parvanov was reelected as Chairman of the National Council of the BSP and he has been credited with altering the geopolitical orientation of the party, paving the way for Bulgarias joining of NATO in 2004. Parvanov led his party to its worst electoral performance in 2001, both the BSP and the SDS suffered greatly from the rise of the newly founded National Movement for Simeon II. In the first round of the 2001 presidential election, Parvanov won 36. 4% of the votes, finishing ahead of the incumbent SDS candidate, Petar Stoyanov, the voter turnout was the lowest to date, only 41. 8%
30.
Branko Crvenkovski
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Branko Crvenkovski is a Macedonian politician Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2002 to 2004, then President of the Republic of Macedonia from 2004 to 2009. He was also leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, Crvenkovski was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of SFR Yugoslavia. In 1986 he obtained a degree in Computer Science and Automation from the School of Electrical Engineering at the St. Cyril. A former communist, Crvenkovski has been at the head of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia since April 1991, on 5 September 1992 he became Macedonias second prime minister after its secession from Yugoslavia and continued in the post for another four years following the December 1994 elections. He served as Prime Minister from 1992 to 1998 and from 2002 until 2004 and he was most recently elected in 2002 after his Social Democratic Union of Macedonia party won parliamentary elections. In July 1996 he ordered that Albanian flags in front of government buildings in western part of the Republic of Macedonia be removed, the situation escalated with one person dead and many injured. In 2005, on his initiative, the Albanian flag was legalized and he won the April 2004 presidential election against Saško Kedev and took office on 12 May 2004. He then resigned as Prime Minister, Crvenkovski did not run for a second term in the March 2009 presidential election. Instead, he returned to his party and was elected to be the head of the party on 24 May 2009, Branko Crvenkovski is an Honorary Member of Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Albania, Received a copy of the key of the city of Tirana on the occasion of his visit to Albania. List of state made by Branko Crvenkovski Official site of the President of the Republic of Macedonia
31.
Sandanski
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Sandanski is a town and a recreation centre in south-western Bulgaria, part of Blagoevgrad Province. Named after revolutionary Yane Sandanski, it is situated in a valley at the foot of Pirin Mountains, Sandanski is about 20 km away from Bulgaria-Greece border and 100 km away from Aegean sea. The town has a convenient location, mild to warm climate and relatively high concentration of water springs. Sandanski is located in the Sandanski-Petrich Valley, surrounded by the Pirin, Belasitsa, Ogragden, the town is about 160 km south from Bulgarias capital Sofia along the major European Route E79. Following the same route at almost the distance is Thessaloniki. Sandanski has developed in a fashion on the outer south-west flanks of Pirin Mountains along the lower reaches of Sandanska Bistritsa River. Its geographical location between Kresna and Rupel Gorges helps for towns mild winter temperatures, statistically Sandanski has the warmest temperatures in Bulgaria with a total of around 2700 annual sunshine hours. Within a short drive from Sandanski is Melnik, the smallest town in Bulgaria in terms of population, in a close proximity are the village of Rozhen and Rozhen Monastery. Sandanski is on the border of the continental mediterranean climate. Summers are very hot and dry with occasional thunderstorms and during heat waves the temperature may exceed 40 °C reaching to 45 °C, winters are damp and relatively mild, but there is great variation between the years and heavy snow and temperatures below −15 °C can sometimes happen. The lowest recorded temperatures is -21 °C, winters last for about three months from December through February, springs and falls are generally about two months each. The summer is longest season in Sandanski, lasting 4 months - from early June to late September, july through September is the driest period while October through December – the wettest
32.
Social Democratic Union of Macedonia
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The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is a social-democratic and main centre-left political party in Macedonia. The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia was founded on 20 April 1991 at the 11th Congress of SKM-PDP, Branko Crvenkovski was elected as the partys first president. Its current leader is Zoran Zaev, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is a member of the Progressive Alliance and an associate affiliate of the Party of European Socialists. SDSM is a centre-left positioned political party with social democratic ideology, on the first parliamentary elections in 1990, the party finished second behind VMRO-DPMNE and was part of the national unity government from 1991 to 1992. From 1992 to 1994 SDSM was in a government with the Liberal Party. SDSM won the elections in 1994 and 2002 and won the most municipalities at the local elections in 1996,2000 and 2005. From September 2006 to December 2016 SDSM was the biggest opposition party in the parliament, together for Macedonia ruled in coalition with the Democratic Union for Integration. The longstanding former leader of the party was Branko Crvenkovski, who served as minister of Macedonia from 1992 to 1998. Crvenkovski was then elected on the Social Democratic ticket to become President of the Republic of Macedonia a post that he held until May 2009, the Presidency was handed to Vlado Bučkovski, who was the party leader and Prime Minister until the 2006 Parliamentary elections. The SDSM is a member of the Progressive Alliance and an affiliate of the Party of European Socialists. On 30 November 2005 one of the most prominent members of the SDSM, Tito Petkovski and this is the second major split from the SDSM, the first one being the 1993 split of Petar Gošev, who has established the Democratic Party. At the parliamentary elections in Macedonia held in 2008, the coalition Sun was defeated, at the last local elections from 2009, the Social Democrats won in 8 out of 84 municipalities in the country. The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia is the second largest political party, in May 2009, after finishing the 5-year-term of President of the Republic of Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski returned to the SDSM and was reelected leader of the party. He reorganized the party profoundly, but resigned after the defeat in the 2013 local elections. In June 2013, Zoran Zaev was elected as the new leader, the party was defeated in the 2014 general elections by the VMRO–DPMNE, but the results were not recognized and the opposition parties boycotted the Parliament. From February to May 2015 Zaev released wiretapped material that alleged Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for illegally spying more than 20,000 citizens, in May, large protests including SDSM members began in Skopje. Large crowds gathered to protest on May 17, demanding resignation from Gruevski, the number of protesters was estimated to be more than 40,000. Zaev claimed the number of protesters reached 100,000, European Union diplomats offered to mediate a solution to the crisis
33.
Graham Land
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Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. The line dividing them is roughly 69 degrees south, Graham Land is named after Sir James R. G. Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of John Biscoes exploration of the west side of Graham Land in 1832. It is claimed by Argentina, Britain and Chile, Graham Land is the closest part of Antarctica to South America. Until the discoveries of the British Graham Land Expedition of 1934–1937, mount Brading,4 nautical miles east of the northeast corner of Larsen Inlet. Argentina calls the area Tierra de San Martín and also calls the northern peninsula Península Trinidad or Tierra de la Trinidad, similarly, Chile calls the entire Antarctic Peninsula Tierra de OHiggins. British Graham Land Expedition U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Graham Land Media related to Graham Land at Wikimedia Commons
34.
Antarctica
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It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer
35.
Kyustendil
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Kyustendil is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of the Kyustendil Province, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. The total population counts 44,532 people, with a Bulgarian majority, during the Iron Age, a Thracian settlement was located within the town, later known as Roman in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the town switched hands between the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria and Serbia, prior to Ottoman annexation in 1395, after centuries of Ottoman rule, the town became part of an independent Bulgarian state in 1878. The modern name is derived from Kösten, the Turkified name of the 14th-century local feudal Constantine Dragaš, from Latin constans, steadfast + the Turkish il shire, the town was known as Pautalia in Antiquity and as Velbazhd in the Middle Ages. Kyustendil Ridge in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after the city, many Thracian and Roman objects are exhibited in the towns Regional History Museum, most notably an impressive numismatic collection. A fortress was built in the town in the 4th century, the town was mentioned under the Slavic name of Velbazhd in a 1019 charter by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. It became a religious and administrative centre of the Byzantine Empire. In 1282, Serbian king Stefan Milutin defeated the Byzantine Empire, in 1330, the Serbs defeated the Bulgarians in the vicinity, effectively keeping the region to the Serbian Kingdom. Upon Dejans death, his possessions in Žegligovo and Upper Struma were given to his two sons, Jovan Dragaš and Konstantin, the city was a sanjak centre initially in Rumelia governorate-general, after that in the Bitola and Niš vilayets. It was a centre in the Sofia sanjak of Danube Province until the creation of the Principality of Bulgaria in 1878. The residents of Kyustendil took a part in the Bulgarian National Revival and crafts. The town was liberated from Ottoman rule on 29 January 1878, in the mean time, about a fourth of Bulgarians live in the surrounding villages, also part of the Municipality of Kyustendil. Kyustendil today belongs to the Sofia diocese in regards of Orthodox church-administrative structure, the city is the center of the vicarage and the Kyustendil Eparchy, in the past, Kyustendil was the seat of the diocese, that latter was closed in 1884. The majority of the population profess the Orthodox faith today, there are several Christian denominations associated with Protestantism. During Ottoman rule Kyustendil had mostly Turkish population professing Islam, but of the mosques of the time. Today the city has only Christian churches operating, in Antiquity, Pautalia was a bishopric in the Roman province of Dacia Mediterranea, suffragan to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Sardica, in the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its only recorded residential bishop is Evangelius, who was summoned to Constantinople by Byzantine emperor Anastasius I Dicorus in 516 during the controversy against Monophysitism, the archdiocese was nominally restored in 1933 as Latin Metropolitan Titular archbishopric of Velebusdus / Velebusdo / Velesdien. Gabriele Arcangelo all’Acqua Traversa, previously Titular Bishop of Tisili as Auxiliary Bishop of Madrid Archbishop Gábor Pintér, papal diplomat, Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus, Kyustendil is a national balneological resort at an altitude of 600 metres
36.
History of the Republic of Macedonia
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None of these had fixed boundaries, they were sometimes subject to the Kings of Macedon, and sometimes broke away. In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persians under Darius the Great conquered the Paeonians, following the loss in the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 479 BC, the Persians eventually withdrew from their European territories, including thus from what is today the Republic of Macedonia. In 336 BC Philip II of Macedon fully annexed Upper Macedonia, including its northern part and southern Paeonia, philips son Alexander the Great conquered most of the remainder of the region, incorporating it in his empire, with exclusion of Dardania. Little is known about the Slavs before the 5th century, at this period the area divided from the Jireček Line was populated from people of Thraco-Roman or Illyro-Roman origins, as well from Hellenized citizens of the Byzantine Empire and Byzantine Greeks. South Slavic tribes settled in the territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia in the 6th century, the Slavic settlements were referred to by Byzantine Greek historians as Sklavines. The Sklavines participated in assaults against the Byzantine Empire - alone or aided by Bulgars or Avars. Around 680 AD the Bulgar group, led by khan Kuber, settled in the Pelagonian plain, and launched campaigns to the region of Thessaloniki. Use of the name Sklavines as a nation on its own was discontinued in Byzantine records after circa 836 as those Slavs in the Macedonia region became a population in the First Bulgarian Empire. Originally two distinct peoples, Sklavines and Bulgars, the Bulgars assimilated the Slavic language/identity whilst maintaining the Bulgarian demonym, Slavic influence in the region strengthened along with the rise of this state, which incorporated the entire region to its domain in AD837. Saints Cyril and Methodius, Byzantine Greeks born in Thessaloniki, were the creators of the first Slavic Glagolitic alphabet and they were also apostles-Christianizators of the Slavic world. A new capital was established at Ohrid, which became the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. From then on, the Bulgarian model became a part of wider Slavic culture as a whole. After several decades of almost incessant fighting, Bulgaria came under Byzantine rule in 1018, the whole of Macedonia was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire as Theme of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was reduced in rank to an archbishopric. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Byzantine control was punctuated by periods of Bulgarian and Serbian rule, for example, Konstantin Asen - a former nobleman from Skopje - ruled as tsar of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277. Later, Skopje became a capital of the Serbian Empire under Stefan Dušan, after the dissolution of the empire, the area became a domain of independent local Serbian rulers from the Mrnjavčević and Dragaš houses. The domain of the Mrnjavčević house included western parts of the present-day Republic of Macedonia, the capital of the state of Mrnjavčević house was Prilep. There are only two rulers from the Mrnjavčević house - king Vukašin Mrnjavčević and his son, king Marko. King Marko became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire and later died in the Battle of Rovine, during the Ottoman rule, Skopje and Monastir were capitals of separate Ottoman provinces
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History of Bulgaria
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The history of Bulgaria can be traced from the first settlements on the lands of modern Bulgaria to its formation as a nation-state and includes the history of the Bulgarian people and their origin. The earliest evidence of human occupation discovered on what is today Bulgaria date from at least 1.4 million years ago, around 5000 BC, a sophisticated civilization already existed and produced some of the first pottery and jewelry in the world. After 3000 BC, the Thracians appeared on the Balkan peninsula, in the late 6th century BC, most of what is nowadays Bulgaria came under the Persian Empire. This mixture of ancient peoples was assimilated by the Slavs, who settled on the peninsula after 500 AD. Meanwhile, in 632 the Bulgars formed an independent state north of the Black sea that became known as Great Bulgaria under the leadership of Kubrat, pressure from the Khazars led to the disintegration of Great Bulgaria in the second half of the 7th century. A peace treaty with Byzantium in 681 and the establishment of a permanent Bulgarian capital at Pliska south of the Danube mark the beginning of the First Bulgarian Empire, the new state brought together Thracian remnants and Slavs under Bulgar rule, and a slow process of mutual assimilation began. In the following centuries Bulgaria established itself as an empire, dominating the Balkans through its aggressive military traditions. In the 11th century, the First Bulgarian Empire collapsed under Rus and Byzantine attacks, then, a major uprising led by two brothers - Asen and Peter of the Asen dynasty, restored the Bulgarian state to form the Second Bulgarian Empire. A peasant rebellion, one of the few such in history. His short reign was essential in recovering - at least partially - the integrity of the Bulgarian state, a relatively thriving period followed after 1300, but ended in 1371, when factional divisions caused Bulgaria to split into three small Tsardoms. By 1396, they were subjugated by the Ottoman Empire, the Turks eliminated the Bulgarian system of nobility and ruling clergy, and Bulgaria remained an integral Turkish territory for the next 500 years. With the decline of the Ottoman Empire after 1700, signs of revival started to emerge, the Bulgarian nobility had vanished, leaving an egalitarian peasant society with a small but growing urban middle class. The initial Treaty of San Stefano was rejected by the Western Great Powers, and the following Treaty of Berlin limited Bulgarias territories to Moesia and the region of Sofia. This left many ethnic Bulgarians out of the borders of the new state, after World War II, Bulgaria became a Communist state, dominated by Todor Zhivkov for a period of 35 years. Bulgarias economic advancement during the era came to an end in the 1980s, Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. The earliest human remains found in Bulgaria have been excavated in the Kozarnika cave and this cave probably keeps the earliest evidence of human symbolic behaviour ever found. Human remains found in Bacho Kiro cave that are 44,000 years old consist of a pair of fragmented human jaws, the earliest dwellings in Bulgaria - the Stara Zagora Neolithic dwellings - date from 6,000 BC and are amongst the oldest man-made structures yet discovered. By the end of the neolithic, the Hamangia and Vinča culture developed on what is today Bulgaria, southern Romania, the earliest known town in Europe, Solnitsata, was located in present-day Bulgaria
38.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
39.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
40.
Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
