Former Bulgarian Western Territories
The so-called Western Areas ( Bulgarian Западни български покрайнини ) are four geographically separated areas in southeast Serbia , along the border with Bulgaria, with a total area of 1545 km². They were part of Bulgaria until 1919 and were ceded by Bulgaria to Yugoslavia with the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine . A Bulgarian minority still lives in these areas today .
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine
After the First World War , Bulgaria was burdened with a - from a Bulgarian point of view - difficult to accept peace treaty , the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine , which the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian people perceived as unjust.
Attitude of the western powers
France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played a decisive role in the preparation of the peace treaty .
The United States took a different position in the discussions in preparation for the peace treaty. President Woodrow Wilson stressed the need to achieve just and lasting peace. This would oppose the satisfaction of unjust demands for the appropriation of foreign territories - as a form of punishment. "No peace can be permanent if we allow peoples and things to be passed from hand to hand." (W. Wilson) At these meetings the United States had decided against the other signing victorious powers of the peace treaty that the defeated countries should be treated fairly - Bulgaria was one of them - supported. The United States Congress later failed to ratify the Neuilly-sur-Seine Peace Treaty and the other Paris suburb treaties , including the Treaty of Versailles .
Territorial claims of the SHS state
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , founded on December 1, 1918, succeeded the Kingdom of Serbia (SHS) with its claims to large parts of western Bulgarian territory.
The western territories after 1919
According to the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine , the western territories were separated from the Bulgarian territory and integrated into the Serbian territory. They covered 2,463 km² with a population of 64,509 people. Of these, 54,758 Bulgarians , 8,637 Vlachs ( Aromanians in the south and Dakorumänen in the north), 549 Gypsies and only 127 Serbs . This population lived in two cities, three market towns and 118 villages.
(Note: These numbers are based on Bulgarian information and are given exactly the other way around by the Serbian side: 758 Bulgarians versus 65,756 Serbs. The ancestors of today's Macedonians were each assigned to their own ethnic group. The figures from both sides should therefore be assessed with caution.)
In the ceded western areas there were 115 schools, 6 Progymnasien and a Gymnasium with a total of 269 teachers and 7892 students as well as 45 Bulgarian churches with 42 clergymen.
Over 30,000 Bulgarians fled to Bulgaria from the western regions. Around 5,000 of them later emigrated to Western Europe and America.
The demarcation between the western regions and Bulgaria
According to Article 29 of the Neuilly-sur-Seine Treaty, an international commission for the Serbian-Bulgarian border was appointed to determine the border line on site. It consisted of French, British, Japanese, Serbian and Bulgarian representatives.
The accomplishment of this task proved extremely difficult.
This newly drawn border locked an old-established population in the areas that were now part of Serbia in a labyrinth of valleys that were cut off from Serbia by impassable mountains to the west and blocked them off from their original, easily accessible Bulgarian neighbors in the east because of the new border line .
The western territories during the Second World War
In the period from 1941 to 1945 the "Western Territories" were annexed to Bulgaria according to an agreement between Bulgaria and Germany - for the purpose of administrative management until the end of the war.
Most of the refugees who fled to Bulgaria returned to their hometowns. Under the Bulgarian administration, the Bulgarian schools closed by the Serbs were reopened. Other new schools have also opened. The Bulgarian names of the population have been restored. The service was again held in Bulgarian in all churches.
The western territories after World War II
According to the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 , Bulgaria had to return the territories to Yugoslavia. From the Yugoslav (or later Serbian) point of view, the period from 1941 to 1945 in these areas is referred to as the "Fascist Bulgarian occupation".
All measures of the Bulgarian administration were reversed by the Yugoslav (Serbian) administration.
According to the Constitution of the SFR Yugoslavia, Bulgarians were guaranteed human and national rights after 1944. Bulgarian teachers taught in the schools. But that only lasted until 1948. After that, the Bulgarian-Yugoslav relationship worsened due to the rift between Tito and the USSR.
Division of the western areas into the Serbian community system
- on the community of Surdulica (Сурдулица) the villages Boschiza (Божица) Klisura (Клисура) Topli Dol (Топли дол) Palja (Паля) Kostroschewzi (Кострошевци) Drainizi (Драинци) and Stresimirowzi (Стрезимировци) have been attached.
- the villages of Swoniza (Звонци), Naschuschkowiza (Нашушковица), Berin Iswor (Берин Извор), Rakita (Ракита), Wutschi Яелучi Del (велуч), Wutschi Delasen (Ракита), Wutschi Яе велучид (Берин Извор), Wutschi Delasen (едевелвид) have been incorporated into the Babušnica municipality (Бабушница).
- the villages of Slavyanin (Славиня), Vlasi (Власи) and Darschina (Държина) are attached to the municipality of Pirot (Пирот).
The western territories after 1989
After 1989 a process of democratization began in Bulgaria. For the first time in recent Bulgarian history after 1919, the Bulgarian government paid its attention to the western territories. The western areas are still a painful problem for the Bulgarian nation. After 80 years of indifference, an official from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has visited the western areas.
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The Bulgarian government (1992–1994) raised the situation in the western regions and the gross violation of civil and human rights of Bulgarians in the western regions before the UN - during the discussion of the report on Yugoslavia by the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
There was a sharp exchange of official documents between the delegations on this question. The Serbian side denies any violation of the human rights of the Bulgarian minority.
The problem of the Bulgarians in the western regions was first mentioned in the report of the UN Commission on Human Rights and in the resolution of the UN General Assembly .
In 1992 the Democratic Union of Bulgarians in Yugoslavia ( Bulgarian Демократичен съюз на българите в Югославия [ДСБЮ] ) was founded. This party fell apart again.
The Agency of Bulgarians Abroad (Агенция за българите в чужбина [АБЧ]) took a number of steps after 1993 to defend the rights of Bulgarians in this part of Serbia. Two leading representatives of the above-mentioned Democratic Union of Bulgarians in Yugoslavia presented the problems in the western regions at the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
The Helsinki Committee on the Human Rights of Bulgarians in Yugoslavia sent a series of reports to international organizations listing the violation of a number of civil, human and national rights in the Western Territories.
In 1997, the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad helped to open and equip two cultural and information centers in Zaribrod (now Dimitrovgrad (Serbia) ) and Bosilegrad . The culture and information center publishes information leaflets. The Bulgarians Abroad Agency helps many young people to get a place in Bulgarian universities.
In recent years the material and moral support of the Bulgarians in the western regions has been greatly reduced by the Bulgarian government.
- See also: Bulgarians in Serbia
Web links
- UN report on the situation of the Bulgarian minority in the Former Bulgarian Western Territories ( Memento of December 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Mayer: Elementary Education in Yugoslavia (1918–1941). A contribution to social modernization? Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56169-3 , p. 218.