Border fortifications of Bulgaria

The border fortifications of Bulgaria presented in the Cold War until 1990 as the inner-German border and the border fortifications of Czechoslovakia a strong border security system is, should be prevented with an escape from Bulgaria.

The fortification of the Bulgarian border to the neighboring states Turkey , Greece and Yugoslavia was less complex than, for example, between the Czechoslovakia and western Germany , but it was still difficult to penetrate. In the GDR in particular, the rumor was widespread that a comparatively easy route to escape to the West would lead across the border to Greece and Turkey.

The border with Turkey is 270 km long, the border with Greece 484 km, Serbia 318 km and North Macedonia 148 km.

Border with Greece and Turkey

Similar to the border systems of the GDR and ČSSR, the barbed wire border fence was not located directly on the border line, but up to several hundred meters from the actual border line inland in mountainous terrain. Behind it was a 7 km wide border zone that was closely monitored by the military ( Bulgarian armed forces ) and police.

Border with Yugoslavia

From 1974 the border with Yugoslavia was also fortified with barbed wire fence, after which the 2 km wide border zone began. The unilateral fortification of the Bulgarian-Yugoslav border by Bulgaria provoked strong protests in Yugoslavia.

Order to shoot

As on the inner-German border, the order to shoot was in effect on the Bulgarian border with Greece and Turkey . Extreme efforts were made to prevent the border crossing. As after the fall of the Iron Curtain became known existed between Bulgaria and the GDR an agreement according to which the message of the GDR a premium for each of the escape from East Germany hindered paid a premium. This resulted in an unknown number of deaths.

Limit today

Today, the border with Greece is largely the so-called “ green border ”. The border fence was gradually dismantled from 1998 and cleared of mines on the Greek side . The border fence to Serbia and North Macedonia has been gradually cleared since 2003. At the border with Turkey, the border fence was not dismantled, but left to decay until around 2005. Since Bulgaria's accession to the European Union (2007), the border facility has been expanded and modernized again as an EU external border as part of the PHARE program . Construction of a new fence began in 2014. Work on the new fence was completed in 2017. Even today there are still fatalities in the border areas.

Web links

• Decree on the state border of Bulgaria ( memento of October 26, 2009 on WebCite ) (Bulgarian)
• Stefan Appelius: Escape from the GDR. A thousand per killing shot. In: Spiegel Online . November 7, 2007, accessed April 23, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marc Speer; Mathias Fiedler: Get out! On the situation of refugees in Bulgaria. June 2020, accessed June 23, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Country data - figures, data, facts. Lexas, 2020, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
3. ↑ mdr.de: Death in Bulgaria | MDR.DE. Retrieved on April 25, 2020 (numerous GDR citizens were shot dead on the Bulgarian-Greek border in particular. The number is unknown.). 
4. ↑ Marc Speer; Mathias Fiedler: Get out! On the situation of refugees in Bulgaria. June 2020, accessed June 23, 2020 . 
5. ↑ See also the border between Bulgaria and Turkey
   • The Bulgarian “Wall”. In: mdr.de. August 12, 2016, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • Bulgaria wants to secure the entire border with Turkey with a fence. In: orf.at. June 22, 2016, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • APA: Bulgaria is expanding the border fence with Turkey. In: DerStandard.at . August 20, 2014, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • Kim Son Hoang: Bulgarian border fence. Modern, razor-sharp and ineffective. In: DerStandard.at . January 31, 2016, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • Silviu Mihai: Bulgaria. On the borders of the west. In: WOZ , 50/2013. December 12, 2013, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • Thomas Schmid: Europe's bouncers. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . December 12, 2013, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • Celine Peschard: Bulgaria. The wall of shame. In: Arte Info . January 13, 2015, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
   • PRO ASYLUM : Bulgaria. 30 arrests for “irregular entry”. In: Newsletter Jul 2013. July 1, 2013, accessed on April 23, 2020 . 
   • Frank Stier: Refugees in Europe. Bulgaria isolates itself. In: Der Tagesspiegel . September 10, 2015, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
6. ^ Marc Speer, Mathias Fiedler: Bulgaria. Refugees between imprisonment and homelessness. RLS , July 12, 2018, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Marc Speer; Mathias Fiedler: Get out! On the situation of refugees in Bulgaria. June 2020, accessed June 23, 2020 .