“The Western Balkans is the most difficult topic to be solved but is an important topic because in the Balkans, if one of the neighbours is in bad situation, everyone is bad. The better the region is interconnected, the greater the prospects for investment, peace and prosperity are,” said the Bulgarian Prime Minister.

Commenting on the European Commission’s recommendation to open membership talks with Albania and Macedonia, Borissov said Albania has made efforts to advance its process of European integration and opening of the accession talks would give a fresh impetus to the process.

“We are eagerly waiting for the June 26th conference that will give great impetus to this process and mark the start of real processes in this area. Improving the infrastructure and digital inter-connectivity in the region would bring the region’s countries closer.” – said Borissov.

Albanian prime minister Edi Rama praised Bulgaria’s current EU Presidency and asked for Bulgaria’s potential technical assistance in the framework of Albania’s preparations for the EU accession negotiations.

“I admire the fact that Bulgaria from a country at the bottom of the list of beneficiaries of European Union funds, is today a country providing an excellent example of this and we are happy that our desire to learn from this experience,” – said Rama.

Borissov visited Tirana to participate at the Security Conference on Violent Extremism held in Tirana as part of the AQABA Process, launched under the auspices of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who was unable to attend due to huge protests in his own country.

He visited Tirana as the small Balkan country awaits a decision by the European Council on whether to open membership talks this month with the European union.

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Trebisht in northeastern Albania looks like a ghost village, emptied of its residents by a rush to get Bulgarian passports that open the door to the European Union, AFP reported.

Arman Kadriu has an Albanian name, but the 12-year-old boy says he considers himself Bulgarian.

\”I don\’t want to stay here taking care of cows. I want to be a football player,\” he said, covered in sweat, as he juggled a ball with his feet on a dusty road in the village in the Golo Brdo region.

\”In England, with a Bulgarian passport, it\’s possible,\” he said, switching languages to say \”Dovizhdane!\” — goodbye in Bulgarian.
Bulgaria and Albania do not share a border.

And non-EU member Albania, where a law on minorities is under consideration, does not count Bulgarians among its recognised ethnic communities, unlike the Greeks, Macedonians or Serb-Montenegrins.

The ethnicity of historically Slavic-speaking communities in parts of Albania\’s east has long been fluid and disputed — neighbouring Macedonia claims they are ethnic Macedonians.

But according to the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, which helps in obtaining a passport, Bulgarian families have been settled in Albania since the 5th century and their descendants are part of its diaspora.

No statistics are available, but Bulgarian organisations in Albania estimate that there are around 100,000 of these descendants.
The European Parliament seems to agree: in February, it requested of Tirana \”that the rights of people with Bulgarian ethnicity in the Prespa, Golo Brdo and Gora regions be enshrined in law and ensured in practice\”.

The recommendation \”has given renewed hope. Every day at least seven or eight people come to ask about obtaining Bulgarian citizenship,\” said Haxhi Pirushi.

He heads the Prosperity Goloborda association, which provides certificates of Bulgarian origin to Albanians and is recognized by the government in Sofia./ Sofia News Agency

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The treaty was a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, known in Bulgaria as the Liberation War. Russia moved to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in the spring of 1877 using as an occasion the atrocities against the Bulgarian population during the April Uprising of 1876.
At the time, both the United States and Europe were able to read about the April Uprising events described by US journalist Januarius MacGahan, working for British newspapers (MacGahan\’s grave in his hometown in New Lexington, Ohio, identifies him as \”the Liberator of Bulgaria).

The holiday will be honored with ceremonies, traditionally held throughout the country, and particularly solemn in towns and cities boasting victorious battles of Russian soldiers and Bulgarian volunteers in the 1877-1878 Liberation War. Some 66 000 Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Finnish, and Romanian soldiers were killed and nearly 140 000 were wounded while fighting against the Ottomans. About 30 000 Bulgarians were slaughtered by Ottoman troops and irregulars during the fighting.

However, the San Stefano Treaty was not final and its clauses were revised at the Congress of Berlin, which took place a couple of months later in 1878. It ended with the redistribution back to the Ottoman Empire of certain Bulgarian-populated territories that the previous treaty had given to the Principality of Bulgaria, most notably Macedonia.

The Congress of Berlin (June 13 – July 13, 1878) was a meeting of the European Great Powers\’ and the Ottoman Empire\’s leading statesmen. In the wake of the Russian-Turkish War, 1877-78, the meeting\’s aim was to reorganize the countries of the Balkans.

Otto von Bismarck, who led the Congress, undertook to balance the distinct interests of Britain, Russia and Austria-Hungary. The congress was aimed at the revision of the Treaty of San Stefano and at keeping Constantinople in Ottoman hands.
March 3 was honored for the first time in 1880, on the occasion of the Enthronement of Russian Emperor Alexander the Second. Since 1888, March 3 has become Bulgaria\’s Day of Liberation, but it was not declared National Holiday until 1978.

With a Parliamentary Decree from 1990, March 3 was included in the list of Bulgaria\’s official holidays. Liberation Day has been leaving Bulgarians divided in the past years, with some historians claiming it creates a state where Russia has the final say and over which the Ottoman Empire still wields influence. These have suggested that the Unification or Independence Day. Their opponents, on the other hand, argue March 03 reinstated Bulgaria\’s statehood and should therefore be respected.

Regardless of these disputes, the liberation put an end to hundreds of years of Ottoman rule which began in the late 14th century.

Source: Novinite.com  

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On January 30, caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov gave his Cabinet ministers two weeks to complete check-ups of all their ministries, a few days after taking over from the government that had been headed by Boiko Borissov.

Yanev told a news conference that the audit at the ministry was still ongoing and only the check-up covering public procurements had been completed.

Source:  Independent Balkan News Agency     

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SOFIA (Bulgaria), October 21 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian telecommunication services provider Allterco successfully closed its initial public offering (IPO) on the Sofia bourse, as investors submitted offers for 2.5 million shares, oversubscribing the offering, local brokerage company Karoll said.

The share price in the IPO was set at 1.45 levs ($0.80/0.74 euro), Karoll, the company lead managing the IPO, said in a press release on Thursday.

In September, Allterco offered investors 1.5 million shares with a nominal value of 1.0 lev and an issue price in the range of 1.1 – 2.2 levs per share. The IPO was to be considered successful if at least 750,000 shares were subscribed.

Around 70% of the IPO proceeds will be used for the production, implementation and improvement of the company\’s projects for home control system SHE and for children\’s watches MyKi, Allterco CEO Dimitar Dimitrov said at the time.

Allterco plans to reach earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of 14% by 2020, up from an estimated 3% for 2016.

The company operates on eight markets worldwide. It generates 43% of its revenues in Bulgaria, 16% in the U.S., 15% in Singapore, 14% in Romania and 10% in Malaysia.

In Southeastern Europe, the Sofia-based company has offices in Romania, Serbia and Macedonia.

Allterko partners with over 20 mobile operators in seven countries on three continents and its services reach around a billion users. The company had a turnover of over 28 million levs last year. It has over 100 employees, most of them based in Bulgaria.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)

Source: Seenews

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