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Presidents Rumen Radev and Aleksandar Vucic Agreed that Serbia Should treble the Funds Allocated for the Bulgarian Language Media for the Bulgarian minority in the Country

In Dimitrovgrad the two Presidents met representatives of the Bulgarian ethnic minority in Serbia and symbolically laid wreaths at Neshkov Vruh

“The fate of the Bulgarian ethnic minority in Serbia is extremely important not only for Bulgaria, but also for Serbia, as well as with regard to our bilateral relations and the European prospects of the whole region.” This is what Head of State Rumen Radev said after the first of its kind joint meeting with the Bulgarian ethnic minority in the Republic of Serbia held together with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic.

The Bulgarian Head of State extended gratitude to President Aleksandar Vucic for the constructive and concrete decisions made during his two-day official visit in Serbia, for improving the life of the Bulgarians living on the territory of our western neighbor. “Together with President Vucic we held a constructive and honest dialogue on the problems the Bulgarians face. The Bulgarian state has assumed a commitment in this respect and so has Serbia’s state leadership. I hail Aleksandar Vucic for his leadership and the political responsibility assumed to join our efforts to achieve full historical reconciliation,” Rumen Radev said.

“We raised the issue of the funding of the Bulgarian media. Nine Bulgarian language media have filed requests for increased funding. President Vucic has increased the budget allocations for the media three times, and this will become effective in seven to ten days,” Rumen Radev told journalists in Dimitrovgrad.

In the talks held between the two Heads of State a decision has been made to send back to Bosilegrad the plaque in memory of the Bulgarians who died in World War I, detained by the Serbian border authorities. “I expect that the local municipality will make the decision to install the plaque as soon as possible,” President Radev said.  

Rumen Radev and Aleksandar Vucic also noted the progress made in ensuring access to education in the Bulgarian language in the regions where the Bulgarian ethnic minority lives. “Bulgarian textbooks have not been published for 30 years, and it was not until last year that the primary-school textbooks were published. The tender for the submission of offers for the final versions of the secondary school textbooks is expected to be completed soon,” the Bulgarian President further said.

The issue of the suffixes of the female family names for the Bulgarians in Serbia was also raised at the meeting. Our compatriots insisted that they should have the right to write the female names in compliance with the Bulgarian norm – ending in the suffixes “-ova,” not in “-ov.” In Aleksandar Vucic’s words, the Serbian side has the resolve to solve this problem and also to restore the name of Dimitrovgrad – Tsaribord.

The two delegations confirmed their commitment to increase the healthcare funds in the local medical facilities and to create opportunities for specialists from Military Medical Academy in Sofia to accept patients for medical treatment and periodically send teams for local preventive care.

Rumen Radev called on the Bulgarians in Serbia to be united so to ensure that their interests are efficiently promoted. The Head of State added that to be a Serbian citizen of Bulgarian national identity means to abide by the laws in the country you live in.  

The critical economic situation of the Bulgarian ethnic minority was identified as a key problem for our compatriots in Serbia, which leads to a gradual depopulation of the region. In Rumen Radev’s words, the solution of the demographic problems does not depend on separate decisions, but on the systemic policy and voiced hope that the governments of Bulgaria and Serbia will speed up their work on the joint infrastructure projects, which will improve connectivity and create better opportunities for business. “I also called on the local authorities in which our minority is well represented to work more efficiently to attract investments and increase employment,” the President further said. Aleksandar Vucic in turn stated Serbia’s readiness to encourage investors’ interest in the regions with Bulgarian national minority and modernize the transport infrastructure to promote tourism.

“The Bulgarians in Serbia managed to preserve their cultural and national identity in difficult times. Today times have changed and to identify as a Bulgarian is not seen as disgraceful or dangerous. What we expect from our compatriots in Serbia is that by adopting an active civil stance and by the decisions the local authorities make, the Bulgarian ethnic minority should not divide us, but unite us,” Rumen Radev further told the Bulgarians in Serbia.

The Serbian state will no way tolerate the language of hate and actions that lead to acts of this sort, President Aleksandar Vucic emphasized, for his part. “We, the Serbs, love the Bulgarians, and I honestly say that not a single Serb hates the Bulgarians,” the Serbian President added. In Aleksandar Vucic’s words, the Bulgarians and the Serbs are two brotherly peoples and called on our compatriots in Serbia to love and feel close not only their Bulgarian kith and kin and their ethnic community, but  also their homeland Serbia.

In the yard of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius high school in Dimitrovgrad the two Presidents turned the first sod of the monument of the Slavic first teachers. On President Vucic’s initiative, 2019 onwards, 24 May will be included among the official holidays in the Republic of Serbia.

Symbolically the two Heads of State laid wreaths at the Neshkov Vruh monument of Bulgarian and Serbian soldiers killed during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War.