[size=55:1hjps8y1]novinite 12 September 2010

Bessarabia Bulgarians Plan 1st National Fair in Sofia

Bulgarians from Bessarabia, the historic region of today's Moldova and southwest Ukraine containing a large Bulgarian community, are going to hold their first "
National Fair"
in Sofia.

The event entitled "
My Land, My Bulgaria"
(a quoted from a popular Bulgarian song) will take place on September 22, 2010, which is also Bulgaria's National Independence Day. It is organized by the Bessarabian Bulgarians Foundation and supported by other NGOs and Diaspora Minister Bozhidar Dimitrov.

The organizers have explicitly expressed their gratitude to Minister Dimitrov for his efforts in favor of the historic Bulgarian communities in Moldova and Ukraine.

They are going to present to Dimitrov a "
Welcome to Bulgaria"
candle of 13 kg in weight and 70 cm in height, made of Bulgarian rose oil.

"
This is a sign of gratitude for the fact that only in this year 76 000 Bulgarians managed to acquire Bulgarian citizenship and to come back to their homeland,"
says the announcement of the Bessarabian Bulgarians Foundation. (According to the figures announced by Dimitrov, 17 000 Bulgarians from Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, and Russia have been granted citizenship in the past year.)

The Bessarabian Bulgarian communities formed in the 18th-19th century as hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians fled from Ottoman Turkish repressions to the southwestern tip of the Russian Empire. About 200-300 000 ethnic Bulgarians are believed to live in Moldova and Ukraine today. Dimitrov has been a proponent of the idea to grant citizenship to all of them and to bring them to Bulgaria.