On September 22nd Bulgaria celebrates its Declaration Of Independence, on that day in the year 1908 Prince Ferdinand declares the Bulgarian independent State.
This event occurs 30 years after the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. That finalized with the signature of the San Stefano peace treaty on the March 3 of 1878, the day when Bulgaria appeared in the map for the first time after 500 years under the Ottoman Rule, with the name of Principality of Bulgaria.
In that day on September 22, 1908, in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, or the “City of the Tsars”, named like that since was the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand declared Bulgaria’s independence.
And with this declaration rejected any vassal relation between the Principality of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, with this action creates the independent state headed by Crown King Ferdinand I.
Sublime Porte, also called Porte, (the government of the Ottoman Empire) and then the Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, British Empire, France, and Germany) officially recognized the independent Bulgarian state.
During this period for the newly created Bulgarian state, the international conditions were favorable, as an example, during the summer of 1908 in the Ottoman Empire a revolution, called the Young Turk Revolution, is taking place and the fraction reformist success and the rulers become profoundly debilitated in power.
Austria-Hungary, at the moment one of the Great Powers (British Empire, Austria- Hungary, Germany, and France), imposed the Treaty of Berlin, and was trying to annex the two provinces of the Ottoman Empire, the now named Bosnia and Herzegovina, at this time the Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand contact directly to Emperor Franz Joseph to act coordinately to reach their objectives.
During that time Bulgarian authorities take actions and capture the Eastern Railways in the south of Bulgaria, having as consequence problems between Bulgarian state and Austria Hungary. And at that moment the Bulgarian state raised from a principality to a kingdom. Ferdinand, I was crowned a Tsar at the Declaration of Independence, on September 22, 1908, in the church “St. 40 Martyrs” located in the symbolic town of Veliko Tarnovo.
This act marked the great success of the Bulgarian diplomacy. And Prince Ferdinand becomes King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, moving from a principality vassal to the Ottoman rule to the Kingdom of Bulgaria with a Constitutional monarchy.
That day Prince Ferdinand reads the Manifesto for independence and celebrates public prayer for the prosperity of the Bulgarian state. After that, Prime Minister Alexander Malinov reread the manifesto in the historical place of Tsarevets hill in front of the multitude of people that congregate at that place.
This declaration presents an essential challenge to the newly created Bulgarian state since the act of independence is a violation of the Treaty of Berlin, the British Empire, which stipulates – to start the negotiations between the Bulgarian Government and the Sublime Porte (Ottoman government). Negotiations began immediately and the Bulgarian delegation led by Andrei Lyapchev. During them, Porte wants Bulgaria to pay high tribute.
Prime Minister Malinov said that independence wouldn’t be taken back, and to show military power did a partial mobilization of the Bulgarian Army.
Russia did not want to start a new military conflict in the Balkan region and start to mediate in the negotiations. Russia agrees to simplify the debt of the Ottoman Empire from the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, in return for which the Ottoman Empire refused to claim compensation from Bulgaria and recognizes its independence.
Then Officially at April 6, 1909. European powers recognised Bulgaria as a kingdom and also as an independent state.
And with the this starts the Third Bulgarian Tsardom (Third Bulgarian Kingdom), during this period Bulgarian state was almost always at war throughout its existence. For several years Bulgaria mobilized an army of more than 1 million people from its population of about 5 million, and in the next decade (1910–20) is engaged in three wars – the First and Second Balkan Wars, and the First World War.
Since September 10, 1998, this day is considered a public holiday in Bulgaria by decree of the Bulgarian National Assembly.
There are other 2 dates that sometimes people tend to confuse when we talk about the Bulgarian national holidays:
1- On 3rd of March Bulgaria celebrates the anniversary of its Liberation from the five century-long Ottoman rule. It is also referred to as the date of the creation of the Third Bulgarian Tsardom. March 3 is a national holiday for Bulgaria and it was declared as such in 1978. On this day, in 1878, Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed a preliminary peace treaty in San Stefano, a small village near Istanbul.
2- Unification Day on 6 September is a national holiday of Bulgaria. It commemorates the unification of Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria in 1885.
