Bulgaria history
 The Bulgars merged with the local Slavic people to form the first Bulgarian state towards the end of the 7th century.
In the following centuries Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire eventually to be overrun by the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. Ottoman rule continued over the next 5 centuries. With the conquest of Bulgaria, the aristocracy was liquidated and the Bulgarian church was deprived of its autonomy. During this time the Bulgarian people became responsible for their own identity, faith, culture etc. The Bulgarian people supported and maintained the growth of their monasteries and restored their towns.
 Bulgaria regained their church autonomy in 1870 and organised its own liberation movement leading to uprising in 1876. Its suppression finally led to the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78 and the final end of Ottoman rule.
Sofia became the countries capital in 1879. After restoration of the national state, Bulgaria became a monarchy with a democratic governmental system and a rapidly growing economy.
Over the next 70 years Bulgaria would find itself taking part in war after war. In 1913 Bulgaria was at war not with one nation but five: Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Greece and Romania.
It was also involved in the First and Second World Wars and in the 20´s and 30´s the country suffered governmental coups.
At the end of the Second World War, Bulgaria found itself under the influence of the Soviet Union and remained so until 10 November 1989 when Bulgaria’s long time Communist leader Todor Zhivkov was forced to resign and Bulgaria became a democracy once again.
 Nowadays Bulgaria is a multi-party state and a parliamentary republic. Between January and May 1990 the rights and the properties of the old parties were restored. Ethnic Turks were granted equal rights enjoyed by the rest of Bulgaria’s citizens. In June that year the countries first free parliamentary elections were held and in October 1991 the first free local elections. In January 1992 the first presidential elections took place and Zhelyu Zhelev was elected. Between the year 1997 and 2001 the currency board was introduced and during Ivan Kostov´s term of office the privatisation of Bulgaria’s economy was more or less complete.
Up to date now the current President is Georgi Parvanov, who is incidentally the first Bulgarian President to be re-elected for a second term and who will lead Bulgaria into a new phase in its development within the European Union. Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and is now looking forward to becoming a member of the European Union in January 2007.
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