President, Rosen Plevneliev, attended Saturday an emotional meeting with the Bulgarian community in Chicago.

Plevneliev, who is on his first official visit to the US as Head of State, addressed theexpats ahead of the NATO summit in Chicago. The city is home of the largest Bulgarian diaspora in North America.

The meeting was held at one of the Institutes of Chicago‘s Botanical Garden.

The President greeted the attendees with: “Everywhere I go across the globe, I am meeting Bulgarians.”

He assured the hosts that the Cabinet is working on a Bill for Bulgarians Abroad that would be subject to large-scale debates both in the country and outside.

Plevneliev showed desire to address all questions and speak to everyone personally, which turned the meeting very emotional and extended the scheduled time.

One of the most interesting questions came from an expat who asked if it was true that Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, visits the Russian Embassy in Sofia on a daily basis, to which the President replied:

“You must have more information than I do. But I can assure you – Bulgaria is not and will not be Russia’s Trojan horse in EU and NATO.”

After the meeting, Plevneliev attended a ceremony dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Bulgarian school in Chicago ”John Atanasoff.”

The NATO summit starts Saturday and will be held in Chicago on May 20 and 21. The situation in Afghanistan will top the agenda of the summit, along with missile defense in Europe.

In addition to the President, the Bulgarian delegation includes the Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, and Defense Chief, Gen. Simeon Simeonov, who have also arrived in Chicago.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov and Qatari PM Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thaniin Bulgaria on Friday, reports say.

Al Thani is to arrive to the Bulgarian capital on Thursday on the invitation of Borisov, while Erdogan’s short visit on Friday was announced yesterday.

The Bulgarian National Radio has cited Turkish sources saying that the three Prime Ministers will hold a joint meeting on Friday. They are expected to focus on trade,energy and transport issues, as well as specific projects and investments.

Borisov and Erdogan are expected to discuss the construction of a natural gas interconnection pipeline between Bulgaria and Turkey, which is to allow the former to receive gas supplies from Azerbaijan.

An agreement for Qatari investments of USD 100 M that was discussed during Borisov mid-March to Qatar is also expected to be among the key topics.

www.novinite.com

All Bulgarian citizens are strongly advised to leave Syria as soon as possible, the spokesperson of Bulgaria‘s foreign affairs ministry has said.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the same warning on March 17 and April 7, but on Thursday Vesela Cherneva repeated the calls.

“We strongly advise all Bulgarian citizens to leave Syria as quickly as possible, while this is still possible. Following Thursday’s blasts and the escalation of violence, Bulgarian citizens, who decide to stay there, will bear the whole responsibility for their life and safety,” Cherneva pointed out.

The statement came in reaction to the twin suicide car-bomb attacks, which killed at least 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus.

The Bulgarian embassy in the Syrian capital is operating, but the staff has been reduced to a minimum.

Bulgaria‘s Foreign Ministry has developed an emergency evacuation plan, which however would be much more complicated than a similar plan it developed for Libya.

Many of the Bulgarians living in Syria have families there, with family members not always having a Bulgarian citizenship. Also, Bulgarians live across the country, not only in Damascus and other large cities.

The contact information of the Bulgarian embassy in Syria is as follows:

Damascus, Salhia, 8 Pakistan Street, P.O. Box 2732

Tel.: 0096311 4454039; 0096311 4413128

Fax: 0096311 4419854

e-mail: Embassy.Damascus@mfa.bg

Nationalist “hooligans” have staged an organized attack against a delegation led by the Bulgarian Ambassador in Macedonia Ivan Petkov, which was trying to lay flowers at the grave of Bulgarian revolutionary hero Gotse Delchev (1872-1903).

The newly-appointed Bulgarian Ambassador Ivan Petkov together with local Macedonian Bulgarians attempted to lay wreaths at the grave of Gotse Delchev in the St. Spas Church in Skopje, on day of Delchev’s death, May 4, when he and those accompanying him were attacked by Macedonian nationalists, the Focus news agency reported citing witnesses. According to Macedonian Bulgarians from the delegation, the attackers were from a nationalist wing of the ruling Macedonian partyVMRO-DPMNE.

“What happened today in Skopje during the ceremony in honor of the memory ofGotse Delchev is unacceptable. An attempt to prevent the laying of wreaths by the Ambassador of Bulgaria in Skopje is in conflict with the European principles and norms of human respect for the memory of individuals who have contributed to freedom and dignity,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov declared in a special statement.

“That is why, earlier today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a sharp protest regarding the incident was conveyed to the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia, Blagoj Handjiski,” he revealed.

“I hope that this offensive incident remains an isolated case. We expect information from the Macedonian side of the measures that it intends to take to prevent future similar acts of aggression and intolerance against Bulgaria. Ensuring the smooth celebration and commemoration of historical dates and events is a sign of acceptance of European values and the desire to develop good neighborly relations in the region – the main condition for the accession of countries to the European Union,” Mladenov concluded.

The Bulgarians attempting to honor revolutionary hero Gotse Delchev were attacked with force, and thus forced to flee, failing to lay flowers at the hero’s grave.

The authorities in Macedonia‘s capital Skopje have prevented Bulgarian diplomats and Macedonians with Bulgarian self-consciousness from honoring the grave ofGotse Delchev at several instances in the past on both Delchev’s birthday – February 4, and the day of his death – May 4.

Back on January 13, 2007, Bulgarian citizens were attacked and beaten by Macedonian nationalists upon laying flowers at the memorial of Bulgarian female hero Mara Buneva, who resisted the Serbian / Yugoslavian occupation of the region of Vardar Macedonia in the 1920s.

Common history is a major issue in the relations between Bulgaria and the Republic ofMacedonia since the latter was considered an inalienable part of the Bulgarian nation until communist Yugoslavia invented a Macedonian nation in 1943-44, and subsequently undertook a meticulous campaign for the creation of a distinct Macedonian national identity that was supposed to be different from the Bulgarian one.

The years after Yugoslavia’s collapse and Macedonia‘s independence in 1991 have seen both an intensification of Macedonian nationalism based on the identity invented in the Yugoslavian period, and an erosion of the Macedonian national idea, with a few dozens of thousands of Slavic Macedonians claiming Bulgarian citizenship on the grounds of their Bulgarian ethnicity.

Gotse Delchev (1872-1903) was a key figure in the liberation movement of the Bulgarians from the historic and geographic regions of Macedonia and Thrace that remained in the Ottoman Empire after Bulgaria’s National Liberation in 1878, which however included only some of the Bulgarian populated territories in the regions ofMoesia and Thrace.

Delchev was one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO ; VMORO in Bulgarian), which was originally founded in 1893 under the name “Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees”.

While in the years before the Ilinder-Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903 – the largest uprising of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thrace against the rule of theOttoman Turkish Empire – VMORO‘s goal was to unite the respective regions with the liberated Bulgaria, after the uprising was crushed, the organization split into several factions with different agendas. Keeping in mind the multiethnic population of the regions of Macedonia and Thrace at the time, Gotse Delchev is known to have voiced the vision of creating an autonomous entity out of the European remaining European provinces of the Ottoman Empire, a vision that was not rejected by the Bulgarian governments in Sofia at the time even though they never doubted the Bulgarian identity of the Slavic Macedonians.

Delchev’s remains were transferred to the authorities of the communist Yugoslav republic of Macedonia in the late 1940s by the authorities of communist Bulgaria, which, following the Comintern policies imposed by the Soviet Union, briefly accepted the invention of a distinct Macedonian identity.

www.novinite.com

18-member delegation from Qatar headed by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalid Al Attiyah will arrive in Bulgaria on May 3.

Sofia will welcome high-ranking officials from a number of ministries, as well as representatives of investment companies based in Qatar.

The group will arrive to prepare the forthcoming official visit to Bulgaria of Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani scheduled for mid-May.

Bulgaria and Qatar will also negotiate an agreement for investments of USD 100 M which was discussed during the mid-March visit of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to Qatar.

The two countries will also prepare agreements in the spheres of healthcare, agriculture, mining, customs and culture, which will be signed during the visit of the Qatari Prime Minister.

The three-day visit to Qatar (March 13-15) of the Bulgarian delegation turned into a top news story after the Bulgarian-Qatari business forum in Doha was attended by a total of zero Qatari companies.

The Qatari fiasco was the alleged reason behind the dismissal of Traicho Traikov, Minister of Energy, Economy and Tourism.

The freedom of the six Bulgarian medics formerly jailed in Libya over the notoriousLibyan HIV Trial has been granted in exchange for a nuclear power plant deal between French President Nicolas Sarcozy and Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, a report says.

The deal was sealed in 2007, French magazine Les Inrocks states, citing secret documents it has allegedly obtained. The magazine has promised to reveal more details in its print edition on Wednesday.

Gaddafi was aware that the French President was desperate for a diplomatic victory like that and demanded weapons and a nuclear power plant from France, Les Inrocks claims.

The secret documents in question reportedly show that France agreed to the deal.

On July 17 2007, France and Libya signed an agreement tackling terrorism, illegal migration, security and nuclear energy. Three days later, however, Gaddafi decided to raise that stakes and offered a special military and nuclear deal, the report says.

In 1999-2007, the Gaddafi regime arrested, imprisoned and tortured five Bulgariannurses and one Bulgarian doctor, and twice sentenced to them death for allegedly infecting 400 Libyan children with AIDS, the so-called Libyan HIV trial.

The Bulgarian medics were brought back to Bulgaria and then pardoned byBulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, after increased international pressure on Gaddafi, especially by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, among other factors.

www.novinite.com

Zulu King, His Majesty Goodwill Zwelithini, has cancelled his planned visit to Bulgaria, the South African Embassy in Sofia has announced.

King Goodwill Zwelithini was planned to be coming to Bulgaria to officiate at the week of South African Culture – May 7-11, 2012, with Bulgaria’s Culture MinisterVezhdi Rashidov having agreed to host the Zulu King, and having announced his visit last month.

The South African Embassy in Sofia explained that just before the Easter weekend King Goodwill Zwelithini and his entourage were involved in a terrible car accident in which two associates were killed. The Zulu King himself was hospitalized after the accident. His doctors have now advised that he should not travel for the next few weeks.

It is hoped that His Majesty will be able to visit Bulgaria later in this 20th anniversary year since the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Africa and Bulgaria.

The Embassy announced that South African Deputy Minister of Defense Thabang Makwetla, who studied in Sofia in the 1980′s during his years in exile from ApartheidSouth Africa, will be visiting Bulgaria during the week of South African culture and will be officiating at the opening of the exhibition on South African culture at the State Cultural Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 7th May, the Archival Exhibition at the State Archives on 9th May and South Africa‘s Freedom Day celebrations on 8th May.

The South African Deputy Defense Minister will also be holding talks with his counterparts at the Bulgarian Defense Ministry.

www.novinite.com

Bulgaria is to inaugurate officially on Saturday its consulate in India‘s Hyderabad, to be headed by the CEO of a major local infrastructure player.

Bulgarian Ambassador Borislav Kostov will formally inaugurate the consulate at a ceremony, to be attended by Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha and Minister for Civil Supplies and NRI Affairs D. Sridhar Babu.

Bulgaria‘s government picked Y. Kiran Kumar, chief executive officer of SuchirIndia company, to be honorary consul of the country in India‘s Hyderabad in the middle of November last year.

Suchir India operates in the areas of infrastructure, railway transport, mining, hospitality, tourism, real estate and construction of residential buildings.

“Dr. Kiran Kumar shows keen interest to promote the development of trade and business contacts between Bulgaria and India, as well as cultural cooperation,”Bulgaria‘s government said in a statement.

It added that the south Indian states and the state of Andhra Pradesh in particular play an increasingly important role in affirming India as a global hub of information and communication technologies, biotechnology, software industry, outsourcing and pharmaceutical industries.

The consulate opening comes a day after an exhibition entitled “Contemporary Bulgarian graphics” was inaugurated at the Andhra Pradesh State Gallery in Hyderabad.

The exhibition showcases 27 masterpieces of 20 Bulgarian artists including Buyan Filchev, Rumen Skorchev, Nikolay Maystorov, Svilen Blazhev, Ivan Ninov, Milko Pavlov, Evgeni Kuzmanov and Petar Chuklev.

www.novinite.com

Brazil has expressed condolences to all the victims of recent flooding in southern Bulgaria and offered its assistance.

The Brazilian government has approved a donation of USD 50,000 to the Bulgarian Red Cross to aid those affected by the recent deadly flooding and especially those who have lost their homes.

The official ceremony for presenting the donation for the floods victims will take place on Monday at the Bulgarian Red Cross headquarters in Sofia.

Relations between the two countries received a boost after the election of Dilma Rousseff, who is of Bulgarian descent, and the excitement over her visit to the country, where her father was born, at the beginning of October last year.

www.novinite.com

US Ambassador in Sofia, James Warlick, officially opened the renovated Kermen Health Center Home in the town of Kermen, near the southern Bulgarian city of Sliven.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was also attended by the Regional Governor of Sliven, Marin Kavrakov, and other officials.

The building was constructed in the distant 1906 and the US Government provided USD 103 000 for the renovation of the center under the Department of Defense’s Humanitarian Assistance program.

The funds were used to pay a Bulgarian contractor for repairs to the roof of the building and to the basement, the installation of a new heating system, the replacement of the existing electrical system, the repainting of the entire exterior of the building, and the installation of a wheel chair ramp. The building now has 11 renovated offices for the use of community medical personnel and residents, the US Embassy in Sofia informs in a press release.

Warlick pointed out it was an honor and a privilege to extend this gift to Kermen residents, the Bulgarian 24 Chassa (24 Hours) daily writes, further informing the diplomat had enjoyed a bouquet of snowdrops he had gotten from a local beauty in folk attire and hade cheered the horo (traditional Bulgarian folk dance), which had welcomed him.

In the last two years, the Office of Defense Cooperation has donated over USD 722 151 to various humanitarian assistance projects in Bulgaria.

www.novinite.com