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Bulgaria

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BulgariaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
This article is about the country. For other uses, see Bulgaria (disambiguation).
Republic of Bulgaria
Република България Flag Coat of arms Motto: Съединението прави силата (Bulgarian)
"Saedinenieto pravi silata" (transliteration)
"Unity makes strength"1
Anthem:

Мила Родино (Bulgarian)
Mila Rodino (transliteration)
Dear Motherland Location of Bulgaria (dark green)
– on the European continent (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (green) — [Legend] Capital
(and largest city) Sofia (София)
42°41′N 23°19′E / 42.683°N 23.317°E / 42.683; 23.317
Official language(s) Bulgarian
Ethnic groups (2001) 84% Bulgarians,
9.5% Turks, 4.5% Roma, 2% others and unspecified [1]
Demonym Bulgarian
Government Parliamentary democracy - President Georgi Parvanov - Prime Minister Boyko Borisov
Formation
- First Bulgarian Empire 681–1018 - Second Bulgarian Empire 1185–1396 - Re-established as Tributary Principality of Bulgaria 1878 - Third independent Bulgarian state Since 1908
Area
- Total 110,993.6 km2 (104th)
42,823 sq mi - Water (%) 0.3
Population
- 2011 census 7,351,234 [2] (97th) - Density 66.2/km2 (139th)
171/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2010 estimate - Total $96.778 billion[3] (69th) - Per capita $12,851[3] (65th)
GDP (nominal) 2010 estimate - Total $47.702 billion[3] (74th) - Per capita $6,334[3] (74th)
Gini (2008) 33.5[4] (medium)
HDI (2010) 0.743[5] (high) (58th)
Currency Lev2 (BGN)
Time zone EET (UTC+2) - Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Drives on the right
ISO 3166 code BG
Internet TLD .bg3
Calling code 359
1 "Bulgaria’s National Flag". Bulgarian Government. 3 October 2005. http://www.government.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0159&n=000006&g=. Retrieved 1 January 2007.
2 plural Levs.
3 In common with other European Union member-states, the .eu domain is also in use.
4 Cell phone system GSM and NMT 450i
5 Domestic power supply 220 V/50 Hz, Schuko (CEE 7/4) sockets

Bulgaria (i /bʌlˈgɛəriə/; Bulgarian: България; officially the Republic of Bulgaria Република България, translit. Republika Bulgaria,[6] [rɛˈpublikɐ bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country in Southeast Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east.

With a territory of 110,994 square kilometers (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria ranks as the 16th-largest country in Europe. Several mountainous areas define the landscape, most notably the Stara Planina (Balkan) and Rodopi mountain ranges, as well as the Rila range, which includes the highest peak in the Balkan region, Musala. In contrast, the Danubian plain in the north and the Upper Thracian Plain in the south represent Bulgaria's lowest and most fertile regions. The 378-kilometer (235 mi) Black Sea coastline covers the entire eastern bound of the country. Bulgaria's capital city and largest settlement is Sofia.[7]

The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the 7th century AD. All Bulgarian political entities that subsequently emerged preserved the traditions (in ethnic name, language and alphabet) of the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018), which at times covered most of the Balkans and eventually became a cultural hub for the Slavs in the Middle Ages.[8] With the decline of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396/1422), Bulgarian territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 led to the establishment of a Third Bulgarian state as a principality in 1878, which gained its full sovereignty in 1908.[9] In 1945, after World War II, it became a communist state[10] and was a part of the Eastern Bloc until the political changes in Eastern Europe in 1989/1990, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections and Bulgaria undertook a transition to democracy and free-market capitalism with mixed results.

Bulgaria functions as a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic. A member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and a founding state of the OSCE and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, it has a high Human Development Index of 0.743, ranking 58th in the world in 2010.[11]

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