The number of Bulgarians in Serbia has significantly declined

The number of Bulgarians in Serbia has seriously declined, reports the Belgrade edition of Danas. The Bulgarian minority in the neighbouring country currently numbers less than 13,000 people, while in the 1948 census, the Bulgarians in Serbia were almost 60,000.

According to the pro-Western Belgrade publication "Danas", the number of Bulgarians in Serbia has decreased significantly. Most of them "disappeared" in the period between 1971-1991, which is seen as the "golden age" of our western neighbour, during Tito’s Yugoslavia.

According to the latest census, their percentage is highest in Bosilegrad, where 4,075 out of a total of 6,065 citizens (67.18%) declared themselves as such, and in Dimitrovgrad, where Bulgarians make up 45.61% of the population, as 3,669 out of 8,043 people have "announced" themselves in this way.

In Nis, for example, only 774 citizens have declared themselves as Bulgarians, in Belgrade - only 899, and in all of Vojvodina - 1,123 citizens.

"The biggest problem in Bosilegrad, Dimitrovgrad and part of Babushnica-Zvonetsa and Zvonachka Banya is the economy, i.e. unemployment among people, and we need to work on that," Stoykov said, adding that the state should ensure that as much as if possible, more representatives of the Bulgarian people will enter the security sector - the army, the police, the border police and the firefighters, because among other things, this will make young people stay in these municipalities,” said Stefan Stoykov, the chairman of the National Council of the Bulgarian National Minority in Serbia.

Petar Videnov, editor-in-chief of the bilingual internet portal "Far", says there are also problems for the Bulgarian minority in the media sector, which is facing funding problems, as well as efforts by Serbia and local authorities to bring it under their control to the detriment of professional and objective information.

"I think that there are enough Bulgarian-language media in Serbia and they are of great importance, but the question is how objectively, professionally and realistically these media present the problems and the situation of the members of the Bulgarian community as a whole. At the same time, more than 20 years in public the RTS service does not have a television program in Bulgarian," Petra Videnov commented.

The authors of the publication point to poverty as the biggest problem for local Bulgarians, as well as the possibilities after Bulgaria's accession to the European Union for people to emigrate to countries where there is a "better life".

Stefan Stoykov is sure that there are more than 100,000 Bulgarians living in Serbia at the moment and there is no explanation why people did not declare themselves in this way, although they were urged to do it "freely", we explained to them what this means and that "it’s okay", he says.