Issue 127

THE ART OF MAKING MONEY

DimanaT — Tue, 02 May 2017 08:03:29 +0000

THE ART OF MAKING MONEY

interview by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Tue, 05/02/2017 - 11:03

For Dimitre Tzonev, CEO of Admiral Markets BG, to be a successful trader you need to have the right information, perseverance and the wisdom to manage the volatility of the markets

With interests on deposits hitting an all-time low and no change in sight in the near future, trading is a way to make a good profit. The waters of international markets, however, can be rough for both beginners and advanced traders who suffer from more than the healthy amount of enthusiasm. To make the best of the markets, such enthusiasts need the help of Admiral Markets UK, a regulated FCA broker. The company offers a modern platform for trading CFDs on currencies, commodities, stocks and indices. In addition, Admiral Markets UK offers excellent trading conditions, fast execution and flexible accounts.

If someone is dedicated enough to learn and dedicate his time to trading the international markets, success is highly possible, believes Dimitre Tzonev, CEO of Admiral Markets' Bulgarian branch. He knows this from his own experience. He has been fascinated with trading since 1999 when he, as a teenager freshly grounded in the US, bought his first shares (in a gold mining company). It took him more than three years to return his investment, but he was hooked forever. After working for Ameritrade, Merrill Lynch, and HSBC in the US, Dimitre Tzonev returned to Bulgaria in 2009. Four years ago, he became part of the Admiral Markets team, and did his best to establish the brand's name on the local market.

What does Admiral Markets offer to someone searching for a way to invest their money?

Admiral Markets BG is a part of an international team with 13 branches in Europe, offering some of the best products in the brokerage industry. To anybody who comes to trading, we offer specialised education that takes them step by step through the whole process and gets them familiarised with the markets' risks and products. We have excellent programmes and staff of professionals with significant experience in the financial markets. As a STP (Straight Through Processing) company, we don't advise our clients on what to buy and what to sell; we don't take the risk for them. Instead, we provide them with a unique view on how we think about the markets and what we see. Admiral Marekts provides a user friendly platform MetaTrader 4. The company has invested substantial amount of capital and has developed the Supreme Edition of MetaTrader4 that has been voted for 2 consecutive years as one of the best brokers in the UK and Germany. The process is straightforward: the client comes, we provide education if he or she is new to trading, and then they open an account and trade on their own. We offer the best options for both beginners and experienced traders. Thanks to this, anybody in Bulgaria can be a part of the international markets.

Does Bulgaria have any advantages for traders?

A lot of people in the West are into trading. In trading, the sky is the limit. You can do it from all over the world. Bulgaria's advantages are low taxation, excellent trading time zones, access to fast Internet connection. From Bulgaria, you can easily trade the Asian, European and American markets. There are not that many places in the world from where you can do this.

How do you see the markets in 2017?

First let's go back and see what happened after the world financial crisis of 2008-2009. We bottomed out in 2009, and ever since the trend has been up all over the world. We've had unprecedented intervention from the monetary policy bodies in the US, Japan, and the EU, pumping a staggering amount of liquidity in the markets. As interest rates were kept low, investors saw an opportunity on the markets.

However, the markets also demonstrated how swiftly sentiment can change. A couple of years ago oil used to be one of the hottest topics, with expectations for prices reaching $150 and even $200 per barrel. And all of a sudden, due to new technology, oil collapsed from $120 to $30.

History has also demonstrated that markets move in cycles of about four to eight years, like the booms of 1992-2000 and 2000-2008. The current boom began in 2009, meaning that we are already overextending. We have also geopolitical factors, like Brexit and the election of Donald Trump for president. The French presidential election will have significant impact on the markets.

Knowing this, we can project a possible correction on the markets of 5 to 10 percent down in the near future. But the truth is that the markets' behaviour is totally unpredictable. Nobody knows.

What should a trader do, then?

People have to look carefully at the investment environment when they are about to make a decision. They should stay on the markets, but they have to be very careful, buying protection with a healthy mixture of shorts and longs. Interest in investing in Gold has been raising. Many investors are not that opportunistic right now and are pulling money out from the equity markets and reallocating into safe investments like 10-Year Note Futures.

Why is it still better to trade than to keep money in the bank?

How much money can you earn from a bank? One percent? The European Central Bank's policy for the past few years is designed to encourage you to take some risks. If you invest in individual stocks and you are a good trader, you can make a double-digit profits, as we have seen in our company.

How Admiral Markets' educational programme helps beginners to get fluent in trading?

How far a beginner would go is entirely up to his motivation to deepen his knowledge. We have different educational programmes, including online videos, mentors taking the customers through trading, putting orders, using our platform. We publish books and we organise seminars all over Bulgaria, where we introduce traders who have been consistently successful throughout the years. We also regularly publish interesting information, new ideas and methods, strategy articles, how gold, silver and the USD behave, what financial instruments are available right now, etc. It is open for everyone, on www.admiralmarkets.bg.

Is your clients' information secure with Admiral Markets?

It is 99.99 percent secure. We have been in the business for a long time, and with MetaTrade 4 we haven't had any security incidents. The platform allows you to trade freely from any device and anywhere in the world, so long as you have internet connection.

Is trading taking up in Bulgaria?

We have seen significant pick up in interest in trading in the past 5-10 years. The problem is that a lot of people don't pay attention to how to risk manage their portfolio when they start trading. They prefer easy to navigate platforms where you only need to click "Buy" or "Sell" buttons. It is easy, but if you don't know much about the markets and you believe that fast profit is here for you, you are bound to lose money. In general, if it looks too easy or if someone is promising you huge returns, then most probably there is something wrong.

MetaTrader 4, however, is both very user friendly and with integrated protection mechanisms. I don't want to lure anybody. But no matter what your budget is, trading remains an opportunity to make money. If you want to get involved and spend the time needed to learn how to manage your funds, now is the best moment for this. It is only up to you. No one will do it better than you.

Issue 127

BULGARIA INTERVIEWS

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SENSE OF DEADENDS

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:43:55 +0000

SENSE OF DEADENDS

by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:43

Fear, hate return to Bulgarian politics ahead of upcoming EU presidency

For obvious reasons, Bulgarian domestic politics is not readily understandable to outsiders especially those who don't speak Bulgarian. How could you explain the setup in the new Bulgarian parliament to an outsider who knows about Europe and the United States, but who is unable to understand who and what stands behind names such as GERB, Ataka, United Patriots and Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation? If one were to make similes with Western politicians, perhaps one could imagine that Bulgaria will be ruled by an Orban (minus the charm and suaveness, but with plenty of Balkan pepper added) in coalition with a male Marine Le Pen, a Geert Wilders and a Nigel Farage.

Increasingly, Bulgarian domestic politics is not readily understandable to the Bulgarians, who do speak Bulgarian, either.

How come? Bulgarians, traditionally the poorest in the EU and the unhappiest on the planet if polls are anything to go by are rather cynical when it comes to the politicians they have themselves elected into office. In Bulgaria, the old, Communist-era joke about the optimist and the pessimist not only continues to make the rounds, but is getting rejiggered time and again to reflect new realities. Pre-1989, a pessimist was someone who considered half-a-glass of Rakiya to be half-empty while an optimist looked at it positively: it was half-full. In 2017, or exactly 28 years after Communism is no more, the same joke sounds something like this: a pessimist thinks it can't get worse than that while an optimist looks at things positively – it can, it can…

Can it really? Looking at the composition of this country's current parliament and the top figures of the main parties in it optimism is perhaps not your average Bulgarian's knee-jerk reaction. To start off with, let's look at the main players.

Boyko Borisov, the leader of GERB, or Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria. A member of the former Communist Party, Borisov was in the Interior Ministry's Fire Department in 1989, when Communist-era dictator Todor Zhivkov was toppled from power. Democratisation was to start and one of its tenets was de-Communisation (something like the de-Nazification of post-war Germany). Interior Ministry official were given a choice: relinquish your Communist Party membership or leave the service. Borisov left the service to maintain his loyalty to the Communist Party.

In the 1990s he went into the protection business, setting up a successful protection company. Anyone with a more than passing knowledge of Eastern Europe in general and the Balkans in particular in the 1990s knows what "protection" in those days meant.

Borisov took turns as the personal bodyguard of Todor Zhivkov, who died in 1997, and then of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the former Bulgarian monarch who returned to Bulgaria in 2001 and was elected prime minister. The former king sensed Borisov's charisma and appointed him chief secretary of the Interior Ministry, which in daily language translates as this country's top cop. There was no stopping him now. Borisov left the service in 2005, this time for good, and became mayor of Sofia.

In 2008 he set up GERB (for an explanation of what the acronym means see above). GERB won the general election in 2009 and since then has been in power, save for a spell in 2013-2014 when the non-GERB government of Plamen Oresharski was forced to resign by street protests. At that time the protestors chanted they demanded transparency and reforms. What they got in return was GERB again.

In 2017 Boyko Borisov is set to become prime minister for the third time. It might be worth noting that he never finished any of his two previous terms in office. He resigned once, in 2013, when economic destitution and the continuing polarisation of Bulgarian society forced a number of Bulgarians to commit suicide in public by… self-conflagration. The second time he resigned was in early 2017. The reason he gave was his disappointment that his handpicked candidate for president, Tsetska Tsacheva, failed against Ret Gen Rumen Radev, the nominee of the BSP, or Bulgarian Socialist Party. Radev is now president, Tsacheva failed to be elected an MP in her native town of Pleven.

Borisov's natural allies in the new parliament is a motley crew of extreme nationalists, who recently pulled their act together and became the United Patriots. It must be underlined that the word "patriot" in Bulgarian, when used without the quotation marks, usually invokes the struggle for national independence in the 19th century. The three main groupings in the United Patriots know that and call themselves "patriots" to stir up national sentiments, but hardly anyone would argue they have anything in common with the rebellions, revolutions and relative enlightenment of the 19th century.

Who are the United Patriots? Their leader is Valery Simeonov. Born in a military family, Simeonov grew up in various locations in southeastern Bulgaria. Shortly after 1989, he became one of the leaders of the newly-founded SDS, or Union of Democratic Forces, in Burgas. In the 1990s he went into business, first setting up a company to install a cable TV network in Burgas and later founded his own TV channel. SKAT TV, now broadcasting nationally, has for many years been branded as the most uncouth propaganda tool for Bulgaria's nationalists. It has been repeatedly fined by Bulgaria's Media Council for breaking media laws. In 2011 he co-founded the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria. SKAT became its mouthpiece. Internationally, Valery Simeonov's identifies with the UKIP.

Ahead of the 2017 general election Simeonov was seen shoving off elderly Bulgarian ladies crossing the border into Bulgaria in order to vote. He owns a motel near Malko Tarnovo which currently lodges Border Police staff deployed along the Turkish border to control migration.

When asked on the record what he thought of an elected politician getting money from the state to accommodate security personnel in his hotel Aleksandar Karakachanov, the leader of the VMRO, or Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, snapped: "Better house Bulgarian officers than Turkish ones." This statement sums up Karakachanov's attitude to politics, both domestic and international, and explains his relative popularity with a segment of the Bulgarian nation. His VMRO claims to be the heir to the historical VMRO, a movement that fought against the Ottoman Empire, in the late 19th and early 20th century, for the liberation of southwestern and southeastern Bulgarian lands. Those lands are now in northwestern Turkey, northern Greece and of course in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Macedonian "question" is complicated and difficult to comprehend to anyone but the people who live here. It would take many pages to even touch upon the complexity of it, but for the purposes of this article suffice it to say that the VMRO in the late 19th and early 20th century used what in the late 20th century would be billed terror tactics (taking hostages, planting bombs in public spaces and committing political assassinations) to achieve its political aims. No organisation in southeastern Europe exemplifies better the old adage that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Karakachanov's VMRO has little to do with the original VMRO. Confusingly, the Bulgarian VMRO has nothing to do with the VMRO-DPMNE, or Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation-Party of Macedonian National Unity, in the Republic of Macedonia, which has been in power in Skopje for the past 10 years.

Karakachanov does not recognise the existence of a Macedonian nation. To him and his followers, the Macedonians are Bulgarian, like they were in the 19th century.

Notwithstanding the eccentricities of Karakachanov, perhaps the most colourful politician in the United Patriots grouping is Volen Siderov, the founder of Ataka. Siderov, who has been convicted of hooliganism and the disruption of public order, likes to put up a fight. In 2010, visibly inebriated, he put up a scandal onboard a Lufthansa flight. German police later said he refused to obey the crew's instructions and even "stormed" into the aircraft's kitchen. In 2013 he was elected chief of the… Parliamentary Ethics Committee. The following year he abused verbally and even physically a French diplomat onboard a Bulgaria Air plane from Varna to Sofia. In 2015 he put up another scandal on Rakovski Street in Central Sofia. His troops stormed into the National Dramatic Arts Academy and accused students of… selling drugs. Then Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova had to come in person to calm down the situation.

Siderov's xenophobic, anti-gay, anti-Gypsy and anti-Semitic language makes the whole of the Le Pen family pale in comparison. Some analysts compare his appearance and gestures to those of Hitler. To this, Siderov replies: "I have always carried the Orthodox cross on my neck!" He likes to capitalise on his good relations with Putin's Russia and in 2014 even started his election campaign in… Moscow, where he had been awarded a Russian medal.

Very briefly, these are the main players who will be in power in Bulgaria for the next four years. What unites them is fear and hate. One of Boyko Borisov's trade marks has been fear-mongering. His Either-Elect-Me-or-Else method works remarkably well in a Bulgaria that collectively sees little ahead except the deadends of the never-ending "transition" from Communism. And fear goes hand in hand with hate: against the Turks, against the Gypsies, against the West in general and America in particular, against the gays, against anyone who does not go to church and refuses to start wearing baggy trousers for 19th century peasants.

In 2013, the massive street rallies in Sofia that brought down the Oresharski government were furious that Siderov had given his support for the then ruling coalition which they billed an amalgamation of National Socialists and Communists. Siderov and his ilk are now allies to Boyko Borisov's GERB. Street protests of the 2013 magnitude are unlikely to happen in Sofia in 2017, however. Bulgaria's politics have reached a stage where even Bulgarians have difficulties understanding it.

Issue 127

BULGARIA POLITICS

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EUROPE DAY VS. DAY OF VICTORY

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:37:25 +0000

EUROPE DAY VS. DAY OF VICTORY

by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:37

If you think that 14 February is the high point of the Bulgarians' ability to squeeze culturally different feasts into a single day, think again.

Combining the celebrations of St Trifon, the local patron saint of wine and winemaking, and St Valentine, the imported patron of love – both being celebrated on 14 February, pales in comparison to what happens on 9 May. Long before and long after that date, Bulgarians argue both in restaurants and on Facebook about what should be celebrated: Europe Day or the Day of Victory over Nazi Germany.

On the surface there seems little point to this controversy. Victory over Nazi Germany and the desire never to repeat the mistakes that led to the rise of the Third Reich are the reason for the creation of the precursor to the modern EU. Why, then, are the two occasions pitted one against the other to such an extent that Bulgarians on the opposing sides label one another national traitors?

It is all in the context. The Day of Europe, 9 May, is seen as the birthday of the EU. On that day, in 1950, French foreign minister Robert Schumann made his famous declaration proposing common coal and steel production between Germany and France. A major cause of wars between the two countries, including two world ones, was no more; the road was paved to a free, united, democratic Europe. It is now a major date in the modern EU, celebrated in the typical EU way with information campaigns and that hint of boredom that everyone now associates with the union's highly bureaucratic machinery, which dulls the sheer awesomeness of the united Europe.

As for the victory over Nazi Germany, Europe celebrates it on the date it happened. The peace treaty was signed on 7 May 1945 and came into force at 10.43pm on 8 May, CET.

Why, then, do Bulgarians celebrate Victory Day on 9 May? Because they, together with many countries of the former USSR, follow the Russian model of calculating the date. When the treaty was enforced on 8 May at 11.43pm Bulgarian time, it was already 00.43am on 9 May in Moscow. As a loyal Soviet ally, Bulgaria marked Victory Day on 9 May for the span of Communism. It continues to do so. Some habits die hard.

Two feasts sharing a day of celebration should not be a problem; many Bulgarians drink wine with their loved ones on 14 February, without finding any contradiction, but in the case of the Day of Europe and Victory Day, the two occasions represent two opposing ways of seeing the recent past, the troubled present and the scary future.

Those who prefer 9 May as the Day of Europe think of Bulgaria as a country which should embrace the liberal, economic, and cultural values of the EU, in spite of all the bureaucracies and sometimes the nonsense. For them, Communism was one of the worst things to ever happen to Bulgaria, and establishing a democratic society with a free market economy is one of the best. The role of the Soviet Union in Bulgaria since the Communist coup of 1944 makes them dislike the Red Army with all its victories. After all, they correctly point out, Bulgaria might have been an ally of Hitler, but it never declared war on the USSR. It was Stalin who declared war on Bulgaria on 5 September 1944, and that was only to spare his troops from entering its territory and backing the 9 September Communist coup. Not a single Soviet soldier was killed in action in Bulgaria while "liberating" it of its own government. Besides, by the end of the year, Bulgarian soldiers were fighting and dying alongside those of the Red Army in the push towards Berlin.

Seen from this point of view, celebrating the victory of an occupying force seems ill-informed, at best.

Those who cherish 9 May as Victory Day think otherwise. For them, the EU is nothing more than a worse version of the USSR, sucking qualified professionals and money out of Bulgaria, while imposing idiotic over-regulation. Communism was one of the best things to happen to this country, they believe. Big Brother USSR looked after small Bulgaria, providing it with security, cheap petrol and a large, uncritical market for its low-quality produce. For ordinary folk, life was not that free, but it was easy, with relative social equality, guaranteed employment and no need to compete with anyone (except for who got to buy the last roll of toilet paper in the empty shop). The Soviets had helped the Bulgarians to get rid of their fascist government, and (overlooking the fact that until 21 June 1941 Stalin and Hitler were allies) Red Army soldiers deserve to be remembered for their sacrifice for the liberation of Europe.

How the two groups celebrate 9 May is also clearly distinct.

While Europe Day celebrations are official, rigid and generally scarcely newsworthy, those of Victory Day are the complete opposite. In the morning, small, colourful groups gather at the monuments to the Red Army, which are still found all over modern Bulgaria. The one in central Sofia draws the largest crowds and most of the media attention. Wreaths are laid, speeches are made, and there are balloons and flowers to the accompaniment of Soviet military marches. The colour red predominates, mainly on banners (often with the Soviet hammer and sickle). White-blue-and-red Russian flags are everywhere, outnumbering the Bulgarian white-green-and-red ones. The past few years saw the increase of the yellow-and-black striped Georgi ribbons, a symbol of Soviet victory that has become increasingly popular in Russia under Putin.

Europe Day is usually attended by state officials. Victory Day celebrations are organised and attended by leftist political parties, both moderate and fringe ones, by NGOs promoting stronger Russian-Bulgarian friendship, and by ordinary citizens. In the past few years, the numbers of participants seems to grow, including not only the usual nostalgic pensioners, but also young people. Dressed in white shirts and black trousers or skirts, imitating their coevals' uniforms under Communism, these teenagers obviously think that standing still as an honorary guard in front of a monument is cool. They seem oblivious to the fact that there were few things teenagers under Communism found more uncool than standing in a stupid uniform in front of a monument.

Other changes in Victory Day celebrations are also visible. The recent whitewashing of the figure of Stalin in Russia has caught on in Bulgaria, too. His portraits are now a staple of the celebrations, and people carrying them eagerly call the man who sent millions of his compatriots to death in political prisons "a great statesman of the kind we need today".

The rising popularity of Victory Day in Bulgaria can be explained in several ways. Euroscepticism. Nostalgia. Lack of information in school and plenty of disinformation on the Internet. Intense media attention. Propaganda from both inside and outside the country.

It could be some of these, it could be all of them. In the end, what matters is that 9 May, a day that should be for the celebration of unity and peace, has become yet another line of division in an already deeply divided Bulgarian society.

Issue 127 Communism PostCommunism

BULGARIA SOCIETY

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ENDANGERED KOPRIVSHTITSA

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:30:07 +0000

ENDANGERED KOPRIVSHTITSA

by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:30

Will traditional town survive threat of losing heritage status?

Is it possible for a place where a rebellion against a powerful empire started to be saved from being raised to the ground by the victorious power? History is full of examples where the answer is a resounding "no." Bulgaria, however, has a town where the opposite happened.

By 1876, Koprivshtitsa was a wealthy Bulgarian village, made prosperous by manufacturing and sheep trading, and held a privileged status granted by the Ottoman Empire. This also meant that it had nurtured an energetic and ambitious middle class, who eagerly took part in the preparations for a major uprising against the sultan. On 20 April 1876, the shooting dead of an Ottoman policeman on a bridge in the centre of Koprivshtitsa announced the beginning of the April Uprising. In the following days, the rebellion spread out, reaching settlements in the Sredna Gora, the Stara Planina and the Rhodope mountains. However, the Ottomans soon regained control, and their regular and irregular forces began to take back the centres of the rebellion, wreaking death and destruction on the once flourishing communities.

On 30 April, it was Koprivshtitsa's turn, but when the Ottoman forces arrived, they were met with no resistance. Anticipating what would happen, the leaders of the revolution had fled. Instead, a delegation of the richest and most influential men in the community went to the Ottoman commander and offered him a handsome bribe. The commander accepted. The village, which in 1793, 1804 and 1809 had been raided and devastated by bandits, survived.

This is not the only reason why the Koprivshtitsa of today looks pretty much the same as the Koprivshtitsa of the 19th century. After the liberation of Bulgaria, the Ottoman market for its goods and its protected status were no more, and local production was unable to compete with the cheaper mass-produced imports from the West. People had no money to invest in new, fashionable houses, and many of them, particularly the rich and the enterprising, moved to Plovdiv and Sofia.

The First Shot bridge, where the April Uprising began in 1876

In 1971, the Communist government declared Koprivshtitsa a historical and architectural reserve, not just for aesthetic reasons. The town's revolutionary past (the bribe being comfortably forgotten) was seen as an important symbol of national identity. To preserve it, a careful restoration programme was implemented. Even the new, imposing monument to the rebellion was built outside the historical centre.

Thus, a series of circumstances turned Koprivshtitsa in one of the best preserved Revival Period towns of Bulgaria, a beautiful place of winding cobblestone streets and brightly painted mansions with curved eaves and lush gardens. There is hardly anyone, be it a Bulgarian or a foreigner, who does not enjoy exploring the town's lanes, marvelling at the murals in the mansions, breathing the aroma of ageing wood, and indulging in the tasty food of the traditional taverns. Koprivshtitsa's status as a gem of carefully preserved 19th century traditions was confirmed by the hugely popular folklore fair, held every five years (the next one will be in 2020).

In 2017, the fair entered UNESCO's list of the world's nonmaterial heritage.

Astonishingly, soon after the news spread throughout the Bulgarian media and social networks, the city council voted to take away Koprivshtitsa's protected status. The decision had been prompted by a local entrepreneur, who was unhappy that regulations forbidding the construction of tall buildings around the town's historical core. He had other plans: to develop a powdered milk factory, a large luxury hotel, a ski run, and a base for all-terrain vehicles. The protected status seriously impeded Koprivshtitsa's economic development, he claimed, and enough of the councillors, most of them affiliated to GERB, agreed.

Koprivshtitsa is one of the few places in Bulgaria that have intelligently preserved its old-time atmosphere

Bulgarians, however, were horrified and enraged: their country is already full of places like Nesebar and Bansko, where the old atmosphere and authenticity have been traded for soulless mass tourism. After two days of public outrage, the regional governor overturned the municipal decision, and the matter went back to Koprivshtitsa's city council. This time, everyone voted against the town losing its protected status.

For now, and provided the municipality does not find a legal loophole allowing the construction of the luxury hotel, the ATV base and the rest, Koprivshtitsa remains unchanged: with the winding cobbled streets, the beautiful mansions and the bridge where, in 1876, the April Uprising broke out.

Fine frescoes combining flowers and naive landscapes cover the facades of the richest houses

Looms from an ethnographical exhibition. Wool produce was one of the main reasons for Koprivshtitsa's affluence under the Ottomans

The Assumption church was built in 1817 on the site of an earlier one, from the 17th century, that was destroyed during the bandit raids of the early 1800s

Grave of a local family from the times after 1878, when Koprivshtitsa's economy declined and people started to leave

High Beam is a series of articles, initiated by Vagabond Magazine, with the generous support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, that aims to provide details and background of places, cultural entities, events, personalities and facts of life that are sometimes difficult to understand for the outsider in the Balkans. The ultimate aim is the preservation of Bulgaria's cultural heritage – including but not limited to archaeological, cultural and ethnic diversity. The statements and opinionsexpressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria Foundation and its partners.

Issue 127 America for Bulgaria Foundation Revival Period The Stara Planina traditional villages Bulgarian architecture

HIGH BEAM

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR VOLEN

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:28:48 +0000

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR VOLEN

by Stamen Manolov

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:28

They haven't been exactly friends. They are now.

Volen Siderov, perhaps Bulgaria's most scandalous extreme nationalist, whose rabid xenophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric dwarfs everyone in the Le Pen family combined, had a birthday recently. His guests of honour: GERB's top brass – Boyko Borisov and Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

Since they got the power in 2009, both Borisov and Tsvetanov have been careful not to irritate the West. They have been more than willing when it comes to police cooperation, counterterrorism and preventing illegal immigration, which after all is what the West is primarily interested in these days. In exchange, they have been given a free hand to do whatever they feel like in their native Bulgaria. Which they have done: the result of which is a dismal economy, lowest ever freedom of speech, uranium traces in the drinking water supplies for Haskovo and a Sofia where the only thing that really functions is the car removal trucks drivers lovingly refer to as "spiders." Obviously, the

West doesn't care about these things, but it does care if someone like Siderov gets to talk.

After the latest general election, however, Siderov will talk. He will be a major, in fact an indispensable coalition partner to the new GERB government, which a media in Sofia recently described as More of the Same, With a Pinch of "Patriotism."

Interestingly, when GERB were briefly out of power in 2013, the street protestors, the intellectuals and GERB itself made a big fuss about having Volen Siderov support the Oresharski government. The fact is that he did not. He just attended a session of parliament to make sure there was a quorum. At that time, everyone was outraged that the BSP could partner with people like Siderov.

No one seems to care in 2017, so happy birthday!

Issue 127

JOKE OF THE MONTH

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STARA ZAGORA' S MUSEUM OF RELIGIONS

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:20:48 +0000

STARA ZAGORA' S MUSEUM OF RELIGIONS

by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:20

Former mosque provides glimpse into spiritual past

The Romans believed that some places are inhabited and protected by their own spirit, a Genius loci, and consequently filled all the corners of their empire with altars and reliefs dedicated to these entities. The belief in Genii loci is no more, but if these spirits were real, one of them would definitely call a certain location in central Stara Zagora its own. For millennia, nations and religious have come and gone, and yet generations of people have continuously used a particular place as a sacred location. Understandably, these periods of religious activity have coincided with some of the crucial moments in the life of this city itself.

First, there were the Thracians. In the 10th-9th centuries, they created a pit shrine: a type of cult complex quite common in southeastern Europe in those times. These shrines consisted of large pits, where believers would pour wine, throw in cult figurines or reliefs, food and ritually slaughtered animals and, sacrificed men, women and children. Pit shrines are believed to have been dedicated to a chthonic deity, in this case probably the nameless Great Goddess of the Thracians.

Whether the early Thracians of Stara Zagora sacrificed people or not is unclear. After the shrine was abandoned and several centuries had passed, a temple to the Thracian Rider was built right over it, in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. At that time the Roman Augusta Traiana was one of the empire's major cities in the region. The horseman was one of the most popular deities of the Thracians, but ascertaining exactly who he was has been notoriously difficult. Sometimes he represented the son of the Great God and the Great Goddess, other times he was the soul of a deified aristocrat, and to complicate the matter further, he was often associated with some Roman or Greek deity, such as Apollo or Zeus.

Several religions have claimed the location of the Old Mosque as their own

People stopped visiting the shrine when Christianity arrived and the ancient city was replaced by a fortified mediaeval town, Beroe. In the late 10th century, however, they returned and converted the location into a burial ground with its own church, which was in use until the 13th century. It is not clear why they abandoned the site, but when the Ottomans took the city in the 1360s, the plot was seemingly empty.

In 1407-1408, the most imposing mosque of the city was built there. Covered with a single dome with a diameter of 17m, The Eski Cami is still one of the largest mosques in modern Bulgaria. It remained a centre of religious activity for centuries, absorbing older religious remains into its structure (at a certain point ancient Roman tombstones were used for the construction of a porch) and surviving a devastating fire in 1856. The reconstruction that followed included the painting of the dome with rich Baroque ornamentation.

When the Ottoman army set Stara Zagora on fire, during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the Old Mosque was the only public building to survive. This prompted the Austrian-Hungarian architect, Lubor Bayer, who was commissioned to design the new urban layout of the city, to use the mosque as the focal point for his layout of parallel streets, intersecting at right angles.

After a short period as a church, the Old Mosque remained an active Muslim place of prayer until the early 1970s, when the centre of the city was entirely redesigned. The building's cultural significance had been recognised as early as 1927, and in 1976 it was declared a "national architectural and construction monument of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages."

In spite of its protected status, it remained closed and empty for decades, until 2011. Then, the former mosque was fully surveyed and restored, and due to its interesting and complicated spiritual past, became Bulgaria's only Museum of Religions. It is now part of the local Regional History Museum.

The mosque ornaments are in a style combining Muslim and Baroque elements that was in vogue in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century

Today, the museum displays to the curious visitor remnants of all the shrines that used to exist on that very spot over a span of 3,000 years. Another point of interest is the beautifully restored ornamentations on the dome, not only because of their vivid colours and the sheer craftsmanship of their creators. The custodian will be happy to point out to you a particular place in the murals where, if you know what to look for, you will see the outlines of a rider. As human images are not allowed in Islam, it is highly probable that the horseman was painted, secretly, by an anonymous Bulgarian painter involved in the decoration of the mosque.

The Genius loci is probably laughing right now.

The Museum of Religions is on 115 Tsar Simeon Veliki Blvd, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm.

Issue 127 America for Bulgaria Foundation Religion Ottoman heritage Thracian heritage Roman heritage

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BERSERK BELLES OF GRADUATION BALLS

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:15:07 +0000

BERSERK BELLES OF GRADUATION BALLS

by Ekaterina Petrova; photography by BTA

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:15

If you are visiting Bulgaria in the second half of May, do not be alarmed by the excited hoards of heavily made-up, eccentrically-dressed teenagers roaming the streets and frantically screaming out something (more on this later) at the top of their voices.

Despite appearances, they are not members of some mysterious sect – they are simply celebrating their graduation from high school. Rites of passage are, of course, important, although the ways they are marked around the world vary widely: from the Quinceañera, the celebration of a girl's turning 15 years of age in Spanish-speaking America, to the Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies that commemorate Jewish children's entry into adolescence, to the sacrificial rites Australian Aborigines and New Guinean tribes perform to mark puberty.

Bulgaria is no exception, with its own set of rite-of-passage rituals to commemorate its children's entrance into adulthood. Although they are similar to those that take place in the rest of the Balkans, Europe and even North America, the celebrations connected with graduation from high school manage to embroil the entire society in a frenzy that is unique to Bulgaria. While the graduation ceremonies and formal dances in other places tend to concern only the graduates and their immediate families and friends, in Bulgaria the entire population is swept up – often against its will – into the festivities.

In the months leading up to the Big Day, which traditionally takes place in the last two weeks of May, it is impossible for any female to enter a shop for cosmetics, shoes, or clothes without being asked whether she is looking for something for "the ball," as the high school prom is known in Bulgaria.

If the woman in question is anywhere under 40 or is particularly youthful looking, sales people always assume she is on the lookout for make-up, shoes, or a dress for the big night. Older women who could not by any stretch of the imagination fit into this category are immediately taken for mothers, aunts, cousins, or grandmothers helping their young relative with the search.

Even if you manage to slip through without being accosted by the staff, you'll find the fitting rooms bulging at the seams with youngsters frantically trying on dresses, shirts, and trousers, while entire families stand by nodding their (dis)approval. Formal shoes in the most popular sizes are often sold out, while items of jewellery on display cannot be purchased, as they have been reserved by some future prom queen who needs to check whether they coordinate with her dress.
Local designers and seamstresses do not accept any ordinary orders between March and May, swamped as they are with endless fittings as they make the graduates' dresses and suits. Hair and manicure appointments are impossible to come by, having been fully booked-out by 18-year olds trying countless "test" hair styles and "practice manicures" for the entire month of April, before getting the real deal at the end of May.

Just when you think it's all over – the perfect dress and shoes picked out, the make-up and hair all done – that's when the real frenzy begins. The graduates spill out of the malls, hairdressers, and nail salons and into the streets.

Generally, the proceedings follow a more or less set pattern of established stages.

The Send-Off. The graduate's family and friends attend an afternoon farewell party. This is the time for mothers to fuss about and cry, while aunts look on enviously and older sisters straighten neckties or fix peeping bra straps. Fathers issue words of advice on how to behave in the next few hours (usually summed up with the brief instruction to "be smart!"), despite, or perhaps because of their knowledge that a night of debauchery is in store for their precious child.

The Gathering. The graduate leaves the familial party and is driven to their high school in a car as fancy or as quirky as their family has been able to get its hands on. Accompanied by friends and family, the members of the entire graduating class then gather in their respective schools' courtyards. Flowers are given to teachers. Photographs are taken, forever capturing friendships that will soon fade, crushes that were never acted upon, and fashion statements that will eventually but inevitably be regretted.

Then the screaming begins. In unison, these people – no longer children but not yet adults – start shouting, as loudly as possible, the numbers from one to twelve, symbolically counting the years they spent in school, ending up on this very day. Usually initiated by a small group of three or four, gradually more and more excited graduates join in, and the counting builds up to a deafening crescendo, which causes the whole school courtyard, neighbourhood, and city to reverberate by the time they reach twelve. And then they start all over again, as though this fervent ad nauseam repetition is the only guarantee they will not be sent back to redo first grade. Sometimes during the second half of May, it feels as though all of the county's waking and much of its sleeping hours are measured out in twelve-count increments.

On the Way to the Ball. As evening begins to fall, the graduates – by this point sufficiently merry from the alcohol surreptitiously consumed at their family parties and the sips from bottles nonchalantly exchanged in-between the picture-taking and the teary embraces – jump into the fancy cars and head to the main event, usually held in a local hotel.

Emboldened by the alcohol and the group hysteria, they make their way there hanging out of the car windows and sunroofs (convertibles are highly desirable at this time of year) and screaming over and over again, to their heart's content. The counting is interrupted by occasional screeching yelps of "Wooo-Hooo!" and accompanied by constant honking of horns.

Ordinary citizens are subjected to this racket regardless of whether they are out in the streets or in the supposed privacy of their own homes. Sometimes the noise is so ear-splitting that closing the windows does not even help.

The Ball Itself: It is not hard to imagine what goes on at the actual event. For a change, though, these proceedings are experienced by the graduates alone, and thankfully do not involve the country's entire population.

After the ball, the graduates usually move on from the formal venue to a dance club. As if afraid this relocation might otherwise go unnoticed, they fill the time it takes them to make their way from the hotel to the club by, you guessed it, screaming the numbers from one to twelve, with even more volume and passion fuelled by the copious amounts of alcohol they have already consumed and magnified by the quiet of the night.
In the clubs, the belles and beaux of the ball cause annoyance to the populace once more. In addition to dealing with the usual nuisances and sweaty crowds typical of a Friday or Saturday night, regular club-goers now have to face large groups of disoriented, giggling 18-year olds getting their feet tangled in flowing hoop-skirts, and witness the results of more than eight straight hours of drinking by people whose alcohol tolerance is usually low and made lower still by the festive occasion.

Finally, at the crack of dawn, they all stumble back to their homes, a different sight altogether from the start of the evening: smudged make-up, flat hair, torturously high-heeled shoes and undone ties in hand, the sorry sight of ripped taffeta, lost earrings, and missing buttons.

In the morning, they take off the fancy clothes (to be worn again when their friends start getting married in a few years), remove their make-up, and take precautions against a budding hangover, before beginning their new lives as adults.

Everything finally goes quiet, at least until the following spring, when Bulgaria's next graduating class goes crazy and puts the entire nation into a frenzy.

Issue 127 PostCommunism

BULGARIA SOCIETY

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WHO WAS KRALI MARKO?

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:09:06 +0000

WHO WAS KRALI MARKO?

by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:09

Folk memory moves in mysterious ways. One of the best examples is Krali Marko, the legendary hero venerated for centuries throughout the Balkans as the mighty man who protected lands and people from the Ottoman invasion.

According to a legend, Krali Marko is responsible for the peculiar shape of that rock on the Chernelka River canyon: he cut it in two with his Damascus sword during a fight with his archenemy

For centuries, legends and epic songs were told and sung; they spread, transformed and became more and more elaborate, telling the story of the larger-than-life Krali Marko. The owner of a wondrous spotted horse, he encountered fairies, braved invaders and traitors, participated in heroic competitions, and freed thousands of enslaved men and women. It is hardly a surprise, then, that a number of locations in modern Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia bear his name.

Behind the mythical Krali Marko hides a real-life prototype, but in a twist of irony and chance the historical Prince Marko has little to do with his epic doppelgänger.

Prince Marko (1335-1395) had the misfortune to be a relatively insignificant feudal royal in the 14th century Balkans. At the time, the region was exhausted after a series of plagues, failed crops, religious zealotry and petty feuds that were tearing apart the once strong, but now waning, Bulgaria, Serbia and the Byzantine Empire. What was once a small number of local powers was now a mosaic of large and small kingdoms and principalities, plus a bunch of rogue aristocrats eager to seize their moment.

There was an ongoing Ottoman invasion and, because of the highly organised Ottoman army, it was steadily taking over the region. In this situation, in 1371, both the Serbian kings Vukašin and Uroš died. Suddenly, Prince Marko, who ruled over a part of what is now the Republic of Macedonia with a seat at the town of Prilep, found himself the heir to the Serbian throne. He never became the actual king. Instead, he became a vassal of the Ottomans and remained loyal until he died, fighting for the sultan against fellow Christians, in the Battle of Rovine.

How exactly a loyal Ottoman vassal became the mythical embodiment of Christian opposition to the Ottoman invasion is a question whose answer is forever lost. It was probably pure chance. The mechanisms that contributed to this transformation, however, can be clearly outlined. They include the mass frustration of the Balkan population that followed the Ottoman invasion, their need for a hero to entrust with their hopes for independence, and the rise of nationalism in the 18th-19th centuries when modern artists and story-tellers singled out Krali Marko from the folk legends and epics, and made him a part of modern plays, paintings, and literature.

Typically for the region, Bulgarians, Macedonians and Serbians all claim Krali Marko as one of their kin. Most historical traces of the true Krali Marko, however, are in what is now the modern Republic of Macedonia. A monastery south of Skopje, appropriately called Marko's Monastery, has preserved the portrait of the real man. Dark, slim and troubled, the aristocrat painted on the church wall looks like the last man on earth to become the prototype of a mighty hero, the saviour of the enslaved and the protector of Christendom.

Prilep, which was the seat of Prince Marko, is now a sleepy backwater town, but the rocks above it are still crowned with the remains of his fortress. It is, of course, known as Markovi Kuli, or Marko's Towers. On a nearby hill rises the beautiful mediaeval Treskavec Monastery. While it lacks direct evidence of Prince Marko's presence, it was rebuilt in the 14th century and so it is highly probable that he visited the place.

Treskavec Monastery, near Prilep in Macedonia, the residence of the real-life Krali Marko was probably visited by this rather mediocre aristocrat who in a whim of history is remembered as an all-Balkan hero

Both the fortress and the monastery are located over an ancient rock shrine, the remains of a pagan cult widespread in the prehistoric Balkans that survived well into the 6th-7th centuries AD. The link is clearly thought provoking: historians believe that the mythical Krali Marko is actually yet another manifestation of the prehistoric Balkan hero, who rode a horse and was venerated in rock sanctuaries. The veneration of such characters and the stories about them is yet another explanation why in the mediaeval times the Balkan peoples embraced the stories of Krali Marko: They had the blueprints, and they just filled them with new, actual details.

The stories told in Bulgaria about Krali Marko's origins also illustrate the amalgamation of a pagan tradition and mediaeval history. According to them, Marko was the son of Momchil Voyvoda (an actual historical figure, a maverick aristocrat who first opposed the Ottoman invasion in the Rhodope). While Marko was still in the crib, the king learned that the baby would one day dethrone him, and ordered him to be killed. Marko's parents abandoned him in the forest, where he was found by a nymph (a representation of the ancient Thracian Great Goddess). She suckled him, and thus gave him his supernatural powers.

Bulgaria abounds with the remains of ancient Thracian rock shrines, which later generations attributed to Krali Marko. As evidence of Marko's presence, tradition points to the strange, large cavities in some flat rocks. These are the imprints of Marko and his horse, legends say, while according to historians they are remains of ancient ritual basins and rock tombs. It is hard to count the number of places called Markova Stapka, or Marko's Step, Markov Kamak, or Marko's Rock, or something of the kind, that used to be ancient shrines. To name but a few, the list includes the megalithic shrine under Tsarev Vrah peak in the Rila, Markova Stapka near Pernik, or the White Rock near Marulevo village near Blagoevgrad.

Another legend says that Krali Marko's throne was near modern Botev Peak, in the Stara Planina

Many of the places associated in legends with Krali Marko tell stories of vicious battles with his archenemy, Musa Kesedzhiya, a mythical antagonist representing the Ottoman invaders. One of the most spectacular of these places is the rocky canyon of the Chernelka River, by Gortalovo village near Pleven. According to the legend, Krali Marko and Musa fought there for three days and three nights. Krali Marko lunged with his Damascus sword (Damascus steel was the best at that time and obviously people did not see any contradiction in a Christian hero using such a weapon against Muslim invaders) at Musa, but missed and split a giant rock in two. The rock is still there, part of the eco trail through the canyon.

Another legend tells that Krali Marko resided at the top of the Stara Planina's highest peak, the modern Botev Peak. His throne, his wheat field and his threshing floor were all around, and can still be seen, turned to stone.

While Krali Marko is an undisputed hero, some legends present him as a somewhat vain character. Take, for example, the story about Marko and his sister, who was equally big and strong as him. One day, they decided to see who could throw a stone so high that it would fly over the Maragidik Peak in the Stara Planina. They threw their stones, and then Marko mounted his horse and went to check who had won. It was his sister. The hero became so mad with anger that both his footsteps and hooves of his horse were imprinted on the flat rock.

Another story showing Marko to be a bad loser is told about the two Roman pillars near Pavlikeni. They originally belonged to the mausoleum of a local Roman, but over time both the Roman and the mausoleum were forgotten and a legend emerged, about Krali Marko and a rival competing for the love of a local girl. The girl promised to marry the one who built the higher stone pillar. Marko, of course, won, but she chose his rival anyway, as she was in love with him. Enraged, Marko smashed the rival's column. The place is still called Markov Kamak by the locals.

Of course, there is a group of more crude stories. One of them is about one of Sofia's neighbourhoods, Poduene. The word play makes it next to impossible to properly relate the story in English, but the essence is this: One day, Marko, being big and strong, stood with one leg on Mount Vitosha and the other on the Stara Planina mountains. He started looking for a place to camp. Eventually, he chose the place that was right under his crotch. This was how Poduene appeared. Its name means Under My D*ck.

Markov Kamak, or Marko's Rock, is an ancient Thracian shrine near Dolno Yabalkovo village, in the Strandzha, near the border with Turkey. The legend says that while on his way to Constantinople the mighty hero took a pebble and threw it behind his back. What was a pebble for him, however, for ordinary people is a boulder 8m high. The ritual basin carved on its top by the Thracians was later interpreted as the imprint of Marko's enormous foot

Issue 127 America for Bulgaria Foundation Legends Bulgaria Medieval Bulgaria

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QUOTE-UNQUOTE

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:08:13 +0000

QUOTE-UNQUOTE DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:08

The next scalp on my wall will be Slavi Trifonov's.

Valeri Simeonov, co-leader of the extreme nationalist United Patriots, on the TV showman's report indicating conflict of interest over a hotel near the Turkish border

Until yesterday, they were being dubbed nationalists. Now they get rebranded as patriots to make them more palatable to the outside world.

Veselin Mareshki, leader of Volya, or Will, political party

GERB's top brass is heavily Communist. Communists fighting against Communism will spell the end of Bulgaria.

Professor Ivo Hristov, an MP for the BSP

GERB is the only party that can handle corruption.

Boyko Borisov, GERB's leader

Issue 127 Boyko Borisov

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BLOOMS OF YAYLATA

DimanaT — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:01:43 +0000

BLOOMS OF YAYLATA

by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:01

Endangered, rare and ephemeral, wild peonies are to be found in just a few locations across Bulgaria, but on Yaylata Plateau, if you have the luck to visit in late spring, you will find scores of them.

This corner of Bulgaria is a protected area where wildlife cohabits with ancient ruins, and the southernmost corner of the great Eurasian steppes reaches a rugged seacoast full of coves and caves. Located about a couple of kilometres from the nondescript village of Kamen Bryag, Yaylata remains one of the last refuges of nature, history and landscape undisturbed by human presence in Bulgaria. Most tourists come here to take photos, and then rush away to more comfortable places. Few camp inside the caves, not because it is forbidden, but because sleeping here comes with the risk of meeting the nasty scolopendra, an aggressive and poisonous centipede that loves hiding in your shoes, or of falling off the picturesque cliffs at night.

Yaylata remains a place of extremes; of beauty and danger combined. Covering about 75 acres, the rocky terrace rises about 50-60m above the sea. Carved by the wind, the sea and the occasional earthquake, its red rocks have become home to a diverse habitat, combining the characteristics of the steppe and the sea. Over 178 bird species use it as a stopping off ground during their annual migration to and from Africa, and many endangered ones live here, including the European shag, and the great and the little bustard.

If you are lucky, during your springtime visit Yaylata will be covered with wild peonies

Yaylata lacks proper landing places, but it was nevertheless settled by humans as early, according to some claims, as the 4th millennium BC. Graves from the 2nd-6th centuries, dug directly into the rock, pockmark the highest part of the plateau. About a hundred natural caves were shaped into homes, temples and churches. On a lower terrace the remains of a late-Antiquity fortress stand. Its walls with four towers protected it until the 11th century, when the Pecheneg raids brought about ultimate destruction and abandonment. People continued to sail by, though, and as a result the waters around Yaylata are full with shipwrecks.

The nations that inhabited Yaylata include the long forgotten Goths as well as the better known Byzantines and Bulgarians. The name of the location itself is of Turkic origin, meaning "high-ground grazing plateau," indicating that for generations of locals Yaylata was not a gateway to the sea with its dangers and opportunities, but a pasture. In the neighbouring villages, it is still so: most of them are inland and look to the fertile Dobrudzha with its wheat and sunflower fields, not to the treacherous sea.

By the end of the 20th century, Yaylata was a backwater, as it was far from the best beaches on the Black Sea and travel was not that easy. This started to change when climbers and what passes for hippies in Bulgaria discovered the location. They loved it for its beautiful wilderness, and turned it into a secret place known and cherished by a select few. This situation did not last long. In the 2000s, more Bulgarians had the means and desire to travel and explore, while the more convenient beaches had became overdeveloped and Facebook and Instagram photos became a vital part of modern life. The masses moved to Kamen Bryag and Yaylata, and suddenly the quiet celebration of the sunrise on 1 July (read more about this unique Bulgarian feast in issue 117) began to attract thousands.

The rocky shore of the plateau is a part of a rare habitat combining maritime and steppe ecosystems

Popularity is not the only thing endangering the tranquility and undisturbed wildlife of Yaylata. Humans have done even more damage. Gone are the monk seals that used to live on its coast, hunted to extinction by local fishermen.

The remains of the fortress were recently "restored" with ugly new stones, in an ill advised attempt to attract more tourists. There are signs of development all around Yaylata, from the new hotels right on the cliffs in neighbouring Tyulenovo village to the ones sprouting closer and closer to the protected territory, in Kamen Bryag itself. Someone has even built an ugly stone shelter around Ogancheto, or The Little Fire, a natural gas outlet that provided light and warmth for countless campers willing to rough it.

Yaylata, however, is still just about holding out against these changes. Make sure to go there when the wild peonies are in full bloom.

Slowly, wind turbines are taking over the area

The Ogancheto, or Little Fire, natural gas leak is a natural camping spot

Issue 127 America for Bulgaria Foundation Nature The Black Sea

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