Eusebius of Nicomedia

By the point Constantine devoted Nova Roma, the controversy was in full swing. And when the Emperor, his thoughts poisoned towards Athanasius by Eusebius of Nicomedia and others, ordered the Bishop of Alexandria to readmit Arius to the communion of that church, Athanasius refused. This was precisely what the followers of Arius had been attempting to result in. However to their appreciable dismay Constantine who by now was disgusted with the infighting that saved the church within the East in such a continuing turmoil refused to punish Athanasius. Additional accusations adopted and, three years after the dedication of Nova Roma, the Bishop of Alexandria was ordered to look earlier than a non secular courtroom at Caesarea.

Expert warrior in doctrinal battles that he was, Athanasius refused to defend himself within the territory of his enemies earlier than an already prejudiced tribunal. When he was lastly tried two years later at Tyre, previous prices, largely absurd, had been introduced towards him. However as he had achieved throughout the Council of Nicaea, he defended himself so skillfully and the trumpedup proof was so flimsy, that the courtroom didn’t dare convict him, lest it convey down upon itself the wrath of Constantine. A fee was due to this fact dispatched as an alternative to Africa searching for additional proof upon which further prices could be introduced.

In the meantime, Athanasius boldly threw himself upon imperial mercy by going to Nova Roma. Standing in the midst of the street, he barred Constantine’s passage into town, because the Emperor was coming back from a short journey. However when the Imperial Guards would have thrust the churchman apart, Constantine ordered them again.

“Your face appears acquainted,” he mentioned. “Have I seen you earlier than?” “I’m Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria.”

“I bear in mind now.” Constantine’s face cleared. “You had been very eloquent within the prosecution of Arius.”

“I hope I could be equally eloquent in my very own protection, Dominus if you’ll however permit me an viewers.”

“I’ve at all times admired a daring fighter, even within the unsuitable trigger,” Constantine instructed him.

“However mine is the appropriate trigger, Dominus, the reason for Christ.” “But you have got been condemned by a courtroom of bishops.”

Constantine became conscious

“Lupus,” she murmured on the sound of Constantine’s footfall upon the ground of the tub. “I had probably the most thrilling expertise this morning.”

Her eyes opened drowsily, then widened when she noticed her husband standing there as an alternative of her lover. And on the caressing word that had been in her voice, an ungovernable rage he might no extra have managed than he might have seized the power of a raging storm together with his naked palms, took full management of Constantine’s actions, and his senses.

When Constantine turned acutely aware of his environment once more, he was nonetheless standing beside the pool, his proper hand gripping the deal with of a broad paddle with which Fausta’s servants stirred the water within the tub to combine it. The cords holding the pillow upon which her head had rested have been damaged, and she or he lay immobile, face down on the underside of the pool, together with her hair strewn out behind her within the water.

The puddle of water which had clearly slopped over the sides of the pool and now stood upon the marble flooring round it; the moist hem of Constantine’s lengthy gown; the water sloshing in his footwear all betrayed battle had taken place. Of it, nevertheless, he had no reminiscence, all rational thought having been swept away by the caressing word in Fausta’s voice when she had spoken her lover’s title. Surprisingly sufficient, too, he felt no emotion in any respect, as he regarded down on the physique on the underside of the marbledlined pool, the tide of anger which had seized him having been fully washed away by the violence of the motion it had set in movement.

If anybody had ever deserved demise, the chilly power of logic assured him, it had been Fausta. Already untrue as a spouse, she had turn out to be a murderess, too, when she had compelled her lover to forge demise warrants for the 2 who alone had stood in the best way of her plans for her personal kids. And figuring out that if Dacius have been allowed to dwell, he would denounce her to Constantine, she had included his personal demise warrant as nicely.

Against the Arian doctrine

A.D. 325. With the phrases, he tossed the primary of the scrolls upon the brazier and the clerk started to pile them upon the flames.

“Christ bids him who hopes for forgiveness first to forgive an erring brother,” Constantine informed the gathering in conclusion. “As I forgive all of you now who’ve despatched me these scurrilous paperwork, so do I cost that you simply forgive one another.”

Although designed to deliver the warring bishops to their senses, Constantine’s dramatic burning of their prices and countercharges towards one another was in a method symbolic of the council that adopted. In it, he took little half, however studies of its deliberations got to him nightly by Hosius, and nightly they grew to become extra discouraging.

First, Arius introduced his thesis that Christ, having been created by God the Father, was due to this fact a “creature” and never the equal of the Father the essence of the doctrine which had triggered all the difficulty. In opposition to the Arian doctrine already recognized as heresy by one synod of the church now rose probably the most eloquent voices to be heard within the Council. It was that of Athanasius, secretary and spokesman for the growing older Bishop Alexander, who had opposed Arius from the primary, and he countered the Arian doctrine level by level.

Father with the Greek phrase homoousios

Because the deliberations of the Council dragged on and had been reported faithfully to Constantine by Hosius a terrific mass of sentiment step by step developed for an intermediate place between the 2 extremes. One group described the place of the Son in relation to the Father with the Greek phrase homoousios, that means roughly of the identical substance or being in a phrase, consubstan tial whereas the Arians, alternatively, held out for the lesser place of a created being for the Son.

“Why is all this so vital?” Constantine cried out in exasperation one night, after Hosius had completed his report of the Council’s futile wrangling throughout the day.

“For those who had been there to listen to Athanasius assault the statements of Arius, you’ll see why, Augustus,” the Greek priest stated.

Fausta provided Constantine

True to her promise, Fausta offered Constantine with a son, who was named Constantine though there was one other, the son of Constantius and Theodora. And delighted to have one other male inheritor, the daddy named the toddler a Caesar, although with no area.

As for the opposite Caesar, Crispus, the Gallic legions adored him. With Eumenius and Dacius as advisers and Crocus aiding in navy affairs, he ruled nicely, placing down any rise up relentlessly, however treating his folks with the identical tolerance and understanding that was making his father s rule some of the profitable in Roman historical past.

Aggravated by the quarreling of the Donatists and by the dayto day cares of presidency, which he had by no means borne very tolerantly, Constantine was virtually glad when the Goths, their energy rebuilt by a peace of practically half a century following their conquest by the Emperors Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian, attacked throughout the Danube frontier.

He put down the revolt with all his outdated forthrightness and, when navy issues claimed his presence within the north for a lot of the time throughout practically two years, Fausta moved to Rome and a brand new palace he had constructed for her there, claiming that the local weather was higher than that at Milan, which she had by no means preferred. She was additional delighted when Constantine decreed that the Quinquennalia of the Caesars needs to be celebrated that yr with an amazing triumph such because the Empire had not seen for the reason that days following his nice victory at Saxa Rubra.

Dacius and Crocus

Dacius and Crocus accompanied Crispus eastward for the Quinquennalia and Constantine embraced his outdated associates and his son with actual fervor. It was the primary time he had seen Dacius since Crispus had gone to Gaul some 5 years earlier, and a good longer time had handed since he had left Crocus behind to look at over Gaul, whereas he was occupied within the marketing campaign towards Licinius. Neither appeared to have aged notably, however Constantine may see of their eyes the shock they felt on the means the toll of the years had etched its sample into his options, even bringing a substantial sprinkling of grey to his hair, although he was not fairly fifty years outdated.

The treaty of the Mardian Plain

“I used to be going to ask for him. And I hope King Crocus will stay there too.”

“Naturally he’ll; his kingdom is in Gaul.”

“What do you assume Emperor Licinius will do, Father?”

“Conform to my phrases, then plot to regain what he has misplaced and extra. That’s why I would like somebody I can belief to protect the frontier in Gaul and assist me defeat Licinius when the time comes.”

The subsequent day a brand new emissary arrived from Licinius, by which Constantine judged what he realized later to be true that Valens and his coconspirators had been despatched into exile. The defeated Emperor of the East accepted the phrases of peace, harsh although they have been, with just one request that his son Licinianus be named Caesar. To this Constantine readily agreed, for the reason that younger man was solely an toddler of twenty months.

The treaty of peace signed that day by him and Licinius marked the tip of the period begun by Diocletian, when rulers had chosen their successors a minimum of publicly on benefit and talent. Any longer, occupancy of the throne of Rome can be decided extra by blood descent than by some other single issue.

The treaty of the Mardian Plain inaugurated a interval of

It almost eight years of peace between the 2 rulers of the Roman Empire, however it couldn’t settle one issue that erupted as quickly as Constantine returned triumphantly to Milan. Fausta had wished the pomp and panoply of a triumphal celebration in Rome, however Constantine had come to dislike town on the Tiber as a lot as his previous grasp, Diocletian, had carried out. Apart from, he had a lot to do and will unwell afford the time for a ceremonial journey that would don’t have any actual goal besides to deliver pleasure to his spouse.

Storm indicators have been in Fausta’s eyes as he accepted the welcome house and the plaudits of the Prefect of Milan, replying with a gracious speech, promising prosperity because of a brand new peace treaty. The storm erupted as quickly as they have been alone collectively of their quarters within the palace.

“You may need advised me you deliberate to call your son a Caesar,” Fausta stated, when her servant had ready her for the evening and departed.

Late government of France

The primary a part of these papers was written a while since; that which is political, about two years in the past, on my return to my native nation; but it surely was not then aligned for the press. It might be objected, that there are issues in it which ought to not be made public, because it com trains info which can profit our enemies; I allover that they being in possession of the vie info which the late authorities of France had procured, there’s nothing important on this guide which shall be new to them; nor had even that authorities, at any time, so many spies, or such precise intelligence, because the Listing now have.

With respect to the Greeks, there shall be discovered a lot matter wholly new to the Public, however to not the Listing; for nobody was higher knowledgeable of the Fee of Greece than citizen (heretofore chevalier de) Truguet, recently minister of the marine division. He was for a very long time employed within the Archipelago, below the course of M. de Choisteul Gouflier, and was despatched to Egypt to barter with the Beys for depart to commerce to India by means of that nation, and to countered!; the Ruffian intrigues with them.

Extra advantageous to Britain

I’ve endeavored to show, that the pursuits of Nice Britain and Ruffia are inseparable and reciprocal. This, certainly, has been typically granted; however every time the aggrandizement of tilt empire on the expense of the Turks has been the topic of diffusion, that cafe has typically been thought of as an exception; on what grounds, I shall study, and, I hope, plainly show that the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and the re-establishment of the Greek empire, can be extra advantageous to Britain than even to Ruffia itself; that so removed from being an usurpation, it’s an act of justice ; and that, in accordance with the legal guidelines of countries, the Turks haven’t, by size of possession, acquired a proper to the dominion of the international locations they conquered.

The significance of the alliance of Ruffia seems day-after-day extra strongly, and I rife now a lot lower than I did a number of years in the past, when maintained that the salvation of Europe relied on participating that energy as a principal within the warfare. The views of the French with regard to Greece now too plainly seem, and the Emperor of Ruffia is at risk of being attacked within the Black Sea by a French avenue.

Complete inefficiency

The sigh which tears itself out of his coronary heart reminds Michel that he himself is rising weaker and weaker; and that the age of full inefficiency is already con-fronting him. He has not power sufficient to wield the iron decide with which he breaks the earth. And there’s no youngster to inherit his job.

“Reb Michel, Reb Michel, open the doorl” a hoarse voice is heard on the surface.

Michel opens the door and in comes Berke, messenger of the Chevrah Kadishah, respiratory closely. In his proper hand he carries a thick stick; in his left, a smoky lantern; and on his ft, piles of snow.

“Zise the Chapper died final evening,” the messenger relates. “I used to be with him to the final minute, till he turned towards the wall. I inform you, Reb Michel, such a tough loss of life I haven’t seen for an extended very long time. A number of hours he wrangled with—”

“Wrangled, did he?” Michel interposes. “Did he torture himself greater than he as soon as tortured little youngsters whom he took towards their will from father and mom and turned over to gentile arms?”

Chevrah Kadishah

“However why should you recall outdated sins?” admonishes Berke. “Anyhow, now he deserves that we do him honor. In his will he has left appreciable for charity; and his household has remembered the Chevrah Kadishah as effectively. There shall be sufficient to make a celebration for us. My objective, briefly, in coming right here is to inform you to dig the grave close to that of the outdated rabbi. And will you could have a nice day.”

As quickly as Michel notes the primary glow of daylight, he recites his morning prayers; after which he takes his instruments— the decide and shovel—and goes to work.

“My God, the soul which Thou hast given unto me got here pure from Thee,” Michel chants, and within the crackling of the hearth he appears to listen to a response from the lifeless.

He passes via the rows of graves, and although they’re coated with snow, every grave stands out distinctly earlier than his thoughts’s eye—every tombstone with its epitaph. He is aware of all who lie buried as if they stood earlier than him within the full flush of life. Now he has come to the place the place Zise the Chapper will And his everlasting relaxation. Michel builds a hearth to thaw out the bottom. He warms himself and recites psalms in his common subdued tone.

Moses Lurya

To Moses Lurya, who sits by himself on one of many cement benches on the ocean entrance, each white constructing on this neighborhood—as a matter of truth buildings in different neighborhoods additionally—is acquainted.

For isn’t he a pioneer builder of Miami? Wasn’t he one of many early actual property males who have been instrumental in reworking the swampy land into a fantastic and flourishing metropolis?

He laughs to himself when he’s reminded of a Jewish girl who defined that though she couldn’t detect any anti-Semitism on this a part of Florida, she had seen that the weather of nature have been considerably antiSemitic.

She defined as follows:

“After I bathe with my household at Coney Island, the waves all the time come in direction of you. Right here in Florida, then again, the waves run away from you.”

The chilly breeze of the chilly Florida night time hits his face and causes him to shut his eyes.

Because the stars above and the waves under are faraway from the sphere of his imaginative and prescient, recollections of days passed by come fleeting by his thoughts.

Actual property investments in Florida

He thinks of these years when he made actual property investments in Florida. He reminisces in regards to the lodges he constructed within the so-called affluent days. When the crash got here he misplaced all of them, and they’re now in unusual arms.

Moses Lurya is deeply spiritual and combines his religiosity with a philosophical pattern. So the fabric losses he has suffered don’t have an effect on him a lot because the lack of his expensive spouse. Sadly, his kids are additionally misplaced to him—not bodily, however spiritually.

They’re strangers to him.

Two years in the past he suffered a coronary heart assault. After weeks of convalescense, his physician suggested him to go to Florida.

In fact, he would like to go to California, or to another heat state, however his physician insisted on Florida.

Since he has come once more to this sunny local weather, he has regained his well being. In fact, he avoids passing by the buildings he misplaced with a purpose to stop one other coronary heart assault.

STYLISH SOUP

“Properly, I ought to fear. I’ll stroll a number of blocks. That may give me additional time to quiet my nerves.”

As he enters the home, the daddy of the kid meets him and declares, “The mom is sick and the infant is weak. We now have determined to place off the circumcision one other week.”

The mohel feels as if a heavy stone has been lifted from his coronary heart.

STYLISH SOUP

Mrs. Goodman had heard quite a lot of speak about typists. So when her husband employed a typist for his workplace, she turned nonetheless extra curious.

She found typist seems letters with a type of mechanical “macharayke” as an alternative of writing them out in longhand.

She turned uneasy when she heard that bosses typically get very pleasant with their typists, however her fears knew no bounds when her husband started to complain that she wasn’t maintaining updated. He even stated she walked round trying like a “yente” and acted old-stylish.

“I must watch my man very carefully,” she thought. “It gained’t damage if I make an sudden name on him in his workplace every now and then. Let him know that I’m nonetheless alive; that I haven’t died but.”

One afternoon, Mrs. Goodman got here to the workplace.

Her husband’s personal workplace was closed. She didn’t need to rush in, however she might see nothing via the frosted glass.

“They’re laughing in there, they’re kissing,’’ she mumbled to herself, as she trembled, half in worry and half in rage. Her face flared up. Her coronary heart beat quick, and extremely excited, she opened the door.

Her husband, seated on a chair, was conversing with their daughter. Each had been startled by the sudden interruption. Mrs. Goodman, embarrassed, didn’t know how one can break the silence.

“What’s flawed, what’s the matter with you?’’ her husband requested.

In confusion and ashamed of herself, she blurted out, “Why… I… got here to let you know… why… I’ve for tonight’s supper a classy soup… it’s barley with mushrooms in it!’’

Votive Vessels

On the finish of the 1956 season we had reached an Early Bronze Age degree about up to date with the second settlement at Troy, within the final centuries of the third millennium B.C. Right here we have been starting to get better a number of very distinctive pottery of the sort which one normally describes as “votive vessels”. At that second we have been deepening the wheelbarrow trench, and found abruptly that it was chopping throughout one thing which should in any respect prices be rigorously recorded; a constructing, evidently a shrine, containing an altar construction which consisted of two upright stelae and a pair of clay “horns” comparable to one finds in Minoan structure of a a lot later date.

Just a few hours remained earlier than the tip of our season’s work: so the ditch was briefly closed. Within the following spring, a enormously enlarged shaft was marked out, in order that the entire buiding could possibly be correctly investigated. This preliminary discovery then subsequently led to the clearance and recording of 5 sanctuary chambers, which have been the primary spiritual buildings of the Early Bronze Age to be found in Anatolia. One among them has been the topic of a pictorial reconstruction, exhibiting all of the votive pottery in place because it was initially discovered. And one sees how the choices have been evidently handed by the worshipper over the “horns” and between the stelae to a ready priest on the opposite aspect.

Chalcolithic ranges

However an attention-grabbing circumstance about these shrinerooms was that they have been evidently constructed on the skin of the settlement with their ends abutting in opposition to an outer enclosure wall. And as we descended into the Chalcolithic ranges beneath, time and again this similar enclosure wall appeared, chopping throughout our sounding, with buildings inside however solely a “fall out” of gathered garbage on the skin.

This continued virtually all the way down to the unique settlement at plain degree, and it introduced us with a really curious downside. For the wall was going through in the direction of the saddle formed despair which minimize the mound into two halves. It might need been doable to suppose that within the earliest instances, right here on the west aspect of the freeway was a walled metropolis, and that an extension to it on the east aspect was not added till the Bronze Age. However this was not borne out by the info. For our investigations within the japanese hill confirmed that an roughly equal variety of occupations have been represented beneath it.

Excavations in Anatolia

Usually, there isn’t any doubt that Braidwood’s enterprise made a agency starting within the newdy widened subject of analysis w7hich he himself had conceived. In the meantime his archaeological discoveries had been being supplemented by excavators of different nationalities in neighbouring nations, significantly at Jericho in Jordan, the place Dr. Ok. Kenyon had penetrated the stays of a “pre pottery” Neolithic city maybe corresponding in time with the beginnings of the village at Jarmo.1 However nearly a decade was to elapse earlier than a setting was lastly discovered through which the actual prodigies of Neolithic accomplishment could possibly be examined on a broader scale and correctly correlated with their subsequent Chalcolithic growth.

And when this occurred, it was not in Jordan nor in Mesopotamia, nor even in Braid wooden’s hilly flanks zone, however within the western uplands of Anatolia; a rustic which till just lately had hardly been credited wuth a formative civilization sooner than the third millennium B.C. It’s to the mounds of Anatolia that we should now flip our consideration.

Excavations in Anatolia

The identify Anatolia is at present usually utilized by its inhabitants to the entire of Turkey in Asia from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van. All through most of this broad peninsula, and particularly across the fringes of its excessive central plateau, historical mounds are nearly as plentiful as in Syria or Iraq; and if they’re much less conspicuous it’s maybe the character of the panorama with its mountains and forests which makes them so. One space is outstanding on this respect.

Size of the Aegean coast

The provinces bordering the Aegean Sea are certainly studded with the stays of historical Greek cities: however these which aren’t buried beneath the alluvium of the river valleys have survived quite within the type of ruinfields, scattered with the remnants of stone buildings. All through the size of the Aegean coast, from Lycia to the Troad, precise mound formations are extraordinarily uncommon. And this confers a sure distinction on the in any other case unpretentious hill referred to as Hissarlik, which at present is usually thought-about to be the location of the town of Troy.

If, within the context of our current topic, it’s often essential to check with the in poor health directed beginnings of archaeology within the Close to East the place Anatolia is anxious, the pure level of departure is the location of Troy and the excavations begun there by the good newbie archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann. However of Schliemann it have to be stated directly that one’s admiration for some elements of his character inhibits the obvious criticisms of his ineptitude as an excavator. As I’ve written elsewhere “It’s not by his shortcomings that he’s to be judged.

THE BULGARIAN AGRICULTURAL BANK

The Bulgarian Agricultural Financial institution owes its’ origin to an establishment courting from the time of the Turkish domination.

In 1863 Midhat Pasha, Governor of the Danubian Vilayet, ready a scheme for the creation of “ city ” banks, which have been supposed to help the agricultural inhabitants. The scheme having been accepted by the Turkish Authorities, a number of of those banks have been established in the middle of the identical yr. The peasants have been allowed to repay in form the loans which have been superior to them, the banks themselves promoting the agricultural merchandise. With the article of accelerating the capital of the banks, a particular tax was launched obliging the farmers handy yearly to those establishments a part of their produce in form.

When it was realised that these banks have been of nice service to the agricultural inhabitants, to which they superior cash at 12 per cent, curiosity as an alternative of 30100 per cent., because the usurers usually did—the Turkish Authorities prolonged the reform to the entire empire, and obliged the peasants^ to create related banks in all of the district centres.

In accordance with their statutes onethird of the online income of those banks have been destined for works of public utility, comparable to bridges, roads, fountains, faculties, and many others., whereas the remaining twothirds went to extend the capital of the banks.

On the eve of the creation of the Principality, these banks dealt in three sorts of transactions: private loans, loans on securities, and mortgage loans.

A number of of those banks

In the course of the RussoTurkish battle, a number of of those banks misplaced their fortunes, the functionaries of the Turkish Authorities having carried away all of the funds, in addition to the securities and different property belonging to the banks’ shoppers. After the battle, the debtors refused to pay, and solely a part of the property of the banks was restored, by way of the difficulty of latest bonds. Owing to the destruction or lack of the registers and different paperwork, it has been not possible to find out the precise situation of the banks at that interval.

On June 20th, 1879, Provisional Russian Administration revealed new laws making use of to the city banks of Northern Bulgaria, which have been then for the primary time known as “agricultural banks.”

In accordance with the disposition of those new laws, the agricultural banks needed to search for their shoppers among the many agricultural lessons. The pet income from the sale of the agricultural merchandise have been, as earlier than, reserved for the rise of the funds of the banks.

IMITATION AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE

DURING the primary years after the liberation of the Principality the international artists who had been referred to as to Bulgaria, and the Bulgarians who had graduated on the numerous European academies of fantastic arts, discovered no hint of an artwork which might be stated to fulfill the necessities of the time. However in return they found an abundance of topics which have been fairly new to them: wild and romantic surroundings which the peasants’ creativeness had peopled with legendary beings, and heroes whose reminiscence nonetheless survived in legends and within the nationwide songs which had not as but been affected by the brand new circumstances of life. Unique structure, preserved within the cities and villages, and attention-grabbing each in its basic character and in picturesque particulars, provided tempting sights to the artist.

There have been additionally the assorted nationwide varieties of their curious costumes Bulgarians, Turks, Gypsies and the opposite Oriental nationalities. The nation was coated with ruins of previous church buildings and fortifications bearing proof of the ravages of time and an detached inhabitants. If we add the contemporary recollections from private balkan trip the revolutionary interval and from the unequal battle with the nationwide oppressors, we get a good suggestion of the wealthy topics and supplies which have been nonetheless ready for inventive therapy.

Who had lived in Bulgaria

Neither have been the artists gradual to avail themselves of those beneficial circumstances. These amongst them who had lived in Bulgaria, or who, with out visiting the nation, took an curiosity in its historical past and inhabitants, present in these a plentiful provide of latest themes for his or her inspiration.

Thus we discover Holarek, a few of whose photos have been acquired by the State and are actually the property of the Bulgarian Nationwide Museum, going to Bulgarian historical past of the eleventh century and taking as topic for his bestknown image an episode from the momentous battle of the Bulgarian King Samuel with the Greek Emperor Basil I., identified additionally below the title of the “ Killer of the Bulgarians” in consequence of his order for the blinding of 11,000 Bulgarian troopers taken captive.

Piotrovsky, in his image ” The Bloodbath by the Bashi bazouks,” has borrowed his topic from latest Bulgarian historical past the atrocities dedicated in 1876 by Bashibazouks, Gypsies, and Turkish irregulars which crammed Europe, and particularly England, with horror, and first raised the query of bettering the lot of the oppressed Bulgarians. In the identical means Boloungaro, in his image 11 Night/’ represents a Bulgarian panorama with peasants, whereas Arndt treats the break of “ St. Sofia ” and the adjoining Turkish quarter in winter.

 

But the castle gates were not opened

She had her room in a turret in a distant a part of the fort, and spent her time embroidering pretty banners; she discovered repose in praying to God and in looking of her window on the emerald panorama and the azure sky. How usually, at evening, had she risen from her mattress and gone to the window to gaze on the stars! How usually had the center of this sixteen-year-old baby leaped up towards the vasty areas of the heavens, asking her radiant sisters of the firmament what it was that so troubled her!

And after these sleepless nights, these first stirrings of her but unconscious love, she would have unusual promptings urging her to embrace the tough previous knight her uncle. However a brief reply or a stern look would test her impulse, and all atremble she would take up her needle once more. You might be sorry, Nanon, for the poor baby: she was like a fresh-scented flower whose loveliness and scent are alike spurned.

Good-looking younger man

In the future as poor Odette was sitting at her window following together with her eyes the flight of two doves, she heard a smooth voice far beneath her on the foot of the fort wall. She leaned out and noticed a good-looking younger man who, with a track on his lips, demanded hospitality of the inmates of the fort. Although she listened intently, she couldn’t perceive what he stated, however the candy voice made her coronary heart heavy, and the tears ran slowly down her cheeks, wetting the sprig of marjoram which she held in her hand.

However the fort gates weren’t opened, and a man-at-arms cried out from the partitions:

“Stand again. Solely troopers are admitted right here.”

Odette continued to look out of the window. She let slip the flower from her hand, nonetheless moist together with her tears. It fell close to the toes of the singer who, elevating his eyes and seeing the honest hair of the woman, kissed the sprig and turned away, although he stopped at each step to look again. After he had disappeared, Odette went to her prie-dieu and prayed a very long time. She gave because of heaven, she knew not why; she felt glad, although she didn’t suspect the rationale of her happiness.

And that evening she dreamed an exquisite dream. She noticed once more the sprig of marjoram she had thrown to the younger man. Slowly, out of the midst of the quivering leaves, there emerged a tiny fairy, with flame-colored wings, a crown of myosotis and an extended gown of inexperienced, the colour of hope.

The Bulgarian Agrarian

The financial coverage of the individuals’s rule was aimed on the gradual ousting of all capitalists from the economic system and at its socialist reconstruction. April 1947 noticed the institution of the beginnings of a deliberate economic system in Bulgaria with the adoption of a two-year financial plan. By the top of the identical yr the personal industrial enterprises, mines and banks within the nation have been nationalized.

The First 5-12 months Financial Plan was labored out in 1948 and the foundations of a socialist society in Bulgaria started to be constructed. The anti-popular opposition was routed, the Social-Democratic Social gathering merged with the Communist Social gathering, whereas the remaining events with the one exception of the Bulgarian Social gathering disbanded themselves of their very own free will. The Bulgarian Agrarian Social gathering remained unbiased and takes half within the nation’s administration shoulder to shoulder with the Communist Social gathering. The primary long-term treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual help have been signed in 1948 with the Soviet Union and the European individuals’s democratic states, and in the course of the subsequent decade Bulgaria turned cofounder of the Council for Mutual Financial Help and of the Warsaw Treaty for protection of the socialist states.

A hopeful Steadiness Sheet

The ninth of September revolution ushered in a brand new epoch within the historical past of the Bulgarian individuals. In solely a few many years Bulgaria turned from a backward agrarian nation, occupying one of many final locations in Europe for its nationwide earnings and dwelling requirements, into an unbiased socialist state with a developed business and modem agriculture, steady growth charges, a wealthy cultural life and always rising dwelling requirements of the individuals. Bulgaria’s nationwide earnings elevated 11-fold, agricultural output – over 3 times, industrial manufacturing – over 60 occasions, energy technology – over 100 occasions, the variety of college college students — nearly 20 occasions, and so forth.

Usually, I plan my holidays out of my nation however within the final years I’m critically considering of making an attempt.

As we speak Bulgaria ranks among the many international locations withlarge- scale modernly organized agriculture. Over 25 per cent of her arable land is irrigated and because of irrigation, trendy cultivation, introduction of chemical fertilizers and new plant varieties, Bulgaria has come as much as one of many main locations on the planet as regards yields. The common yields of wheat, for example, attain four,000 kg per hectare, of sugar beet – 35,000 per ha, of sunflower – 1,800 kg per ha, and so forth. Bulgaria is without doubt one of the world’s largest producers of tobacco and attar of roses, and one in all Europe’s largest exporters of recent and processed vegatables and fruits.

 

 

Established process

The sovereigns of the times alluded to, when in need of replenishment, were wont to send for some opulent Israelite, from whom it was the established process to extract tooth after tooth by royal command, until the reluctant victim could make up his mind to disgorge the required sum. Undismayed, however, by these sort of admonitory visitations, we find those ancient representatives of the monies interest invariably returning to their bureau and haunts of business, with as keen an avidity of pelf, as if nothing had happened as if the security of their gain was inviolable.

Now, in following up this inquiry, I persuade myself it will appear very remote from improbable, that what was wont to be practiced by the monarch on the Jew, is precisely that which the greater and victorious military state will seek to execute on the less formidable, but more wealthy one. And that amongst the first teeth, as a mere matter of course, attempted to be extracted from us, would indubitably be the “ keys,” as they are termed, “ of the Mediterranean,” Corfu, Malta, and Gibraltar.

Last stage of political

Many will refuse all credence, at least during’ our time, to the possibility of any such humiliation event. Others there are so various are opinions  who suspect that we are in the last stage of political and financial exhaustion, and that if anything derogatory be brought to bear against us, our best plan will be to submit retire within our own shores occupy ourselves thenceforward with an exclusive domestic industry, and avoid all further intermeddling with our neighbors; thus, say they, our burdensome colonies will be lost, and our money saved.

A no less numerous class are those who neither look before nor behind, and are strongly persuaded, that whatever is, will continue to be, at least, for as long as it is of any concernment to them to speculate upon. To rouse these sort of persons to any positive belief in the wicked designs of distant potentates, the basal lions which are to accomplish them must present themselves the cannon of the enemy must nearly echo upon their ears.

These doubt that any great changes take place without a lapse of ages intervening, although, in reality, change is no less the order of the political than the natural world; and is unceasingly presenting new combinations, with more or less of transition, as chance or skill directs its progress.

 

Society of Bulgarian Artists

The School of Painting is the connecting link between the two Art Societies in Bulgaria, the leading members of the older Society of Bulgarian Artists being professors in the school, while the founders and members of the new Society of Modem Art are mainly old students.

Society of Modem Art

The latter, together with other young artists who had graduated at the various academies abroad, formed the Society of Modem Art as a counterpoise to the Society of Bulgarian Artists, with which they were discontented owing to its inactivity and tutelage, as well as for its monopoly of all the State and Church orders. These were, however, not the only considerations which contributed to the starting of the new society. The avowed object of the Society of Modem Art, which originally existed only as a group of friends, was and remains as follows: (1) to bring together the various artists (architects, painters, sculptors, decorative artists), art critics and, in general, lovers of art and Bulgaria private tours kazanlak , for the purpose of their mutual improvement and help; (2) to familiarise the public with modem art; (3) to study the origins of Bulgarian art, and to adapt what remains of it to modem conditions; (4) to ameliorate the material conditions of artistic work in Bulgaria.

The society, which counts at present some scores of active members, was founded in 1907 by three architects, a decorative artist, an art critic, three painters, and a woodcarver. The persons who ushered it into life, as will be seen, belonged to various branches of art, and had been brought together in the natural course of their several professions. They held in common certain principles, the most important of which was that the time had come to react against the conventional styles in which Bulgarian art had been stereotyped, and to stimulate artistic life in Bulgaria by acquainting it with the most recent artistic movements abroad.

Innovators though they were in some respects, they did not lose sight of the local and national conditions in which Bulgarian art was placed, and, while holding an open mind to the lessons inculcated by the more advanced art of Western Europe, they were determined to retain and encourage what was typically national in Bulgarian art. All these ends which the Society of Modem Art set before itself had nothing new in themselves, but they were for the first time taken in earnest, and propagated by means of art exhibitions, which finished by awakening public interest in art. This was the more desirable as the rival Society of Bulgarian Artists had entirely neglected this side of the question, engrossed as its members were in executing hurriedly, and not very carefully, the various public orders with which they had been commissioned.

Among the members of the older society the first place must be assigned to Ivan Markvitchka, Anton Mitoff, and Ivan Angeloff.

 

Assisted Roumanians

The war was waged between the Turks on the one hand, and the Russians, assisted by the Roumanians, on the other. The Bulgarians, for whose sake the battle was nominally being fought, were rather spectators than actors in the contest. Their sympathies were, no doubt, enthusiastically enlisted on the side of the Russians, to whom they furnished most valuable aid in the shape of information.

A considerable number of volunteer regiments were raised, and took part in the fighting. Still, even the Bulgarians themselves would hardly allege that the success of the campaign was mainly due to their assistance. If this was so there is no cause for blame. The peasants had had no military training or organization; they were very imperfectly provided with arms; they were cowed to some extent by the cruel reprisals which had followed the abortive insurrection; and, above all, they were haunted by the dread of being left at the mercy of their enemies, if the defeat of the Turks should not prove to be of a decisive character.

Russians conquered

Anyhow, the Russians conquered; and, in the flush of their victory, when their armies were almost within sight of Constantinople, they concluded the Treaty of San Sfefann by one of whose clauses Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia were to be formed into an autonomous and independent State under Russian protection. The Western Powers, however, acting chiefly on the instigation of England, refused to ratify the Treaty of San Stefano. A Congress was held at Berlin to settle the terms of peace between Russia and Turkey. At this period Bulgaria was regarded as a mere outpost of Russia; and, in consequence, the Western Powers, who were opposed to the advance of Russia towards the Bosphorus, deemed it their interest to curtail in many ways the proposed enfranchisement of Bulgaria. By the Treaty of Berlin,

Roumelia was not allowed to be incorporated with. Bulgaria; the Turks were secured the right of erecting! fortifications on the Bulgarian Balkans, a right which they have never exercised, or dreamt of exercising; and, finally, the titular sovereignty of Bulgaria was also restored to the Sultan, though no attempt was made to interfere with the autonomy of the country. The Russians were also allowed by the treaty to exercise a provisional protectorate over Bulgaria till such time as the new Constitution, which was to be provided for the province, had been got into working order.

Whether the subject peoples could

Istanbul raged hearts

As already observed, the conquerors have neither wished nor been able to efface these distinctions, nor have the conquered had any inclination to be merged into a common life and polity. In such a state of things it is not surprising that no love has been lost Legend has it that the battle of Chalon’s was waged with such ferocity, that, after the bodies of the combatants lay cold upon the ground, their spirits continued to fight in the air.

The struggle between the conqueror and the conquered in Turkey has raged in their hearts even when, to all appearance, it seemed to have ended. In thought and sentiment the country has always been in a state of war. That a rule carried on in the spirit of conquest and of religious exclusiveness should have involved intolerable treatment of the subject peoples is only what might be expected, notwithstanding occasional good intentions.

And that peoples thus treated, and persistently reminded of their subjugation and inferior legal standing should never abandon the hope of deliverance, and should even endeavor to create opportunities to achieve emancipation is, like-wise, only what might be expected. Whether the subject peoples could have already gained their liberty, if they had been united, is a question open to debate. But what is certain is that their rivalries, their dissensions, and their natural but incompatible expectations, have retarded the realization of their ambitions.

European portion of the Empire

To a large extent, this is their misfortune; the fate imposed upon them by their circumstances. Look, for example, at the situation in the European portion of the Empire. How can anyone expect Romanians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Albanians to forget their historical antecedents, their race distinctions, and their associations with different parts of the country, in order to become one nationality? How can they be persuaded to combine in a common effort to become free, while the points in dispute between themselves remain unsettled? The question is rendered yet more difficult when these peoples, as is often the case, dwell side by side in the same section of the country.

Here is a tangle of claims which an impartial mind finds hard to unravel, and feels tempted to relegate to the sword that cuts the Gordian knot The fundamental difficulty that hinders the solution of what is known as “the Eastern Question” is the absence of a large homogeneous population within the bounds of the Empire, to which the Government of the country can be transferred from the hands of the present ruling race.

He was tall and handsome but did not marry because he had to support his old father and mother who were so old and so poor that they could only sit on their divans all day and pray the Almighty to call them back to him so that their boy might be left free of worries and responsibilities. But they were good parents and the boy was a good son. Therefore, the Almighty heard their prayer and freed their son of all worries, but not in the way the old people had prayed for. It so happened that the “Frank” kings of Hungary, Servia and Bulgaria declared war on our powerful Sultan and invaded his domains. To repulse the invaders our Sultan called all his brave subjects under arms.

They flocked from all over to the standard of their emperor. The young boy from the Anatolian mountains near the Caucasus heard his sovereign’s call and answered it immediately. But he was so far away that when he came to Adrianople, which was at that time the capital of the Sultan, he found that the armies had left many days before to meet the detested foes. He galloped post haste through the Balkans, days and nights without rest until he finally reached the plains of Kosovo.

A letter was fabricated

The Gospodars had also a strong faction in the town; and were altogether in a position to undertake something serious. But already was their unity destroyed and their power lessened by several losses. Milan, on whom they could reckon unconditionally, had fallen ill at Bucharest, not long after Lasar Woinowitsch had returned to him, and he died on the last day of the year 1810. It was asserted by some that he had been removed by poison.

But what to them was of greater importance, Jacob Nenadowitscli had now other views : he determined to fill his place in the Senate. Having married his son Efrem to the daughter of Mladen, and joined himself entirely to the party of Kara George ; instead of coming with a numerous troop, he appeared at Belgrade in his sledge, accompanied only by two Momkes. Thus Peter and Milenko alone remained with Weliko.

The opposite party also contrived to separate AVcliko from his faction. Kara George not only made him large presents of money, but restored to him his position as AVoiwode of Bania, which he had nearly forfeited by his departure the }Tear before: he often called him “Son;” saying, “Alcxa, his first born son, was not dearer to him,” and thus contrived to win him over entirely to his interests. But, that AVeliko might not waver between his old and new engagements, care vras taken to remove him to some distance.

A letter was fabricated, in which it was stated that the Turks had made an irruption into the country from Niscli, and had already advanced as far as l’ania; and the letter was delivered by a Tartar, streaming with perspiration. Nothing further was required to stimulate the Heyduc: to save his AVoiwodeship, he set out with all his Bekjares without a moment’s delay.

Milenko and Peter had no longer the courage to attempt any thing. Stephen Schiwkowitsch, the richest man in Belgrade, and an old enemy of Mladen’s, pressed the two chiefs once more to try their fortune: he would have had them commence immediately by an assault upon Mladen’s house. Peter and Milenko answered,   “ We are short of men.”

“ Are we not three of us,” replied Schiwkowitsch ; “ and have we not our Momkcs ? Upon the first shot the inhabitants of the town will rise: for they hate Mladen; and the country people, who are greedy after booty, will rush in to our support.” But the chiefs further objected that “ they were without ammunition even to begin with; ” whereupon Schiwkowitsch directly procured several sacksful, which he brought to the inn. But as has already been stated, both Milenko and Peter were so discouraged by their previous ill success, that, whilst Schiwkowitsch was making these proposals, they remained sitting by the fireside, without answering, and merely stirring the coals.

To be fully assured how matters stood, Kara George had now only to ascertain what lie was to expect from the Russian regiment, (the regiment Neuschlot,) and how its Colonel, Balia, was disposed towards him. If he had at any time shown himself disaffected towards the Bus  sians, it was because lie had suffered himself to be persuaded and indeed by the assertions of his adversaries themselves   that his enemies and rivals had found in them a help and support. At length, he determined to learn the real state of affairs. One day when he, Peter Dobrinjaz, and Milenko, together with the Colonel, had been dining at Mladen’s, and afterwards, to honour the Foreigner, had accompanied him towards his home, Kara George   perhaps designedly just as they arrived at the colonel’s abode, entered into a violent dispute with Milenko. Already he had ordered his Momkcs to take Milenko’s sword from him, when Balia, who lived in the same house, pleaded for him.

This was the critical moment which Kara George had expected, lie took off his cap and implored Balia, “by the bread of his Emperor,” to tell him whether he had come to support Milenko’s faction. Balia replied, that, he had come to render assistance to the nation under the command of Kara George. “ Then,” cried the latter, “let me take and kiss thy hand in lieu of that of the Emperor.” lie required no further assurance: he no longer thought of his dispute with Milenko, but was satisfied with knowing himself secure on this side also.

The next day, however, he took measures for terminating the whole affair. He sent to Milenko and Peter the appointments which removed them from their supreme command to their seats inthe Senate. Should they accept them ? It was only too evident, since Jacob had gone over to their opponent, that, in the Senate also, where they would find themselves in the minority, they would possess but little influence. “ Should they refuse?” If they did, exile awaited them. Nevertheless, they determined to refuse, hoping that their request to live as private individuals in their respective districts might be granted. As their power, however, depended less on their legal rights than on their personal influence, their request, was refused.

While gods and goddesses are sitting and chatting

Aphrodite: Goddess of beauty and love. She was born of the sea foams arose over the sea waves from the blood and flesh weep­ing from the testicles of Cronus. She has two characteristics:

• Aphrodite Urania; goddess of pure love.


• Aphrodite Pandemos; goddess of prostitution.

Aphrodite is Hephaistos’s wife and this man is a blacksmith and worker lame god. Ares is her greatest love. Aphrodite is al­ways portrayed as being nude. She did not intend to hide her beauty. Pigeon, dove and rose are her symbols.

A legend; While gods and goddesses are sitting and chatting on the Mount Ida (Kaz Mountains) and drinking their nectars on the other hand, a debate over the most beautiful goddess comes up. Is it Zeus’ wife Hera or his daughter Athena or Aphrodite? After the debate three of them take it personally. None of the gods standing there dares to speak his mind. All of a sudden they find themselves in an uneasy atmosphere. Taking the advantage of this commotion, Eris throws an apple with an inscription “To the most beautiful Goddess” on it.

Three goddesses reach for the apple. They fight like cat and dog. There is an unbearable noise now. Zeus interferes in the dis­pute involuntarily and He refrains from giving a decision due to his relation with three goddesses.

“Goddesses” says Zeus. “I love three of you equally. I assign Paris, a shepherd on the Mount Ida, as the arbitrator. Go and find him!.. Settle this matter!..”

Guided by Hermes three goddesses set forth to find Paris. Hermes relates the facts to Paris. Paris scans three goddesses from head to foot. What crossing his mind cannot be known but he is also not able to give judgment. Noticing this situation the goddesses go ahead to make promises to Paris.

Hera:

“Look, you handsome guy” says, “If you give me the apple, I will make you the strongest mortal of the entire world.

Aphrodite:

“Look, you beautiful guy” says, “If you give me the apple, I will give you the most beautiful mortal woman of the world.”

Athena:

“Look, you brave guy” says, “if you give me the apple, I will make you the strongest warrior of the world.”

Confused with such charming promises, Paris submits the apple to Aphrodite who made the promise of “the most beautiful woman”. Thus, Aphrodite becomes the goddess of beauty.

The first beauty contest was held on the Mount Katz (Ida).

Aphrodite keeps her promise and submits the Spartan King Agamemnon’ wife beautiful Helena to Paris.

This story is the mythological cause of Trojan Wars.

Poseidon: Zeus’s brother and god of seas. He is acerbic and ferocious. He bears a trident. He is also god of earthquake and other natural phenomena. He is the creator of horse.

Known as winged horse, Pegasus is the son of Poseidon.

Hestia: Zeus’s sister. One of the virgin goddesses. Goddess of family. Because she is the symbol of domestic nobility and fer­tility. A fire that never goes flat was used to light in every city. This fire used to symbolize Hestia.

A Greek man that can interfere in any immoral affair used to wish for a faithful woman who was going to wait for him at home, look after his children and cook at home. Also, they were pay attention to the condition that the girl they were going to marry had to be virgin. The goddess Hestia was held in high estimation in Greek man’s eye since she represented virginity and fertility.

We included eminent Olympian gods and their known sto­ries to our book. We are going to narrate the whole adventures of these Olympian gods in another study.

The new titled “Monotheist religions” will follow our first chapter ending with Greek religion and mythology. We have tried to shed a light on the beliefs, resource and diversity of Anatolian men beginning with Qatalhdyiik Mother Goddess belief and we have taken pain over not break the ties with the Hittite, Urartian, Persian, Roman and Greek societies. Revealing the beliefs of an­tiquity men characterized with mythology and establish relations between these beliefs and monotheist religions and also identify their universal dimension with Anatolian saints ( Mevlana, Hajji Bektash Wali etc.)

Where Teen Girls Are ‘Sold’ For Hundreds Of Dollars

POSING for selfies, slapping on lipstick and dancing around a bedroom strewn with clothing, these young teens could be from almost any city in the world.

Only the young women from Bulgaria’s Kalaidzhi — an orthodox Christian subgroup of the Roma community — will have a different fate than most.

The 18,000-strong community is widely discriminated against across Eastern Europe and renowned for fiercely guarding their cultural traditions.

Young women can be forced to leave school as soon as they have their first period, according to academic Alexey Pamporov who has studied the Roma for two decades.

The culture is also renowned for a “bridal market” held up to four times a year where young girls flock to muddy fields and parking lots around the country in red carpet gowns to meet prospective husbands.

Mr Pamporov said despite the rise of social media the “market” remains the main way young people meet before their families decide whether to go ahead with negotiating on a dowry for marriage.

When asked if the girls object to being out of school and “sold” he said. “Some girls are more liberated, let’s say, but most of them want to have a proper marriage and you need support of your family.

“They’re not happy but what can they do? When they grow up in the culture what can they do?”

The tradition is the subject of a recent Broadly documentary Young Brides for Sale by Milene Larsson and Alice Stein, who travelled to Stara Zagora in Bulgaria to watch one family up close as their teenage daughters prepared to meet potential husbands by whitening their face with pomade and trying on dresses bought online.

The Swedish filmmaker said her “jaw dropped” when she first heard about the concept but on closer inspection it’s far more complex than it seems.

“The bride market is an ancient tradition essential to the Kalaidzhi identity, which is why this custom has survived, but these days most girls have an element of choice — albeit shaped by family pressure — when it comes to whom they wed,” she said.

“That doesn’t by any means justify the disturbing idea that women are property that you can sell, bid on and buy, and how that shapes these girls’ lives from day one. They are brought up not to discover who they are and their ambitions, but instead to obey and serve their future husbands.”

While the generations-old market has been changed by technology and the economic downturn, it’s still one of the main ways families are introduced to one another in a country where they are economically and socially discriminated against.

Grooms pay an average of $290 to $350 for their young brides, Ms Larsson reports, however the price can go much higher.

The documentary provides an intimate look at one traditional coppersmithing family’s struggle to make ends meet. Parents Vera and Christo have spent the equivalent of a week’s wage on clothing their young daughters Pepa and Rossi for the all-important day.

“If the girl is not a virgin when you sell her, they will call us whores, sluts and disgraceful women,” Vera said.

Her daughter Pepa agreed: “Kalaidzhi women must be virgins when they first marry. It is very important because a lot of money is given for virginity.”

The girls, along with their cousin Mima, admit the market is “scary” as “there’s a possibility parents could decide to give their daughter’s hand to a man who has more money, rather than one who is poor even if she loved the poor man”.

“There are some cases where a boy and a girl love each other but the girl has dark eyes and if the boy’s parents are wealthy they won’t want her as their daughter-in-law. They will want a more beautiful one,” Mima said.

While neither girl actually makes a match, the parents are not unhappy. For Ms Larsson, making the film revealed a surprisingly complex set of emotions around women’s rights, family values and sex.

“I found it especially disturbing when I spent time with them alone and they talked about their fears of being married off to someone they don’t like, missing their families, and their secret dreams and aspirations that they couldn’t pursue,” she said.

However it also raised the prospect of how scary it would be to rebel against family convention.

“There is a lot of love and fun and warmth within the family, nothing is black and white. Most will chose a familiar discomfort zone rather than the lonely prospect of the absolute unknown.”

Mr Pamparov said while there were undoubtedly some cases of forced marriage for those in unfortunate positions, it was difficult to generalise about the ancient tradition in an orthodox community often separated by geography.

“The idea is to give young people the chance to meet the same age mate. The girl has a right to refuse. [As a man] I cannot ask you. I have to ask my parents to ask your parents and the elders are negotiating a price. At the same time, if I like you and you don’t care you can tell your parents,” he said.

“I’m not able to generalise because there are still some young people who are very traditional … but there are some young people who don’t care. [They will say], ‘I know she is not a virgin but I love her and I don’t care and I know that my mother won’t care because I love her.”

Old and new Bulgarian language

In the circumstances of the linguistic environment of Southeastern Europe, these early phenomena took the stable form of Indo-European dialectal processes. Bulgarians were the bearers of Indo-Iranian cultural behaviour in the main spheres of historical activity. In Europe they encountered a deep Hellenist-Thracian Indo-European linguistic tradition with an enormous vocabulary, which they adopted. On the other hand, the Slavs actually redeveloped the vernacular tongues in terms of the Indo-European element therein, and finally fixed the pre-literary Indo-European aspect of the mixed population, both aboriginal and new.

The unifying role of religion and the introduced Old Bulgarian language accelerate the process of mergence of the ethnic components bulgaria tour which continues also in the 11th century.

With such a start, the ancient Bulgarian language and ancient Bulgarian literature, the work of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, made a linguistic progress, unsurpassed in its quality and distinguished by its synthetic character. The Old Bulgarian language and Old Bulgarian books assumed a supra-national significance and usage and also a supra-national state and spiritual and creative functionality for all Slavonic peoples.

The claim that language is not an ethnic defining factor is best supported by the state of the Bulgarian nation during the Middle Ages. Despite the unifying role of religion, the ethnic differences between Slavs and Bulgarians were not completely obliterated in the 10th century. The Old Bulgarian language, which was introduced, enhanced the process of merging the ethnic components.

Yet, in the second half of the 11th century, one can see clearly the differences between the “old” Bulgarians and the “new” ones, who had emerged under the powerful pressure of Christianity and the Slavonic influence during the 9th-10th centuries.

The most impressive literary achievement of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius from the second half of the 9^th century is not the design of the script system. As it is well known, several decades later, the Glagolitic script, which is in fact a new graphic system, created by the holy brothers, was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. The real meaning of the work of Cyril and Methodius is the creation of numerous neologisms which were drawn from the lexis of the living speech.

The Old Bulgarian of the holy brothers and their disciples could have easily borrowed the words of the Greek language, ready and shaped by time, and correctly reflecting the complex notions of theological literature. But new words appeared in their stead, building the conceptual framework of the Old Bulgarian idiom. On the other hand, this advantage of the literary Old Bulgarian language of 9th—10th centuries raised it to the level of the two major languages of early medieval Europe – Greek and Latin. Hebrew had a limited use on the continent because it was used in the comparisons of the originals of the Old Testament, although often the Old Greek translation of the Old Testament, made in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC (the so-called Septuaginta or the translation of the 70 scholars) was used. Thus Old Bulgarian became one of the ancient classical languages as early as the 10th century and in the course of time it developed their characteristics. The national literatures of Serbs, Russians and Romanians, which originated on its basis in the Middle Ages, expanded the territory of the Old Bulgarian language in the vast spaces of Southeastern and Eastern Europe.

“Eternal glory to Cyril the Philosopher who translated the word of God from the Greek into Bulgarian language and educated the Bulgarians, the new second apostle in the reign of Mihail and the righteous Queen Theodora, his mother who decorated the divine church with holy icons and championed Orthodoxy”

From Synodic of Tsar Boril. Translated by Ivan Duychev. From Old Bulgarian Literature. Vol. II, Sofia, 1944, p. 167.

 

Women Artists Representing Post-Feminist Society

This project is the first in a series of our annual program entiteled Eastern European Women Artists Collaborate. It embodies RACC’s mission to foster an international crreative spirit through cross-cultural and interdisciplinary endeavors.

This exhibition is the result of the combined efforts of seven pairs of cutting edge Bulgarian and American women artists. This exciting and collaborative project incorporates the art and life experience of artists from two worlds: post-Soviet Eastern Europe, with its difficult and unstable transition to democracy, and the United States. For the first time, Bulgarian women artists living in a predominately patriarchal society deeply influenced by three centuries of Ottoman rule meet American women artists representing post-feminist society.

In coming together, the participants personalities, psychological and cultural singularity, communication skills and individual circumstances have come to light, which, in turn, they have aspired to express in their art.

Project Proposal:

The proposed international New York based project will consist of exhibition, performances, workshops and conference based on a collaboration between Bulgarian and American women artists.

Women carry all the weight of daily reality and the burden of the most conservative habits of their societies. Their role is a litmus test. We are inviting a group of cutting edge Bulgarian women artists from the rural and remote region in South-Eastern Europe. Bulgaria belongs to the former Soviet coalition where progressive changes are not easily going and are linked to various unstable processes. Its population is dominantly Slavic and carries in its heritage deep traces of the three century Ottoman Empire presence. It made an essential impact on the women’s position in the society and their self estimate. Today Bulgaria is a predominantly male country with undefined possibilities for women.

Seven Bulgarian women artists belong to the generation that came to the art scene in the early 90’s. They graduated from art schools, mostly National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, and work in different media. Their position as artists and women is strongly articulated in their works through philosophical approach, aesthetic representation and feminine issues in modern world. They work in the progressive media specifically for this region such as installation, video and photo assemblage.

Each of them has her own history in efforts to establish herself as an artist . They actively participate in the national and international exhibits, conceptual projects and performances trying to develop their art approaches up to date. The group of seven was organized to join the efforts in supporting their personal goals and women artists’ position. As a result of their activities are series of Annual group exhibitions in the prestigious halls in Sofia and in the country. The group that is well established now in Bulgaria and frequently was shown in Europe, has no much opportunities to introduce their art beyond their country and in the US.

Trying to establish themselves as the group of artists they are not concentrating on the feminist issues specifically, but they share a liberal feminist position of the Western women.

The important part of our project is to give Eastern European women artists a chance to learn and to experience American art, public, and reality. What makes this program distinct from others is that this is a life artistic collaboration, and the artists are coming to the US for the first time from the country which is underrepresented on the world cultural scene. It wi ll benefit the both sides: Bulgarian and American women artists, giving them new experience, feelings and knowledge. Together they will obtain a possibility to be introduced and to develop their establishment in American art and public scenes. It would be unique contribution of regional artistic heritage and injection of different vision. American public would be also benefited through exhibitions, workshops and conference, interactive lectures and educational programs. It would also help update the Amarican image among the former Soviet satellites.

The participating Bulgarian women artists – Tania Abajieva, Nadia Genova, Alla Georgieva, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova, Elena Panayotova, Adelina Popnedeleva, Monica Romenska, will collaborate in New York with American women artists – Michele Beck, Irina Danilova, Akiko Ichikawa, Brigitta Lund, Thelma Mathias, Sue Muskat, and Suzy Surek.

Another goal of this project is to build the international women artists network that will support the development of women’s art in their countries and throughout the globe, as well as to further expose the artists and their cultural heritage. Also, the New York based project will unite American artists of different origin with their Eastern European counterparts that will emphasize the role of New York art scene both as a melting pot and a capital of contemporary art.

The project will be hosted at the studios and gallery space of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts at 323 West 39th Street, at the very center of New York -Times Square district, in the Fall 2000. The Bulgarian – American artists’ collaboration will start on October 15 and will result in the exhibition – November, 2 through November 30, 2000. The Exhibition will be open four weeks, 6 days a week from 11 AM through 5 PM. It will be free of charge.

In conjuction with the exhibition we are preparing the conference, workshops, public discussions and educational tours. After the conclusion of the project in the United States it will travel to Bulgaria.

The Exhibition opening and special events will be attended by the Consul General of Bulgaria and the Consul General of the Russian Federation, representatives of New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, city officials.

The Southeast Of Konya

Our fellow citizens who lived in Anatolia about 10.000 years ago had a “matriarchal” belief system. The most significant settling area of Anatolia at that time was un­doubtedly Catalhoyuk. Catalhoyuk, which is on the borders of Cumra district lying 50 km southeast of Konya, is, in our opinion, the first capital of Anatolia. Together with Catalhoyuk, Hacilar Mound in Burdur is a significant settling area as well. However, Catalhoyuk can be regarded as the most important culture centre in Anatolia of that period and around the world. As for the belief system of glorious Catalhoyuk civilization, it comprises the idea of “Goddess”.

It is necessary to familiarize with Catalhoyuk before dealing with the belief system of Catalhoyuk and man of that time.

Catalhoyuk emerges on the scene of history with the Neolithic period. Anatolian citizens settled at Catalhoyuk amid years of 6.500-5.600 BC. 6.000 people living in about 145.000 square meters territory enlivened this place with their tamed ani­mals. Man of Catalhoyuk first tamed cattle, sheep and goat. He created master of wood, weaving and crockery out of his own bo­som. The houses of these first Anatolians who led a collective and sharing life all together by building up a village had a structure of adjacent order without windows and doors. Entrance and exits of houses were available through the door on the roof thanks to a stepladder.

All in all, people of Catalhoyuk symbolize first models of a re­productive society. They could put cereal and certain wild animals in service of humanity. People of Catalhoyuk, having such a great success, worshipped “Earth Mother”, that is, “Mother Goddess”.

The statuettes we first encounter at Catalhoyuk and Hacilar had big belly, wide hips and busty form. This fertile and bulky Mother Goddess was always protected by the wild animals situ­ated on her right and left side. In fact, there are always leopards near Mother Goddess shown on the throne.

When man of Catalhoyuk dating back 10.000 years ago begins to familiarize himself with the soil he lives on, he learns to cultivate it in the course of time. And he starts to get harvest from the soil. The soil takes a new meaning ever after for man of Catalhoyuk. He begins to show a different respect for this soil. He takes a thousand in return for one. The soil becomes fertile, nutritious and signifies nearly eternal continuity in the eyes of a man of Catalhoyuk. He likens the soil with these characteristics to a fertile woman and starts calling it with the name of “Earth Mother”; that is, “Mother Goddess”.

Catalhoyuk first emerges with the belief of Mother Goddess in Anatolia and all over the world. However, after centuries, ex­pression of “God” will depart from matriarchy and turn into a patriarchal denotation through sky-religions.

Namely, 10.000 years earlier, a man from Catalhoyuk is not aware of his own role in the pregnancy of a woman. In the course of time, a discrepancy emerges between man and woman who hunt, battle together equally in the beginning. The man starts to feel inferior in front of woman. Because woman whose stomach is slowly getting swollen and breasts are growing is thought to breed on her own and provide continuity of generations.

The localization of the first documented dwelling places of the Bulgarians

The beginning stage of the development of any civilization depends on a range of factors and can continue for a long time but it is always characterized by an exceptionally important process – the transformation of the territory into a cultural-historical zone, i.e. an area of expression of the bearers of a particular value system.

The localization of the first documented dwelling places of the Bulgarians in the west reaches of “Mount Imeon”, i.e. the Pamirs-Hindu Kush mountain range. The most ancient cultural-historical zone of these people is located in the heart of the Indo-Iranian space. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC and the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, the passes across Hindu Kush connect its eastern part and the centres along the river valleys of the Indus and the Ganges to its west part, which includes present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tadzhikistan and Iran, reaching to the foothills of the Zagros range. In Zagros and the high Iranian plateau, the grand landscape of many thriving early cultures and their syncretism is unfolded. It is thought that the fields below the western foothills of Zagros are the most fertile on the planet in terms of traces from the “Neolithic revolution”, i.e. the transition from hunting and gathering to a productive economy circa the 10th millennium BC.

The first places inhabited by the Bulgarians in the eastern Indo-Iranian region near “Mount Imeon” are marked as Balhara in many written sources. It is later known as Bactria, which has left its sound pattern in the toponym Bakh in Afghanistan – a town in the northern part of the country. Even in those regions one can see the creation and consolidation of an urban way of life, regardless of the natural conditions and that is typical of the Bulgarian civilization. The Bulgarians built towns in open areas surrounded by mountain ranges, mystical bulgaria tours and also in valleys. Their urbanization also spread in the plains of the big steppe rivers.

The main characteristics of the landscape of the civilization of the Bulgarians were reproduced at the end of the 2nd and during the 1st millennium BC when the state organizations of the Bulgarians started moving because of ethnic-demographic and economic reasons. Leaving their original homeland, the Bulgarians carried on their civilization skills and used them first of all in the urbanization of the lands to the north of the Caucasus, between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea or, in other words between the rivers Volga and Don.

The succeeding structural hubs of Bulgarian settlements originated from this centre. One of them was situated directly to the south in the region of present-day Armenia. The other one was to the north-east of the Caspian-Black Sea region, to the north of the central flows of the Volga River, along the valley of the Pechora River, stretching towards the Arctic Ocean. The densely populated Bulgarian area in the Middle Volga basin is dated archaeologically to the mid-8th century. Here are some excerpts from descriptions of those earliest settlements:

“He [Valarshak] came down to the green meadows near the Shara region, which was called Bezlesen or Upper Basean by the ancient people. Later, because of the Bulgarian Vhndur Bulgar colonists who had settled there, it was called after the name of their leader, Vanand…

In the days of Arshak, there was great turmoil in the range of the great mountain of Caucasus, in the country of the Bulgarians; many of them separated and came to our country and settled under the Kol [Koh] in the fertile land where grain was in abundance for a long time.”

Two-Tier Framework For The Protection

A comparative report of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) managed by European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) discusses the impact of Europe’s two-tier protection regime, distinguishing between refugee status and subsidiary protection, on the rights of those granted protection.

The European Union (EU) has developed a two-tier framework for the protection of those fleeing persecution and serious harm, drawing a normative distinction between refugee status and subsidiary protection. While the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) is premised on the existence of harmonised standards of protection and outcomes of asylum procedures, the assumption of a common protection space across the continent has never been realised and continues to be dispelled by the practice of asylum administrations to date. The “asylum lottery” results in asylum seekers having widely disparate chances of obtaining international protection, as well as different forms of protection granted, depending on the country where their claim is processed.

Differences in the status granted have direct and far-reaching impact on the lives of beneficiaries of international protection, given that they entail a widely different set of rights between refugees and subsidiary protection holders in some countries.

From an efficiency and integration perspective, the advantages of the full alignment of refugee status and subsidiary protection under EU law are clear. De-coupling the content and level of rights from the type of international protection status granted could:

Foster integration in a more coherent manner, by providing all persons in need of international protection with the tools to become active members of new host societies;

Reduce litigation costs related to the form of international protection granted;

Reduce potential secondary movements between countries related to the level of rights granted to holders of the status in question;

Reduce administrative burden on national authorities by removing undue complexity and fragmentation in integration policies and rules. This would not only affect asylum and immigration authorities, but also employment authorities, social welfare services, or even health care institutions across Europe.

Successful integration of beneficiaries of international protection is generally acknowledged as one of the key challenges for European countries’ asylum policies in the coming years. The current discussions on the reform of the Qualification Directive present a unique opportunity to establish an EU legal framework that supports national, regional and local authorities and beneficiaries of international protection in their integration efforts.

Beyond the reform of the Directive, ECRE encourages European countries to further approximate the content of international protection statuses in their national frameworks and practices in the interest of a smoother integration process.

Balkanisation of Bulgaria

Thus the national ideal of “unification of all Bulgarians under one common state roof’ was born and has passed into the new history of Bulgaria. A happy event for the Bulgarians was the Union of Eastern Rumelia with the Bulgarian Principality (6 September 1885). The people rose against the ultimate will of the powers of the “European Concert” and, in the war against offensive Serbia, defended their determination to live together on both sides of the Balkan Range. The great military success made the Bulgarians believe in their own power and grasp the fact that they were capable of being victorious only when united.

A state developed in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula, whose rise promised a bright future. But the geopolitical location at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa determined its difficult position as of a “strategic key”, “door” or “bridge” in intercontinental relations. The Great Powers imposed a “balance in the Balkans” which became the root of the sadly well known “Balkanisation” principle, supported by the selfish interests of international players.

Lands are not the main defining factor of social-political relations of communities. The Bulgarians have proved that they know how to develop, adapt and transform the environment into a place suitable for a normal and functionally productive historical life, no matter what the physical-geo-graphic conditions are. The historical development is not the road of nomads following their herds. It is a road of civilisation, of contacts and conflicts in which the Bulgarian mediation has often fused different ethnic communities. The nomad is a guest in any land; his steps leave almost no traces, while the Bulgarians have been true to their choice because they have had a stable cultural-historical impact. For the Bulgarian, it is symbolically visualised by the symbol of a mountain, which represents both a peak citadel and a hope. With its reaching to skies, the mountain is a natural hierarch of space. It makes visible the start of the road to God.

The problem of race often concerns members of different national historiographic schools who think that the ethnic origin of their people defines its place and role in the history of the region, the continent and the world. There are no strong arguments in support of this position and any super-interpretation of the usually scarce data on ethnicity definitely leads to the well-known sombre theories of the supremacy of some nations over others. Anatomical-anthropological characteristics should be treated with reservation because the corroboration of variance and the paleo-differences among people of the same physical-geographic and cultural-historical zone call for ample statistical data, which are absent from the written and material sources of the epochs before Modem Time.

The ethnic consolidation of the Bulgarians was a long economic, social, political and spiritual process. It stabilized with the cooperation of different ethnic components, which joined the national core in the course of the “motion of civilisation”, as might be expected in the Central Asian ethnic-demographic melting pot.

 

 

On tills point, Jugowitsch had many stories in readiness. He stated that, of two deputies who had come from Constantinople under pretence of making proposals for peace, and who had been ordered to return, one, named Nicolaus, had nevertheless remained at Belgrade, and entered into the service of Leonti; and that the Metropolitan had, even in the depth of winter, set out in his company, under the pretext of collecting his Dimnitza, but in reality to excite the multitude against their chiefs. Leonti, he said, had asked the people, “ why they fought for their chiefs   for men whose design it was first to enrich themselves, and then to flee with their riches, and to give the peasants up to the Turks ? It would be better for them to submit to the Turks at once.” It could not be believed, added Jugowitsch, but that there was an understanding between Leonti and Rodofmikm; else why should the latter, when new ambassadors from Constantinople appeared in the Kraina, have contrived to be commissioned to negotiate with them himself ? He had gone to meet them accom-panied by Leonti and Nicolaus 3 but no negotiation whatever had been brought under discussion. Secret designs had been there agreed upon, whilst the parties were standing conversing, two and two, together.

On these representations, Kara George considered it almost as a duty he owed to his country to assert his own personal authority   for what event could have been more pernicious to the country than its falling under the rapacious domination of the Fanariotes ? Without delay, he banished Nicolaus; and Leonti also was made to feel his displeasure, lie took especial care, too   in order to prevent an influence of so dangerous a nature from acquiring a preponderance in the Senate   that his two friends should resume their seats in that assembly. And no one ventured to oppose him. Mladen, it is true, visited the Sessions only now and then; yet he enjoyed greater influence, and was more feared than ever.

Such manifold oppositions of the civil administration to the military chiefs, and of the Gospodars to the commander-in-chief, together with disputes concerning internal and external relations, disturbed this government, even at the commencement of its formation: yet they were unable to destroy its unity.

This was sustained by the authority of the Commander in chief: which, though unquestionably much restricted, already extended over all parts of the country; had the preponderance in the Skupschtina, and could influence the decisions of the Senate. Victorious success in arms had laid the foundation of this authority: but, without great tact and natural talent, it could not have been preserved in its integrity. Kara George will be ever memorable, not only as having led the insurrection against the Turks, but also as the founder of a comprehensive national authority throughout the country, lie well deserved to be regarded as the chief of the nation. Let us pause a moment, to consider his history and character, manners and personal appearance.

But George remained inexorable, llis father was at last equally resolved: “Go, then, over alone:” He said, “ I remain in this country.” 1 How!” replied Kara George, “shall 1 live to see thee slowly tortured to death by the Turks ? It is better that I should kill thee myself on the spot!” Then seizing a pistol, he instantly shot his father, and ordered one of his companions to give the death-blow to the old man, who was writhing in agony. In the next village, Kara said to the people, “ Get the old man who lies yonder buried for me, and drink also for his soul at a funeral feast.” Kor that pur-pose he made them a present of the cattle which he had with him, and then crossed the Save.

This deed, which was the first indication of his character, threw him out of the common course. He returned to his own district, with the rank of serjeant, in the corps of volunteers; but, believing himself unjustly passed over at a distribution of medals, he retired into the mountains as a lleyduc. However, he became reconciled in this matter with his colonel, Mihaljewitseh; went with him after the peace to Austria; and was made “ forest- keeper” in the cloister of Kruschedol. But he did not rest satisfied in Austria ; and as, under Hadschi Mustafa, he had nothing to fear in Servia, he returned thither, and from that time followed his business   that of a dealer in swine. The outrages of the Dahis hurried him into the movements in which lie was destined to perform so important a part.

Kara George was a very extraordinary man. He would sit for days together without uttering a word, biting his nails. At times, when addressed, he would turn his head aside and not answer. When he had taken wine, he became talkative; and if in a cheerful mood, he would perhaps lead off a Ivolo-dance.*

That the Sultan should grant all that the Servians had demanded

Princes have ever sought the Tmpathy and cooperation of the common people as their best aid, when engaged in a contest with those classes of their subjects who have grown too powerful through the exercise of exclusive privileges.

It was unfortunate for Selim and the Turkish Empire that he could not thus act: his position would not allow him so to do.

Unlike any other prince, all of whose subjects belong to him equally, he was the head of the Mussulmans before all others.

For, as has been shown, the Turkish Empire is based not on an union and amalgamation of different elements, but on the opposing forces of two distinct populations; one destined to command, the other to obey.

That the Raja, whose part it was to serve, should arm themselves and thus assume an equality with the followers of the dominant religion, was intolerable to the Mussulmans of both parties  the reformers, as well as those who adhered to the old system; and it was also contrary to the fundamental laws of the country: to the very nature of the Caliphate, and to the supreme authority itself.

AVe have seen that it was alleged against Hadsclii Mustafa as a crime, that he had led the Servians against Passwan Oglu. On the difference between the Faithful and the Infidels rested that Fetwa of the Mufti, by which the re-admission of the Janissaries into Belgrade was decided. Nothing made so strong an impression on the otherwise peaceful Turks as the banner of the Heyduc, and the artil-lery carried by the Raja.

That the Sultan should grant all that the Servians had demanded at Ostruschniza, was not to be expected. He was justified in refusing to consign to their keeping the fortresses on the frontiers. Other grants, however, tending to place them and their property in greater security, were unquestionably due to them. Nor could the Sultan condemn them for having taken up arms in his behalf, since he had thus been freed from an usurpation most dangerous to his authority.

Yet, great as was the contradiction involved in this course, Selim III. nevertheless adopted it.

He seemed to consider the Servians in the light of evil-doers, and rebels against his authority ; and instead of any answer to their claims, lie placed their deputies under arrest, and issued an order to Alis, the Pacha of Nisch, to disarm the Baja.

This hostility to the Servians, treatment altogether different in character from any they had before experienced from the Turks, and originating with the Grand Signior himself,  met with the approval of the Mussulmans, and was energetically pursued.

The Council of Women in Business

Part of the fifth edition of National Internship Initiative “Staying in Bulgaria”, will have the opportunity to participate in five trainings, free of charge and to be familiar with the real business environment in five Bulgarian companies.

The fifth edition of the National internship initiative “Staying in Bulgaria”, organized by the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria in partnership with A1, started with very interesting and useful program. The goal of young.LEADERS.talk 2019 is to help the youngest future professionals to upgrade their qualities and skills, to enter the world of business and to get information about development opportunities, suitable environment and incentive for career options in Bulgaria.

The largest campaign related to retain young people in the country was officially opened in Sofia yesterday in the presence of management and members of the Council, representatives of A1 Bulgaria and participants in young.LEADERS.talk 2019 – 28 young people who are trainees in companies members of the Council.

One of the most important priorities of our organization is to retain young people in the country by creating valuable training and successful career opportunities. Therefore, for five years we haven’t stopped working on this and we are constantly looking for better and interesting opportunities for young people through which they have the chance to get to the real business and to get as much as possible useful knowledge from the practice.

An internship is a very appropriate way to do this and all companies members of the Council are pleased to welcome every year young people who want to learn and develop. This year we offer an even more interesting and practical program and training focused on specific soft skills and useful knowledge “Commented concerning the fifth edition of internship initiative, the Chairwoman of the Council of Women in Business and CEO of Siemens Bulgaria, Dr. Eng. Boriana Manolova,

A1 Bulgaria has a specific focus on young people, developing and upgrading its internship program over the last 15 years. So far over 1000 students from various universities in Bulgaria and abroad have been taken company traineeship, and approximately 30% of them remain employed annually. This year, we launched three new programs targeting pupil and students. We invited students from vocational high schools with a focus on telecommunications to conduct their practice with us, providing opportunity to stay to stay for work / internship of the best of them.

We launched the “A1 Summer Academy” – a new program for students who participated in IT Hackathon, Marketing Olympiad and other competitions organized by the universities together with us. The best were awarded with an invitation for internship at our company. They are currently working on real business projects and are actively involved in the creation of new products and services from the field of marketing or technology.

Our third program for active involvement of young people in business is the Internship Initiative of the Council of Women, who we cooperate with, sharing common values about the future of students in Bulgaria and the opportunities to stay in Bulgaria. We, at A1, believe that young people carry the necessary charge for change and the energy to bring it about, so we actively support them.Said in welcoming the young from LEADERS.talk Mrs. Miglena Uzunova-Tzekova, member of management board of The Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria and senior director Human resources of A1 Bulgaria.

Immediately after the formal opening, the first training of the young.LEADERS.talk 2019 began – with presentation skills. Boris Hristov of 365labs, ranked in Forbes “30 under 30” for 2018 and awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award for merit in the presentation and power point communities, introduced the young people to the art of building a successful presentation. He presented in an interesting and exciting way what was the most important to the structure and success of a presentation and how to combine emotions and facts, retain interest, gain confidence and influence on the audience.

Within five weeks young people will have the opportunity to participate in 5 training free of charge. The next training is dedicated to the ability to speak powerful, manage projects, pursue a stress-free career and prepare a professional CV. The initiative includes a visit to the offices and facilities of five leading companies, where trainees will become familiar with their work in practice and gain an idea of the real business environment.

The Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria is a non-governmental organization in favour of society. Its members are top managers and representatives of companies and organizations in Bulgaria. Among the objectives of the Council are the popularization of good practices and programs that encourage the professional career development of the women in the small and middle-sized business and their development in management positions; the development and establishment of professional values in the civil society, education, science, culture, technology and the support of the young specialists and talents so that they can realize their potential in Bulgaria and to help young people from disadvantaged social upbringing in their education.

A1 part of A1 Group is a leading provider of digital services and telecommunication solutions in Bulgaria. The company offers mobile and fixed services, high speed broadband, digital and satellite TV, including four owned sport channels – MAX Sport 1, MAX Sport 2 and MAX Sport 3, MAX Sport 4, online payments solutions, own music streaming platform, cloud and IoT solutions to 5 million customers. In 2018 A1 Bulgaria reported turnover of EUR 446.2 million and EBITDA of EUR 138 million.

A1 Group is a leading provider of digital services and communications solutions in Central and Eastern Europe with more than 24 million customers, currently operating in seven countries: Austria (А1), Bulgaria (А1 Bulgaria), Croatia (А1 Croatia), Slovenia (A1 Slovenia), Belarus (Velcom), Serbia (Vip mobile) and Republic of North Macedonia (one Vip). A1 Group’s turnover in 2018 amounted to EUR 4.47 billion and its EBITDA was EUR 1.38 million. The portfolio of A1 Group includes voice services, high speed internet, multimedia, IT, data traffic and online payments solutions. A1 has a stable shareholder in América Móvil – the 4th largest telecom company in terms of customers in the world.