Serbs are a small community in Bulgaria, most of whom are immigrants. Many of them are athletes and businessmen who have expatriated to Bulgaria in the 20th and 21st century.
Population
According to the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues by the Bulgarian Government, there were 313 local Serbs in the country, in 2011, most of whom were descendants of
old political emigrants.[1]
2011 Bulgarian census registered 569 Serbian citizens living permanently in Bulgaria, most of whom were recent economic immigrants.[2]
History
Middle Ages
During the
Byzantine rule in Bulgaria, the Serbs invaded Byzantine territory in 1149. Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180) forced the rebellious Serbs to vassalage (1150–52) and settled some Serbian
POWs around Sofia.[3]
Ottoman times
The village
Brakevtsi was settled by Serbs in late Ottoman times, after the local Bulgarian population had emigrated to
Bessarabia.[4]
19th century Bulgaria
In the 1880 Bulgarian census, in which native language was registered, 1,894 Serbs were counted with the following Districts having a notable number of Serbian-speakers:
Kula Subdistrict: 1,083, 3.5%;[6]Brakevtsi, (today in Serbia), Brakevtsi municipality: 1,067 (Serb majority, the only such settlement in Bulgaria). In 1919 Brakevtsi was ceded to Serbia.
In 1999, an organization of "Bulgarian Serbs" was formed, but broke up soon after that.[7] In 2010 an Association of the Serbs in Bulgaria was set up.[8]
^Антон Страшимиров, "Книга за българите" София, Библиотека "Вечни книги на България", Изд-во "Сибия", 1995, София, стр. 30.
^
abGeneral results of the population census of 1 January 1881, Statistics of the Principality of Bulgaria,
p.11[permanent dead link](in Bulgarian and French)
^
abcFinal results of the population census of 1 January 1881, Statistics of the Principality of Bulgaria,
pp.198 and 286[permanent dead link](in Bulgarian and French)