Bulgaria on Saturday marked the 140th anniversary of the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia, a milestone in the country’s modern statehood.
The union took place on Sept. 6, 1885, when local activists in Plovdiv, organized in the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee, toppled the provincial government of Eastern Rumelia in a bloodless coup and declared reunification with the Principality.
Eastern Rumelia had been created in 1879 by the Treaty of Berlin as an Ottoman autonomous province covering 35,000 square kilometres south of the Balkan Range, with Plovdiv as its capital.
The annexation, initially opposed by the Great Powers, was later recognized by Turkey, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Britain, Italy and Russia under the 1886 Convention of Tophane. The Bulgarian prince was confirmed as governor-general, preserving the formal Ottoman suzerainty mandated by the Berlin settlement.
Bulgaria declared full independence from Ottoman rule on Sept. 22, 1908, finalizing the process of state consolidation.
Commemorations were held across the country on Saturday, with wreath-laying ceremonies, cultural events and official speeches.