Report on anti-Bulgarian attitudes and actions in the Republic of North Macedonia in 2021

The Garden Association published its first Report on anti-Bulgarian attitudes and actions in the Republic of North Macedonia in 2021. The report presents anti-Bulgarian attitudes and actions in the Republic of North Macedonia RNM) as a very pronounced social phenomenon, called Bulgarophobia. This phenomenon is being expressed in hate speech and actions motivated by hatred toward Bulgarian people and Bulgaria in the country. The report surveys Bulgarophobia’s key characteristics in the context of contemporary Macedonian ethnocentrism and the process through which they are formed and manifested in RNM. Finally, it presents and discusses specific cases of Bulgarophobia in the Republic of North Macedonia from 2021. 

You could read and download for noncommercial goals Report on anti-Bulgarian attitudes and actions in the Republic of North Macedonia in 2021. 

Report on anti-Bulgarian attitudes and actions in the Republic of North Macedonia in 2021 from Georgi Stankov

Jane's Walk 2017 in Haskovo: "The two towers"

"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, just because and only when, they are created by everybody" - Jane Jacobs

In our town there are two water towns - one at the most northern place of the Haskovo, and one at its most southern place. Last year we walked the town from west to east, bu this year our walk crossed it from north to south. So "The Two Towers" tour was created.

The walk took a little more than two hours. The Google map calculation is incorrect,
because can't reflect the car traffic and the hilly terrain.

The hills of Haskovo are picturesque, and we were enjoyed our walk. Also we found things that must be improved in terms of walkability and accessibility of urban space in our town. My photo report will be divided in three parts: The North, The Center, and The South of Haskovo.

1. The North.

  The group of walkers gather together. From left to right: Eli (architect), Georgi (Eli's husband, a geodesy cartographer), Todor (retired vocational higher school teacher, and coach of the local orienteering team), Simon (mechanical engineer and small business owner), Hristo (artist, trying to hide himself from the camera), Zlatina (history student in Plovdiv), Lydia (Englich language teacher and my girlfriend), and Petar (our son). 

Later one more guy joined the group - Sevo (an amateur photographer).

The tower is close to the town, in an industrial area. 

There are no people living around. 

There are only small factories and stores. 

Also the repair base for the city's fire trucks is this area. 

A factory. 

 One of the electricity stations in the town. 

This was the first water tower in the northern part of the town. Now it is not used.  

 In the communist period, this building was a factory, where the deaf people worked. 

Finally we entered the inhabited areas of the northern part. It is interesting - on the right side of the main road there are only houses. On the left side of the main road there are large apartment blocks. 

  

 And this is a trade center. Can you imagine: it is owned by Chinese people. Even in Haskovo now there are Chinese. The migration nowadays in not only on the borders of the state (as it was during the communism), or from Bulgaria to the west (as it was in the last 25+ years after the communism). Now there is one more route - from Asia to Bulgaria, and what is impressing, is that few Chinese families came to live here, not in the bigger cities of the country.

 Some of the big apartment block on the other side of the main road. 

 Nice small public space at front of a small residential building. 

2. The Center. 

Slowly we reached the center. Some of us did not know that at this place there is a monument if the Bulgarian revolutionary Petar Berkovski.

The architect among us - Eli, said that each monument needs some open space around, 

otherwise it will remain invisible, and will be lost in the urban body. 

An administrative building from the 1970s. 

  I shared with the others the story of this clock tower. Long story short - on the same place in the early 19th century was built a stone tower. For unknown reason it was destroyed in the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1980s, when the local historians ecided that our town is 1000-year old, the local authororities decided to build a new clock tower at the place of the old one. I love this tower very much for its interesting design. It is high, but because it is not monolithic and it's made from columns, there is some etherealness and lightness in it. The construction does not "weigh" in space.

The concept of continuity is presented by the fact, that the architects choose to build the tower at the same place, where the old stone tower was built. The stone scripture says that it is dedicated to the millennium anniversary of Haskovo. 

This is the Monument of Envy. 

It is the only monument, presenting this bad human characteristic. 

 One of the many nice buildings in the city center. There buil in the first half of the 20th century.

 3. The south. 

 
We walk one of the most important arterial roads in the town - it's called blvd."Osvobozhdenie" (in Bulgarian this means "Liberation"), but the locals call it simple "Kardzhaliyska" street, because it goes to the next big town in the south - Karzdali.

We are in "Hisarya" neighborhood. In Turkish "hisar" means a fortress (compare with Hisarlik of  Trow). This place is called so fr reason - in this area was the medieval fortress of Haskovo. 

 View to the center and the north of the town. 

Finally we reached the southern Water tower of Haskovo. 

Local residents have built (probably illegal) farm buildings in which they are raising animals.

The photographer Sevo took this photo of our group. On my tight shoulder you might notice the northern tower. We were there just two hours ago, we crossed the town, and finally we completed the walk on the towns southern side. Then we visited the ruins of the medieval fortress of Haskovo. Meanwhile, heavy rain fell upon us.

 But the rain did not stop us. Happily, it was a spring rain, which continues for about a twenty minutes, and soon stopped. 

 

 We went back to the town's center. It was a pleasant time. 

 And then a rainbow appeared in the sky.

Jane's Walk 2016 in Haskovo: "Once upon a time... there was a river"

This year we decided to organize Jane's walk along the river. This is the famous river from Shturcite's famous song "Sreshta". The river crosses the city from west to east, and divides the town on two parts. It runs through the center, and shapes its form, size, and infrastructure. For good and for bad, the river is an important part of our city. But fifteen years ago the local authorities decided to cover the river with concrete and made parking lots and shops on it. How can we re-integrate the river as an element of our city's landscape? How can take it back and reconnect with it? How to shift our perception about it from a channel to a lively place?

We walked, observed and thought on these questions. During our walk, new questions came out and we are now full with impressions, thoughts and ideas.

At the Meeting point. Some people who got know each other. The retired school teacher Todor Stratiev brought some old photographs from his childhood, presenting what the river was like 50-60 years ago. The environmentalist Mariana Valcheva was interested. 

More people gather together. Our walk is bycicle, pets, and children friendly, so +Simon Zenopian came with his bike, and +Lydia Staikova and myself came with our son Petar. +Hristo Dimchev brought an Eeyore-like mood, but  eventually he replaced it with beer. 

Several decades ago, the river was full of water and fish. Why everything changed? Todor Stratiev explained: "For agricultural reasons, the government build a dam in a village nearby, so the most of the water is used for watering the plants. The river became just a small stream, so in few years the young lads caught all the fish." Sad, isn't it?

We saw that some of the most significant places in Haskovo are located by the river. Here we are posing on the bridge to the old school. During our walk we decided that the bridges' number is too small. There is a need for more pedestrian bridges. 

This plate on the school's wall memorize that on this place the great Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski founded a secret revolutionary committee for the liberation of the Bulgarian nation from Ottoman rule. 

 Near the river there are two Renaissance Orthodox churches. 

This is the first one, and it's dedicated to Virgin Mary. 

 A rock with a humble script in memory of 70 innocent Bulgarians, hanged by the Ottomans. 

The second church near the river, dedicated to Archangel Michael. 

This photo testifies how the river was covered with concrete and shops were build on it. 

Is this what the river deserves? Is this what the citizens deserve?

One of the many tobacco stores in Haskovo. The city was a major center of 

tobacco industry in Bulgaria. 

 The (only) theater of Haskovo.

The former headquarters of the Bulgarian communist party in Haskovo. 

Nowadays it is a business center.

Seventy years ago this place was known as The Jewish park. In this area lived the Jewish community of Haskovo. Almost all of our Jewish fellow citizens moved to Israel in the late 1940s.

 Former headquarters of the tobacco company. 

One of the most important bridges in Haskovo. This is the main connection of the south part 

of the city with the center and the rest of the neighbourhoods.

Then we passed several important sites located along the river: the regional branch of the University for National and World Economy, two hypermarkets, and the football stadium "Mladost". Obviously, the boulevard along the river is a concentration of major landmarks and social places in our cities. 

And finally we closed our long walk with the traditional and unique contribution of 

Haskovo to the Jane's Walk movement: Jane's beer. :)