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Bulgaria c-enaudio=En-us-Bulgaria.oggbʌlˈgɛəriə ( ), officially the Republic of Bulgaria ( ) is a country in Southeast Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube), Serbia and Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. With a territory of 110994 km2, Bulgaria ranks as the 15th-largest country in Europe. Several mountainous areas define the landscape, most notably Stara Planina (the Balkan mountains) and Rhodope mountain ranges, as well as the Rila range, which includes the highest peak in the Balkan region. In contrast, the Danubian plain in the north and the Upper Thracian Plain in the south represent Bulgaria's lowest and most fertile regions. The 378 km Black Sea coastline covers the entire eastern bound of the country. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the 7th century AD. All Bulgarian political entities that subsequently emerged preserved the traditions (in ethnic name, language and alphabet) of the First Bulgarian Empire (681 � 1018), which at times covered most of the Balkans and became a cultural hub for the Slavs in the Middle Ages. With the decline of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 � 1396), Bulgarian territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 � 1878 led to the establishment of a third Bulgarian state in 1878, which gained its full sovereignty in 1908. After World War II it became a communist state and was a part of the Warsaw Pact until the Revolutions of 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. Bulgaria undertook a transition to democracy and free-market capitalism was introduced. The government functions as a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, and is a founding state of the OSCE. |