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Bulgaria

by Mark Sensen 15-NOV-1995

See also:

CIA World Factbook

New Coat of Arms

One of these days the Bulgarian parliament will adopt new coat of arms. Bulgaria is since 1990 without coat of arms, when the communist design - which featured in the flag - was abolished. Since then there has been a long battle for a new national coat of arms. In the last five years there were already two attempts to create a new coat of arms, but both proposals didn't get the majority in the parliament. Last February prime minister Zjan Videnov (socialist - ex-communist) chose a design out of five proposals. This shows only a 'naked' lion. The opposition party SDS however wants this lion crowned. Even the Bulgarian Constitutional Court was asked if the lion should have a crown or not. This Court recently said that a crown can be part of the national coat of arms. But the ruling socialists (ex-communists) have now a majority in the Bulgarian parliament and will soon agree with Videnov's proposal. Source: NRC Handelsblad (Rotterdam), 28 July 1995, citing the (Bulgarian?) magazine 'Transition', that "this week wrote about the question on the coat of arms".
Jos Poels 30-JUL-95

'Transition' is the title of a journal published by the Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) based in Prague (formerly the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).
I checked the OMRI WWW site and found a table of contents for their 'Transition' journal. The article Jos mentioned is probably:

Stefan Krause: "The Coat of Arms as a Political Pawn",

Transition, Vol. 1, No. 13, 28 July, 1995, pp. 54-57

It is availabe online here. More about the same topic at the same site, mostly short news items: feb06, feb23, feb24, feb28, mar06, apr06.
Jan Oskar Engene 9-AUG-1995, 29-OCT-1995

There have been some developments concerning the coat of arms of Bulgaria, as reported by the OMRI in an 'Analytical Brief' dated 7 August 1996 and available at URL http://www.omri.cz/Publications/Analytical/AB.960807-258. The latest development is that the parliament of Bulgaria adopted a new coat of arms 25 July 1996, only to find that the president vetoed it (6 August 1996). The Bulgarian constitution states that the coat of arms must be a golden lion on a dark red field. Bulgaria's parliament is dominated by Socialists who prefer the lion to be uncrowned, because they see the crown as a symbol of monarchy. The opposition on the other hand, see the crown as a symbol of sovereignty. They want a crowned lion or a crowned shield (or they want the arms from the time of the monarchy reinstated). The coat of arms adopted by parliament (110 of the 240 MPs walked out before the vote) is a golden uncrowned rampant lion on a dark red field. President Zhelyu Zhelev objected to the new emblem because he is afraid it will become a party badge of the Socialists, rather than a uniting national symbol. Parliament may still overturn the President's veto.
Jan Oskar Engene 29-AUG-1996

Origin of Bulgarian colours

In response to the question on that means the presence of a flag green over red in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, my first supposition were that were tried to the land flag of the Ottoman Empire, but as will be able be proven this is red on green. For so much presumably it would be tried to the flag n of the autonomous territory to Eastern Rumelia, embryo to Bulgaria, and that yet would be maintained in the shield. Probably the first Bulgarian flag was green on red, since the text of the book, upon describing the shield, indicates that the lions support "the flag of Bulgaria"; when afterwards it describes the flag already indicates the existence of a white band superior (that is to say three bands as the current). The flag with red table in the angle containing the crowned lion, it is described as war flag. The tape in the lower part is white, green and red in horizontal striping and carries the following registration (but in Cyrillic characters): 'Saedinenieto pravi silata' The tongue of the lion in the shield, is indicated as green.
Jaume Ollé 18-JUN-1996