Last modified: 2014-03-08 by rob raeside
Keywords: bulgaria | vmro | simeon ii | lightning bolt | bmpo | ndsv | cdc | ataka |
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Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization -- Bulgarian political party, it was a member of the ruling Union of Democratic Forces coalition between 1997-2000.
Coat of arms of VMRO. The inscription in the upper part of the coat of arms
means: "Union and strength".
image located by
Dov Gutterman at
http://www.bulgariaonline.bg/macedonia/ Flag with initials used on it. The Bulgarian/Macedonian name that sounds
something like "Vnutrashnya Makedonska Revolucionarna Organizacija." BMRO
fought primarily against Turks for the independence of Bulgaria and Macedonia,
and as might be seen from the flag, the ideology was anarchic-revolutionary (as
were the methods). The group was soon (at the beginning of the 20th Century)
split between those wanting Macedonia as a part of Bulgaria and those struggling
for the independence of Macedonia. Therefore, to cut the story short, today we
have VMRO both in modern Bulgaria and Macedonia (where it is called VMRO-DPMNE),
both being modern democratic parties that have long forsaken their anarcho-revolutionary
methods.
The party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Dvizhenie za prava i svobodi, DPS)
was founded at the end of 1990. Since that date the undoubted leader of the
party and Bulgarian Turks is Ahmed Dogan. Since the 1991 first democratic
elections, the party of DPS has been represented in the parliament. Under
Article 1, Section 4 of the Statute of MRF (DPS) the symbols are:
Source: The Statute of DPS on
www.dps.bg/ustav/html . Sometimes (I am myself a witness) the Turkish
abbreviation 'HOH' replaces the Bulgarian 'DPS'.
This image from the
DPS website is a darker blue.
It seems that the Bulgarian party Movement for Rights and Liberties (I think
that it should be translate as Liberties not Freedoms, but I might be wrong),
has changed its flag. According to the image on its website, the emblem on the
flag is in dark blue now:
http://www.dps.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0067&n=&vis=.
image by Ivan Sache
This flag (red-white-red) was reported for DPS sometime before 2001. It is unknown among
Bulgarian Turks and is not in use. Maybe this flag presents some emigrant
organization of Bulgarian Turks out of Bulgaria.
Bulgarian Socialist Party (former name: Bulgarian Communist Party). Third biggest party in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian Euro Left. Formerly a fraction in the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
NDSV means National Movement
Simeon the Second (Nacionalno Dvizenie Simeon Vtori) National Movement Simeon II, the political party founded by former Bulgarian king Simeon II (civil name: Simeon Borisov Sakskoburgotski). Winner in the 2001 parliamentary elections.
image by
Jorge Candeias
Today, the newspaper PUBLICO brings a large article about Bulgaria with a photo
that contains an unknown flag. It seems to be a Bulgarian flag with two "parts"
of white added below, making thus a square flag horizontally striped in
white-green-red-white in proportions 1:1:1:2. Of course, the colours are educated
guesses, but I'm pretty sure they are correct. I see today the flag of the National Movement Simeon II. Curiously, the flag
is red with a white symbol (a sun) and letters. Unluckily, I can't find the
symbol in the web and I can't reconstruct it accurately from memory.
There is a "little" problem with National Movement Simeon II. In fact,
there are three such movements:
I don't know that the party or coalition of the quoted is the red flag with white
sun, but I have no doubt that is for some of them
because: a) Simeon was present in the images probably at some meeting in the
present electoral campaign, then I assume that can be
the flag of the coalition that participated in the current elections; b) Flag
was hoisted by several people in normal size (one) and small size (probably
paper); also, the symbol was first seen plain in a red banner. c) also there was
undulating a white flag with symbol and probably red and green colors in
the border. I saw this twice but always for only one or two seconds; it must be
a kind of royal standard. I've seen TV footage showing Simeon II apparently celebrating the
results, coming out and entering a car surrounded by masses waving a
Bulgarian flag as well as some white flags with some emblem, as
described here before. What caught my eye was another flag -
apparently the Italian pre-WWII merchant ensign! That one with the Savoy
shield (but no crown) in the middle of a green-white-red vertical
tricolour.
Simeon's mother was Giovanna, daughter of King Vittorio Emmanuelo III of Italy. That could be the connection.
After his exile he living briefly in Egypt and after that in Spain.
Simeon is from the Savoy dynasty on the maternal side.
Concerning the June discussion on the flag of the NM
Simeon the Second, I quote data from an official source.
Under the Statute of NMSS, adopted on 08 April 2001, the
National Movement has the following symbols (Art. 3): 1. a
flag - equal yellow stripes and blue stripes; 2. an emblem --
a shell.
It is a pity that the statute gives no information about
the number of stripes and the colours of the shell.
Stoyan Antonov, 26 July 2001
located by Valentin Poposki, 22 February 2006
Source:
http://izbori.novotovreme.bg/Symbols/
Union of Democratic Forces. Second biggest party in Bulgaria. Bulgarian National Alliance. The BNS (using the Cyrillic "bHC" characters) is a Bulgarian ultra-nationalist
organization. They use a flag with the green, white and red national stripes
with a black symbol in the center double fimbriated white-black. According to
the BNS website (www.bgns.net ) the symbol
means as follows: "On top of the tricolour we have embroidered the sign of the
clan Dulo - a symbol of the khans that created Old Great Bulgaria, the present
and Bulgaria-upon-Volga kingdoms." Bulgarian Defence Flag
images by Tomislav Todorovic, 22 February 2014
The flag currently used is green, shade darker and somewhat "colder" than on the
Bulgarian national flag, with the party emblem in center.
The emblem is a shield, charged with the stylized letter Az, the first letter of
Glagolitic alphabet (U+2C00), in gold and white, fimbriated black and
superimposed on a thin Celtic cross in same colors, rotated for 45 degrees and
encircling a disc in national colors. (There is also an elaborate explanation of
these symbols, with mystifications typical for far-right groups worldwide [1]).
Party name is inscribed in black above these charges and the motto, which means
"Return to Bulgaria", is inscribed beneath them in same color. The flag is
usually with the ratio 3:5, although other ratios, like 7:12, or even 1:1, are
used [2, 3, 4, 5]. There is also a vertical version of the flag, with the ratio
varying somewhat, but usually being 2:3; it frequently has some of Bulgarian
place names inscribed, but a plain variant also appears [6, 7, 8].
image submitted by Kristian Yarichkov, 20 July 2005
This is a symbol of the Bulgarian fascist party called Attack. The party
gained near 10% in the last parliamentary elections a month ago. Now they have
23 people in the Bulgarian parliament.
This flag/logo, which I never happened to see elsewhere, might be an earlier
symbol of the party.
based on image at
http://akd19.tripod.com/pogr.htm
The flag of the Anti-Corruption Movement in Bulgaria is shown at
http://akd19.tripod.com/pogr.htm.
Željko Heimer, 24 February 2002
DPS
Stoyan Antonov, 04 September 2001
Valentin Poposki, 9 March 2007
Stoyan Antonov, 4 September 2001
BSP
image by Ivan Marinov
BEL
image by Ivan Marinov
NDSV
image by Ivan Sarajcic, 20 September 2005
Ivan Sarajcic, 20 September 2005
Jorge Candeias, 02 May 2001
Jorge Candeias, 02 May 2001
Jaume Ollé, 17 June 2001
1. Former king Simeon II started a political party with this name two
months ago, but this party was not registered by the jury. So all activity
was discontinued. I remember a yellow-green flag with some symbol in the
centre. But this flag was no longer used after the denial of registration.
2. After the denial of registration by the jury, Simeon II formed a
coalition of two existing little parties (Party of the Bulgarian Women and
Movement for National Renewement Oborishte). The name of the coalition
became Coalition National Movement Simeon II. This coalition was used only
because of formal causes, and it will be discontinued very soon (Simeon II
won 120 seats of 240 in the parliamentary elections yesterday!). This
coalition was planned as a short-life entity, and it had no symbols,
only the symbols required by the law. There was no flag.
3. Simeon II said yesterday on Bulgarian Televison (I am watching it
regularly by satellite) that there will be a new party called National
Movement Simeon II. I think it will have its own symbols.
Ivan Marinov, 18 June 2001
Jaume Ollé, 18 June 2001
Now, what would this flag do here? Was Simeon living in Italy after
his exile, or maybe is his family was connected with Savoy dynasty? Or maybe this flag
was used instead of the Bulgarian flag - the colours are
the same after all.
What's more interesting is that it seems that this flag was waved by
someone from Simeon's group rather than other "casual" spectators, as
it was seen already inside the house and all the way toward the car,
always only a few steps away from Simeon.
Željko Heimer, 19 June 2001
Elias Granqvist, 19 June 2001
Ivan Marinov, 20 June 2001
Novoto Vreme (New Age) Party
SDS
image by Ivan Marinov
BNS
Another flag used by the same group is the Bulgarian Defence Flag (as they named
it): a mixture of the Imperial German flag changing the eagle for the yellow
rampant lion of the Bulgarian kingdom, with the Bulgarian national flag as canton.
Santiago Tazon, 22 January 2003
Ataka
Images are derived
from the Wikipedia image of party emblem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ataka_logo_transparent.png
Sources:
[1] Vestnik ATAKA website - explanation of party emblem:
http://www.vestnikataka.com/az.html
[2] BG flags website - party flag
with the ratio 3:5 offered for sale:
http://shop.bgflags.com
[3] BG flags website - party flag with the ratio
7:12 offered for sale:
http://shop.bgflags.com
[4] Dnevnik.bg website - photo of national and
party flags at a rally:
http://www.dnevnik.bg/shimg/zx450y250_542405.jpg
[5] Bezpartien.com
website - photo of party flags with ratio 1:1 at a rally:
http://bezpartien.com
[6] Photo from a party rally at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Meeting_of_PP_ATAKA_02.jpg
[7]
Fakti.bg website - photo of vertical party flags:
http://fakti.bg/bulgaria/85665-protest-na-ataka-pred-amerikanskoto-posolstvo
[8] Vestnik ATAKA website - photo of a vertical party flag:
http://www.vestnikataka.bg
Tomislav Todorovic, 22 February 2014
Kristian Yarichkov, 20 July 2005
Tomislav Todorovic, 22 February 2014
Anti-Corruption Movement
Valentin Poposki, 18 December 2005