Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It occupies the whole eastern part of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. Bulgaria covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), and is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas.
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and has many mineral springs, such as the Sofia Central Mineral Baths. It has a humid continental climate. Being in the centre of the Balkans, it is midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and closest to the Aegean Sea.
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 as of 2018 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the cultural capital of Bulgaria and was the European Capital of Culture in 2019. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center. During most of its recorded history, Plovdiv was known by the name Philippopolis after Philip II of Macedon.
Varna Province, formerly known as Varna okrug, is a province in eastern Bulgaria, one of the 28 Bulgarian provinces. It comprises 12 municipalities with a population of 494,216 inhabitants as of April 2016. The province is named after its administrative centre, Varna.
Bankya is a small town located on the outskirts of Sofia in western Bulgaria. It is administratively part of Greater Sofia.
Bulgarian Turks, are a Turkish ethnic group from Bulgaria. In 2011, there were 588,318 Bulgarians of Turkish descent, roughly 8.8% of the population, making them the country's largest ethnic minority. Bulgarian Turks also comprise the largest single population of Turks in the Balkans. They primarily live in the southern province of Kardzhali and the northeastern provinces of Shumen, Silistra, Razgrad and Targovishte. There is also a diaspora outside Bulgaria in countries such as Turkey, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Romania, the most significant of which are the Bulgarian Turks in Turkey.
Lyaskovets is a town in central northern Bulgaria, located in homonymous municipality of Veliko Tarnovo Province, 10 km northeast of Veliko Tarnovo, 2 km southeast of Gorna Oryahovitsa and 5 km south of the Yantra River, north of the Balkan Mountains. Its name comes from the word leska ('hazel') or leshnik ('hazelnut'), because the tree was abundant in the area. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 10,314 inhabitants.
Foreign relations of the Republic of Bulgaria are the Bulgarian government's external relations with the outside world. Bulgaria has generally good foreign relations with its neighbors and has proved to be a constructive force in the region under socialist and democratic governments alike. Promoting regional stability, Bulgaria hosted a Southeast European Foreign Ministers meeting in July 1996, and an OSCE conference on Black Sea cooperation in November 1995. Bulgaria also participated in the 1996 South Balkan Defense Ministerial in Albania and is active in the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative. Bulgaria's main focus is the Euro-Atlantic integration since 1997 and the efforts of the governments since then led to admission to NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. Its main allies are Greece and Romania, while it maintains good relations with Serbia and the rest of the Balkans. The Republic of North Macedonia is a very important state in Bulgarian foreign and internal policy due to the historical, ethnical and cultural connections.
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. North Macedonia is a landlocked country bordering with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's 1.83 million population. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and a few other minorities.
Bulgaria participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Bulgaria selected their entry through a televised national final, organised by Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT). This was the country's seventh participation in the contest since 2005.
Zoran Zaev is a Macedonian economist and politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of North Macedonia from 30 August 2020, a position he previously held from 31 May 2017 to 3 January 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Bulgaria when the country's first cases, a 27-year-old man from Pleven and a 75-year-old woman from Gabrovo, were confirmed on 8 March 2020. Neither of the two had traveled to areas with known coronavirus cases which is maybe because the PCR test that was used is deffective. The man tested positive for the virus after being hospitalized for a respiratory infection, and authorities announced plans to test several people who were in contact with the two individuals. Two other samples in Pleven and Gabrovo were positive on 8 March. Patient zero remains unknown.
The 2020–21 First Professional Football League, also known as efbet League for sponsorship reasons, was the 97th season of the top division of the Bulgarian football league system, the 72nd since a league format was adopted for the national competition of A Group as a top tier of the pyramid, and also the 5th season of the First Professional Football League, which decides the Bulgarian champion. Ludogorets Razgrad were the defending champions for the ninth consecutive time.
This national electoral calendar for 2021 lists the national/federal elections that were and are scheduled to be held in 2021 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. Specific dates are given where these are known.
The 2020–21 Bulgarian Cup was the 39th official edition of the Bulgarian annual football knockout tournament. The competition began on 29 September 2020 with the preliminary round and finished with the final on 19 May 2021. Lokomotiv Plovdiv were the defending cup winners, but were eliminated after extra time by Ludogorets Razgrad in the quarter-finals. After CSKA Sofia missed out on the cup after losing last year's final, this time they won it against Arda Kardzhali for their 21st cup title and qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.
The COVID-19 vaccination in Bulgaria is an immunization campaign currently taking place against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is the cause of the COVID-19 disease. It began on 27 December 2020, in line with most other countries in the EU, and is in response to the ongoing pandemic in Bulgaria. The vaccination drive was affected by organizational and supply-related issues during the initial months while since the spring of 2021 vaccine hesitancy has contributed significantly to the country having the lowest rate of inoculations in the EU, with 20% of Bulgaria's adult citizens fully vaccinated by early September.
The 2021–22 First Professional Football League, also known as efbet League for sponsorship reasons, will be the 98th season of the top division of the Bulgarian football league system, the 73rd since a league format was adopted for the national competition of A Group as a top tier of the pyramid, and also the 6th season of the First Professional Football League, which decides the Bulgarian champion. Ludogorets Razgrad are the defending champions for the 10th consecutive time.
Kiril Petkov Petkov is a Bulgarian politician, economist, and entrepreneur serving as Prime Minister of Bulgaria since 13 December 2021. He is the co-leader of We Continue the Change, a political party he co-founded with Asen Vasilev.
Velichkovo is a village located in Pazardzhik Municipality, in Pazardzhik Province, southern Bulgaria.
Velichkovo may refer to the following places:
Bulgaria 
