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Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

(www.ecb.europa.eu)
257 points toomuchtodo | 2 comments | 09 Jul 25 00:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.403s | source
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isodev ◴[09 Jul 25 01:24 UTC] No.44505504[source]▶
Nice. It’s amazing to see the progress Bulgarians have made in the last 20 years after joining the EU. I can imagine it hasn’t been an easy process.
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petesergeant ◴[09 Jul 25 02:11 UTC] No.44505750[source]▶
Two things that surprised me when I spent a couple of months in Bulgaria:

* Bulgarian support for the EU is pretty low and people didn't think it made their life much better

* Bulgarian support for Russia is very high, like 50%, probably due to their historic help in kicking out the Turks

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mrtksn ◴[09 Jul 25 04:32 UTC] No.44506377[source]▶
It’s also more of a generation thing though. The older people are nostalgic about the past and their youth and for a country that experienced 2 decades of very low birth rates that’s the 70s and 80s and those years are under the communist rule and very good years for Bulgaria as the country was experiencing economic boom from computers and electronics manufacturing.

Also, under under the Communist rule supported by USSR, they indoctrinated people into a version of history that Turks are the absolute evil, and Russians are the absolute angels saving them from the ottomans.

I.e. in pre-EU era it was called Ottoman slavery, later they start calling it Ottoman era as it was more accurate as Ottoman’s system was based on collecting taxes and resources from the conquered places when giving them plenty of autonomy. Obviously not ideal but far from slavery.

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throwpoaster ◴[09 Jul 25 05:30 UTC] No.44506605[source]▶
Unless you were Armenian.
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mrtksn ◴[09 Jul 25 05:38 UTC] No.44506639[source]▶
Not at all, Armenians were also an integral part of the Ottoman society and that’s how you still have plenty of Armenian cultural heritage dating back to Ottoman times in modern Turkey. You must be referring to the events around WW1 that led the loss of huge numbers of the Armenians through atrocities committed by the Ottomans which some say that it was a genocide, others say it was poorly managed suppression of a rebellion in a dying empire. Still unresolved issue unfortunately.

On the other hand Bulgarians and Turks teamed in wars after the forming of the new Bulgarian state.

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shakow ◴[09 Jul 25 06:41 UTC] No.44506960[source]▶
> others say it was poorly managed suppression of a rebellion in a dying empire

I don't think many say that at all outside of Turkey/Azerbaijan/Pakistan.

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mrtksn ◴[09 Jul 25 07:00 UTC] No.44507055[source]▶
True, I'm also inclined to believe that it started as a suppression attempt that ended up being a genocide as "an easy solution" to make a problem go away as the dying empire wasn't able to contain it.

I recall reading the communications of some Ottoman officials trying to cash out the life insurance policies of the Armenians. Pure evil, honestly.

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1. piva00 ◴[09 Jul 25 08:05 UTC] No.44507391[source]▶
In that sense the Holocaust was also the "easy solution" to "make the problem go away" when deporting Jews (and other minorities) became too much of a hassle for the Nazis.

They didn't start with the idea of "let's kill everyone", it built up from the 1930s process to deport "undesirables", when it became too much work they decided to kill everyone instead.

Genocide is genocide, doesn't matter the seed that started it.

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2. mrtksn ◴[09 Jul 25 08:17 UTC] No.44507464[source]▶
Sure, nazis even called it “the final solution”.

The difference is that the the ottomans didn’t have an anti-armenian culture going on and the Ottoman rule wasn’t being legitimized over stuff like “fighting a war against sleazy Armenians who infiltrated us”. It was quite the opposite, with rise of the nationalism in Europe minorities in the empire were the “anti”.

Ottomans didn’t do that because they believed in the inherent evil of the Armenians but because they were responding to those nationalistic movements. The distrust towards Armenians developed with the rebellions that were supported by Russia etc. Armenians weren’t targeted for their Armenianness. In other words none of this would have happened if there were no rebellions. It was done to address a specific problem, can you say the same for the holocaust? Was Hitler trying to address actual troubles that the Jewish minority caused?

Do you know who were/are targeted? The Alawites, it about the people would say things similar things like an anti-semite would say for the Jews. It’s also how you get instantly cancelled in Turkey.