Even though Bulgaria was liberated in 1878 due to the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation, the Principality of Bulgaria was declared an ally of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin, putting the independent Bulgarian state under the control of the Sublime Porte.
On September 22, 1908, Bulgaria declared its independence from the influence of the Ottoman Empire; today, it remarks 114 years of independence. On this day in 1908, Prince Ferdinand proclaimed himself as monarch of the Bulgarian Kingdom and announced the liberation of Bulgaria in the Veliko Tarnovo church “St. Forty Martyrs” with a manifesto.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the nascent Bulgarian state had perfect conditions for announcing its independence. The reformists won the Young Turk revolution in the Ottoman Empire in the summer of 1908. Two of the empire’s provinces, Bosnia and Herzegovina, got annexed by Austria-Hungary, one of the Great Powers that enforced the Berlin Treaty.
Following its liberation, Bulgaria’s principal foreign objective was to unite all of its people living in foreign countries into a unified state; the main targets of this irredentist movement were Macedonia and southern Thrace, which remained a part of the Ottoman Empire. However, Bulgaria had to formally declare its independence before joining an anti-Ottoman alliance and going to war to seize those areas. This would be a breach of the conditions of the Treaty of Berlin, and it is improbable that the Great Powers would consent to such an action.
On September 1998, a public holiday was declared by the decision of the National assembly. The significance of this historic moment was not appreciated. Still, on this day, one of the oldest countries in Europe reappeared on the world map after five centuries of Ottoman rule.
