Bulgaria Marks International Roma Day

Many Roma communities all over Bulgaria mark April 8, the International Roma Day, with festivals and performances. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Roma across the country celebrate Friday April 8, the International Roma Day.

April 8, the International Day of the Roma, is a day of celebration of Roma culture, history and traditions. The Day also draws attention to discrimination directed to Roma and Gypsy communities globally and calls for all human rights to be respected and observed.

The day was officially declared in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the site of the fourth World Romani Congress of the International Romani Union (IRU), in honor of the first major international meeting of Romani representatives, 7-12 of April, 1971 in Chelsfieldnear London.

Many Roma communities all over Bulgaria mark April 8 with festivals, dance performances, concerts and tournaments, held in a number of Bulgarian cities and towns.

Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, will take part in the ceremony marking the day, which is organized by the National Council for Partnership on Ethnic and Demographic Issues, Chaired by Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov. The Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, will also attend the event.

The International Roma Day will be marked in several schools included in the 3-year program to reduce the number of Roma children becoming early drop-outs.

The University in the central city of Veliko Tarnovo and the Roma Center "Amalipe" are organizing an awareness campaign including information on the massacre of Roma in Nazi concentration camps during World War II and a photography exhibit.

On Wednesday, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, issued an eight-month deadline on Member States to come up with their national plans within the EU Strategy for Roma integration and inclusion.

On Thursday, the US Ambassador to Sofia, James Warlick, lectured on Roma integration and ethnic tolerance in the Bulgarian Black Sea capital of Varna.

The most wide-spread theory is that Roma first came to Bulgaria around the 11th-12th century through the Byzantine Empire. The mass influx of Roma, however, begins with the Ottoman rule, when many Roma arrive in the footsteps of the Turkish army.

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