Bulgaria Formally Protests Serbian Traveling Hassle

Bulgaria will inform EU authorities of the impediments Serbia has made to Bulgarian nationals requesting to enter Serbia Friday, announced Foreign Affairs Minister Nikolay Mladenov.

All through Friday, Serbian border police were creating difficulties for Bulgarian nationals to cross the border, given the two neighbors have a visa-free regime.

Bulgarians were attempting to cross into Serbia to pay tribute to Bulgaria's national hero, Vasil Levski, a day before the official commemoration of his death on February 19.

Eastern Serbia, bordering Bulgaria, has a large ethnic Bulgarian population, which might have provoked Serbian authorities' unwarranted worries.

Inside Serbia, the Ministry of Interior had banned the official commemoration in the ethnic Bulgarian populated town of Bosilegrad on the grounds that it might adversely affect "public order and the safety of citizens."

A protest note has been presented to Serbian ambassador in Sofia Alexander Crvenjakov.

Vasil Levski (1837-73) was the greatest fighter for the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. He lived in Serbia while he was a part of a combat unit trained to fight to free Bulgaria - and aid Serbia in case of a war with the Empire.

Levski was inspired by the freedom struggles of fellow Balkan peoples like Serbia and Greece, and unlike many of the national liberation leaders at the time, his political ideas were free of all nationalism.

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