How come Bulgaria never joined the former Yugoslavia?

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Makedonija

If you ask this question, you can also ask why Romania or Albania, or even Zimbabwe never joined Yugoslavia. Why would they?

Yugoslavia was made of 6 nations, very close to each other.
Bulgarian nation is way more different, they call themselves Slavs, but in reality they are Tatars, from Asia. Their language is different, and even we, the Macedonians,
their first neighbor, can not understand everything a Bulgarian would say. But we can understand and speak the languages that are spoken in the countries of former Yugoslavia, even the country doesn't exist for 17 years.

Also there have been completely different political positions. For a long time, Bulgaria was a servant of the Soviet Union, while Yugoslavia was maintaining good relations with the western world.
And even though, this kind of idea could have been realized in the years after the World War II, when Tito and Dimitrov were maintaining good relations, but after that Bulgaria had to listen what the Soviets were telling them, so it never happened.

aeiou_i

These two countries have had separate history ever since the Bulgarians destroyed the first Serb country, in the ninth century.

The second Balkan war was between Serbia and Bulgaria.

After that the Bulgarians were under the USSR.

The period between the fall of the iron curtain and the disintegration of Yugoslavia was too short :P

Added:

Ah yes, during WW1 the Bulgarians were on the German side. Bulgarians are a mixture of Tatars and Slavs.
Bulgaria was not together with Hitler during WW2. They were simply an occupied country. Perhaps Serbia would have been better standing today if it had been "passive" with the Germans as well :P

Denicia

I think Bulgarians are not Slavs, also Bulgaria in World war II was together with Hitler, since Yugoslavia was with Anti Nazis.After War Yugoslavia was independent country together with Egypt and others independent(Thirth World), since Bulgaria was together with USSR, in East Block.
In 1955 -1984 Yugoslavia was Heaven,rich country, but with Bulgaria that was not case. I think, Bulgarians have very different culture, then Slavs and can't be together with them.

XIII

An interesting and little known fact is that after the states in South-Eastern Europe were overrun by the communists ( at the end of the Second World War) their new leaders seriously considered creating sort of a communist Balkan federal state, made up of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania.
But this didn't happen, mainly because Yugoslavia began pursuing a dissident policy within the communist block and on the other hand the Soviet Union feared that such a federation could slip from its control.

Grom

Ne znam,stvarno

Jelena L.

As a Serb, I don't see much connection with Bulgarians, and I don't think that other ex-Yu nations have much in common with them too. Serbia have history with Bulgaria, especially in WW I, and in WW II we were on opposite sides. And even during communism era, Yugoslavia had that "soft" type, and was more open, actually all were living quite good, in difference with Bulgaria.
There is still something negative in collective memory of people regarding Bulgarians, as Goxy said, and I am surprised really because of this question.

just4ivaylo

Hehe, Makedonija is right.

áƒ¦â™¥Goxyâ™¥áƒ¦

Considering the fact that Serbs were forced to forgive&forget all kinds of maltreatment within Yugoslavia, it's surprising they didn't allow Bulgaria to join in it, too. They also have a record of back-stabbing and atrocities done to Serb civilians. If you want to describe a two-faced, double-dealing policy that someone is playing on you, you say they are doing it the Bulgarian way. This is a popular saying, at least in Serbia.

I'm Macedonian!!!

interesting question, but don't know the answer...

Thalia

It almost happened by force. In the Balkan Wars that followed in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, Serbia and Greece formed an alliance to invade Bulgaria and partition its territory between the two countries.
Romania and the Ottomans also joined in and seized control of other parts of the country.

By the time of WW1 a few years later, the Bulgarians allied themselves with Germans and Austrians, hoping to regain their lost territories.

So after that, having fought 2 wars in a row with the Serbians, they were hardly going to join the Yugoslav union -- which was anyway just Serbia absorbing the Slav territories of the defunct Austrian Empire (i.e. Bosnia, Croatia & Slovenia).

mika

i wonder who would choose to go in prison voluntary?
the ex_Yugoslavia was known as a prison for the people who lived in it.

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