Western Outlands

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Territories ceded to Yugoslavia by Bulgaria according to the Treaty of Neuilly, 1920

The Western (Bulgarian) Outlands (Bulgarian: Западни (български) покрайнини, Zapadni (balgarski) pokraynini) is a term used by Bulgarians to describe several territorially separate regions in southeastern Serbia.

The territories in question were ceded by Bulgaria to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1920 as a result of the Treaty of Neuilly, following the First World War. The territories are traditionally considered terra irredenta by Bulgarian nationalists, and the use of the term "Western Outlands" may be found offensive by Serbs. According to the Serbian census of 1991, two of the largest cities in the Western Outlands, Bosilegrad and Dimitrovgrad, are populated primarily by Bulgarians.

Today, the territories referred to by the term cover an area of 1,545 km² in Serbia. In 1919 the same territories corresponded to the following parts of the Bulgarian okrugs: Kyustendil, 661 km², Tsaribrod (nowadays Dimitrovgrad) 418 km², Tran 278 km², Kula 172 km² and Vidin 17 km².

[edit] Controversy

Ethnic map of Serbia showing location of Bulgarian-majority settlements according to the 2002 census.

Unveiling of the monument of Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in Bosilegrad.

According to the Serbian point a view the term itself is controversial. Several small, fractioned and sparsely populated areas have been named Western Outlands as representing one entity, even though they are not connected in any geographical or political sense. Referring to parts of the territory of one country as western outlands of another implies territorial claims, as in the historic example with Germany and Alsace in France.

Church of the Mother of God built by the Bulgarian state in 1892 in Tsaribrod.

Presumably for this reason, in official contacts of Sofia and Belgrade the term has not been used since 1948. It was mentioned once, in the 1948 Bled Agreement by Josip Broz Tito and Georgi Dimitrov. That was in the period of Joseph Stalin's push^{[citation needed]} for a Communist super-state in the Balkans, the Balkan Federative Republic, composed of Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. After the Informbiro Resolution in 1948 when Tito and Stalin split, the idea was off too. Despite not being used internationally (until 1990s when it was revived), it is very widely used in internal social and political communication in Bulgaria.