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Bulgaria - Political Flags

VMRO Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
DPS Bulgarian Turks
BSP Bulgarian Socialist Party
BEL Bulgarian Euro Left
NDSV National Movement Simeon II
Novoto Vreme (New Age) Party
OMO Ilinden PIRIN
SDS Union of Democratic Forces
BKP Bulgarian Communist Party
BNS Bulgarian National Alliance
Ataka
Anti-Corruption Movement

See also:

VMRO

image by Ivan Marinov

Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization -- Bulgarian political party, it was a member of the ruling Union of Democratic Forces coalition between 1997-2000.

Coat of arms of VMRO. The inscription in the upper part of the coat of arms means: "Union and strength".

image located by Dov Gutterman at http://www.bulgariaonline.bg/macedonia/

Flag with initials used on it. The Bulgarian/Macedonian name that sounds something like "Vnutrashnya Makedonska Revolucionarna Organizacija." BMRO fought primarily against Turks for the independence of Bulgaria and Macedonia, and as might be seen from the flag, the ideology was anarchic-revolutionary (as were the methods). The group was soon (at the beginning of the 20th Century) split between those wanting Macedonia as a part of Bulgaria and those struggling for the independence of Macedonia. Therefore, to cut the story short, today we have VMRO both in modern Bulgaria and Macedonia (where it is called VMRO-DPMNE), both being modern democratic parties that have long forsaken their anarcho-revolutionary methods.
Željko Heimer, 24 February 2002

DPS

image by Stoyan Antonov

The party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Dvizhenie za prava i svobodi, DPS) was founded at the end of 1990. Since that date the undoubted leader of the party and Bulgarian Turks is Ahmed Dogan. Since the 1991 first democratic elections, the party of DPS has been represented in the parliament. Under Article 1, Section 4 of the Statute of MRF (DPS) the symbols are:

Emblem (logo) - two crossed olive branches and the (Cyrillic) letters DPS above
Flag - sky-blue with the emblem in the center.

Source: The Statute of DPS on www.dps.bg/ustav/html . Sometimes (I am myself a witness) the Turkish abbreviation 'HOH' replaces the Bulgarian 'DPS'. This image from the DPS website is a darker blue.
Stoyan Antonov, 04 September 2001

It seems that the Bulgarian party Movement for Rights and Liberties (I think that it should be translate as Liberties not Freedoms, but I might be wrong), has changed its flag. According to the image on its website, the emblem on the flag is in dark blue now: http://www.dps.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0067&n=&vis=.
Valentin Poposki, 9 March 2007

DPS image by Ivan Sache

This flag (red-white-red) was reported for DPS sometime before 2001. It is unknown among Bulgarian Turks and is not in use. Maybe this flag presents some emigrant organization of Bulgarian Turks out of Bulgaria.
Stoyan Antonov, 4 September 2001

BSP

image by Ivan Marinov

Bulgarian Socialist Party (former name: Bulgarian Communist Party). Third biggest party in Bulgaria.

BEL

image by Ivan Marinov

Bulgarian Euro Left. Formerly a fraction in the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

NDSV

image by Ivan Sarajcic, 20 September 2005

NDSV means National Movement Simeon the Second (Nacionalno Dvizenie Simeon Vtori)
Ivan Sarajcic, 20 September 2005

National Movement Simeon II, the political party founded by former Bulgarian king Simeon II (civil name: Simeon Borisov Sakskoburgotski). Winner in the 2001 parliamentary elections.
Jorge Candeias, 02 May 2001

unidentified image by Jorge Candeias

Today, the newspaper PUBLICO brings a large article about Bulgaria with a photo that contains an unknown flag. It seems to be a Bulgarian flag with two "parts" of white added below, making thus a square flag horizontally striped in white-green-red-white in proportions 1:1:1:2. Of course, the colours are educated guesses, but I'm pretty sure they are correct.
Jorge Candeias, 02 May 2001

I see today the flag of the National Movement Simeon II. Curiously, the flag is red with a white symbol (a sun) and letters. Unluckily, I can't find the symbol in the web and I can't reconstruct it accurately from memory.
Jaume Ollé, 17 June 2001

There is a "little" problem with National Movement Simeon II. In fact, there are three such movements:
1. Former king Simeon II started a political party with this name two months ago, but this party was not registered by the jury. So all activity was discontinued. I remember a yellow-green flag with some symbol in the centre. But this flag was no longer used after the denial of registration.
2. After the denial of registration by the jury, Simeon II formed a coalition of two existing little parties (Party of the Bulgarian Women and Movement for National Renewement Oborishte). The name of the coalition became Coalition National Movement Simeon II. This coalition was used only because of formal causes, and it will be discontinued very soon (Simeon II won 120 seats of 240 in the parliamentary elections yesterday!). This coalition was planned as a short-life entity, and it had no symbols, only the symbols required by the law. There was no flag.
3. Simeon II said yesterday on Bulgarian Televison (I am watching it regularly by satellite) that there will be a new party called National Movement Simeon II. I think it will have its own symbols.
Ivan Marinov, 18 June 2001

I don't know that the party or coalition of the quoted is the red flag with white sun, but I have no doubt that is for some of them because: a) Simeon was present in the images probably at some meeting in the present electoral campaign, then I assume that can be the flag of the coalition that participated in the current elections; b) Flag was hoisted by several people in normal size (one) and small size (probably paper); also, the symbol was first seen plain in a red banner. c) also there was undulating a white flag with symbol and probably red and green colors in the border. I saw this twice but always for only one or two seconds; it must be a kind of royal standard.
Jaume Ollé, 18 June 2001

I've seen TV footage showing Simeon II apparently celebrating the results, coming out and entering a car surrounded by masses waving a Bulgarian flag as well as some white flags with some emblem, as described here before. What caught my eye was another flag - apparently the Italian pre-WWII merchant ensign! That one with the Savoy shield (but no crown) in the middle of a green-white-red vertical tricolour.
Now, what would this flag do here? Was Simeon living in Italy after his exile, or maybe is his family was connected with Savoy dynasty? Or maybe this flag was used instead of the Bulgarian flag - the colours are the same after all.
What's more interesting is that it seems that this flag was waved by someone from Simeon's group rather than other "casual" spectators, as it was seen already inside the house and all the way toward the car, always only a few steps away from Simeon.
Željko Heimer, 19 June 2001

Simeon's mother was Giovanna, daughter of King Vittorio Emmanuelo III of Italy. That could be the connection.
Elias Granqvist, 19 June 2001

After his exile he living briefly in Egypt and after that in Spain. Simeon is from the Savoy dynasty on the maternal side.
Ivan Marinov, 20 June 2001

Concerning the June discussion on the flag of the NM Simeon the Second, I quote data from an official source. Under the Statute of NMSS, adopted on 08 April 2001, the National Movement has the following symbols (Art. 3): 1. a flag - equal yellow stripes and blue stripes; 2. an emblem -- a shell. It is a pity that the statute gives no information about the number of stripes and the colours of the shell. Stoyan Antonov, 26 July 2001

Novoto Vreme (New Age) Party

located by Valentin Poposki, 22 February 2006

Source: http://izbori.novotovreme.bg/Symbols/

SDS

image by Ivan Marinov

Union of Democratic Forces. Second biggest party in Bulgaria.

BNS

image by Santiago Tazon

Bulgarian National Alliance. The BNS (using the Cyrillic "bHC" characters) is a Bulgarian ultra-nationalist organization. They use a flag with the green, white and red national stripes with a black symbol in the center double fimbriated white-black. According to the BNS website (www.bgns.net ) the symbol means as follows: "On top of the tricolour we have embroidered the sign of the clan Dulo - a symbol of the khans that created Old Great Bulgaria, the present and Bulgaria-upon-Volga kingdoms."

image by Santiago Tazon

Bulgarian Defence Flag
Another flag used by the same group is the Bulgarian Defence Flag (as they named it): a mixture of the Imperial German flag changing the eagle for the yellow rampant lion of the Bulgarian kingdom, with the Bulgarian national flag as canton.
Santiago Tazon, 22 January 2003

Ataka

images by Tomislav Todorovic, 22 February 2014
Images are derived from the Wikipedia image of party emblem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ataka_logo_transparent.png

The flag currently used is green, shade darker and somewhat "colder" than on the Bulgarian national flag, with the party emblem in center. The emblem is a shield, charged with the stylized letter Az, the first letter of Glagolitic alphabet (U+2C00), in gold and white, fimbriated black and superimposed on a thin Celtic cross in same colors, rotated for 45 degrees and encircling a disc in national colors. (There is also an elaborate explanation of these symbols, with mystifications typical for far-right groups worldwide [1]). Party name is inscribed in black above these charges and the motto, which means "Return to Bulgaria", is inscribed beneath them in same color. The flag is usually with the ratio 3:5, although other ratios, like 7:12, or even 1:1, are used [2, 3, 4, 5]. There is also a vertical version of the flag, with the ratio varying somewhat, but usually being 2:3; it frequently has some of Bulgarian place names inscribed, but a plain variant also appears [6, 7, 8].

Sources:
[1] Vestnik ATAKA website - explanation of party emblem: http://www.vestnikataka.com/az.html
[2] BG flags website - party flag with the ratio 3:5 offered for sale: http://shop.bgflags.com
[3] BG flags website - party flag with the ratio 7:12 offered for sale: http://shop.bgflags.com
[4] Dnevnik.bg website - photo of national and party flags at a rally: http://www.dnevnik.bg/shimg/zx450y250_542405.jpg
[5] Bezpartien.com website - photo of party flags with ratio 1:1 at a rally: http://bezpartien.com
[6] Photo from a party rally at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Meeting_of_PP_ATAKA_02.jpg
[7] Fakti.bg website - photo of vertical party flags: http://fakti.bg/bulgaria/85665-protest-na-ataka-pred-amerikanskoto-posolstvo
[8] Vestnik ATAKA website - photo of a vertical party flag: http://www.vestnikataka.bg
Tomislav Todorovic, 22 February 2014

image submitted by Kristian Yarichkov, 20 July 2005

This is a symbol of the Bulgarian fascist party called Attack. The party gained near 10% in the last parliamentary elections a month ago. Now they have 23 people in the Bulgarian parliament.
Kristian Yarichkov, 20 July 2005

This flag/logo, which I never happened to see elsewhere, might be an earlier symbol of the party.
Tomislav Todorovic, 22 February 2014

Anti-Corruption Movement

based on image at http://akd19.tripod.com/pogr.htm

The flag of the Anti-Corruption Movement in Bulgaria is shown at http://akd19.tripod.com/pogr.htm.
Valentin Poposki, 18 December 2005