The country’s landscape is composed mostly of mountains with lowlands in the north and south-east. It has coastline along the Black Sea. Its neighbours are: Serbia, Romania, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. Border lengths are: Greece 494 km, Macedonia 148 km, Romania 608 km, Serbia 318 km and Turkey 240 km. The coastline is 354 km long. There are 28 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast): Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Dobrich, Gabrovo, Khaskovo, Kurdzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Shumen, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofiya, Sofiya-Grad, Stara Zagora, Turgovishte, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Vratsa and Yambol. The first Bulgarian state was recognised in 681 A.D. Tsar Simeon I played an important role in history between 893-927. Bulgaria was a state until 1018 when it was subdued by Byzantium. The second Bulgarian state was created under brothers Peter and Asen in 1185, and it survived until 1396, when it was subdued by the Ottoman Empire. After the Russian-Turkish war of 1876-1877 and the Treaty of Berlin in 1885, Bulgaria became an autonomous state in the Empire. A People’s Council was held in Constantinople in 1871 leading to the adoption of the Statute of the Bulgarian Exarchate. The Bulgarian national revolutionary movement (BRCC) set itself the task of liberation and establishment of an independent Bulgarian state. A historic decision was made at an Assembly in Oborishte, held on 14 April 1876, when the April Uprising was announced – it can be considered the precursor to the Bulgarian National Assembly and parliamentarianism in Bulgaria. The political programme of the BCPS (formerly the BRCC), which was developed for the Bulgarian People’s Assembly at the end of 1876 and sent to the Istanbul Ambassadors’ Conference, emphasised that Bulgarian statehood had to be restored and explicitly stated that: “The Bulgarian State will be governed independently in accordance with a constitution elaborated by a legislature elected by the people.” In 1887, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was elected ruler of Bulgaria. On 22 September 1908 he declared the country independent and took the title of Tzar. Bulgaria participated in the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912 and 1913) and was allied with Germany during World War II. King Simeon II assumed control of the throne in 1943 at the age of six following the death of his father Boris III. Simeon, former prime minister (till 2005), was forced into exile in 1946 (the monarchy was abolished on 8 September 1946) and resided primarily in Spain until April 2001 when he returned to Bulgaria, and became the first former monarch in post-communist Eastern Europe to become prime minister. The country had strong co-operation with the Soviet Union after World War II. A Soviet-style peoples’ republic was established in 1947 and Sofia was loyal to Moscow. On 17 November 1989, Petar Mladenov became president, ending the era of Todor Zhivkov (Živkov). Zhivkov, who was in power for a long period after World War II, resigned on 10 November 1989. In 1990 he was imprisoned and in September 1992 convicted. Constitutional changes in January 1990 deleted the dominant role of the Communist Party, and a new constitution was adopted in 1991. The ruling communist party changed its name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and the first multiparty elections after World War II were held in 1990. The first fully democratic parliamentary elections were held in 1991, in which the Union of Democratic Forces won. Bulgaria's economy contracted dramatically after 1989 with the collapse of the COMECON system. The first direct presidential elections were held in 1992. Zhelju Zhelev (Želev) became the first democratically elected president of the country on 19 January 1992. With the aid of the international community, former Prime Minister Ivan Kostov initiated a series of reforms in 1997 after an economic and financial crisis in late 1996-early 1997. Petar Stoyanov became president in 1997. In April 1992, a normalisation agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey was signed. This followed an 1985-1989 attempt by Bulgaria’s communist regime in Sofia to force people belonging to Bulgaria’s Turkish minority (about 8.5% of the population in the country) to changes their names to Bulgarian names, which caused a major exodus of the Turkish minority population. According to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, in 2004 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) pronounced a record number of 25 verdicts against Bulgaria. The government today is a coalition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the National Movement Simeon II (NDSV) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS). Sergey Stanishev of the Bulgarian Socialist Party took the office of prime minister in late August 2005 following nearly two months of political crisis due to a narrow victory by the BSP in the last general elections (25 June 2005). Bulgaria is a candidate, together with Romania, to join the European Union (EU) in the next wave (the Accession Treaty for both countries was signed in April 2005 and suggests 1 January 2007 as the start date, but there is a safeguard clause which under certain conditions may postpone EU membership for both countries by a year). Bulgaria joined the World Trade Organisation in 1996. In 1998, Bulgaria became a full member of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). It is also a member of the UN, NATO (since 2 April 2004) and the OSCE. Bulgaria had the OSCE chairmanship in 2004. President and vice-president are elected on the same ticket by popular vote for five-year terms. Important political parties are: the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP); the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF); the Bulgarian People’s Union (BNU); the National Movement for Simeon II (NMSS); the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF); the Union of Free Democrats (UFD); Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), various agrarian parties, nationalist party ATAKA, etc. The results of the 25 June 2005 general elections are as follows: BSP (Coalition for Bulgaria) 34.17%, NMSS 22.08%, MRF 14.17%, Ataka 8.75%, UDF 8.33%, DSB 7.08%, and BNU 5.42%. The National Parliament is a single-chamber Narodno Sabranie with 240 seats. Deputies are elected for four-year terms through a proportional system in 31 electoral regions. Party or coalition lists, rather than individual candidate names, appear on the ballots. A party or coalition must garner a minimum of 4% of the vote in order to enter Parliament. The votes of parties who did not receive a minimum threshold of votes are redistributed to other parties proportionate to their own share of the vote. Parliament selects and dismisses government ministers, including the prime minister. The executive includes the president (chief of the state), prime minister (head of the government), and Council of Ministers (cabinet). The president of Bulgaria is directly elected for a 5-year term with the right to one re-election. That person serves as the head of state, commander of the army, head of the Consultative Council for National Security and can return a bill for further debate. Parliament can overturn the president's veto with a simple majority vote. Bulgarian Socialist Party candidate Georgi Parvanov took office in January 2002. New presidential elections are expected in the fall of 2006.