Bill Text: IL HR0023 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Congratulates the people of the Republic of Bulgaria as they celebrate the 145th anniversary of their liberation on March 3, 2023. Declares March of 2023 as Bulgarian American Heritage Month in the State of Illinois.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2023-03-28 - Resolution Adopted [HR0023 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HR0023-Enrolled.html

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HR0023 Enrolled LRB103 27127 LAW 53496 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION 23
WHEREAS, Bulgaria and the United States are strategic
partners and allies, sharing ties of culture, tradition, and
common interest; and
WHEREAS, The year 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the
United States Senate's ratification of the Protocol for
Accession of Bulgaria into the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), the 80th anniversary of the Bulgarian
people's rescue of the Bulgarian Jews, the 120th anniversary
of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the
United States and Bulgaria, and the 145th anniversary of the
liberation of Bulgaria; and
WHEREAS, The first Bulgarian emigrants to Illinois arrived
in the second half of the 19th century; and
WHEREAS, Granite City hosts the oldest Bulgarian American
community in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The prominent Bulgarian American banker, Henry
Karandzhov, served as the president of the Granite City Trust
and Savings Bank and as the president of the Masonic Temple
Association, receiving the title of Scoutmaster; and

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WHEREAS, The first Bulgarian emigrants to Chicago, who
began to arrive as early as the 1870s, were students sent by
American protestant missionaries for study in the United
States; and
WHEREAS, While most of these students returned to
Bulgaria, some remained and created a Bulgarian American
community in Illinois; and
WHEREAS, Bulgaria was admitted into and permitted to
display an exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in
Chicago, an event hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the first
diplomatic recognition accorded to Bulgaria as an independent
state; and
WHEREAS, Aleko Konstantinov, a famous Bulgarian writer,
recounted his journey to the World's Columbian Exposition in
Chicago in his book, To Chicago and Back, which became
instrumental in encouraging generations of Bulgarians to
emigrate to Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of Bulgarians arrived in the
United States from the geographic region of Macedonia at the
beginning of the 20th century, pursuing freedom and fleeing
the devastation and horrors occasioned by regional unrest; and

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WHEREAS, The first Bulgarian Mission with its own priest
was established in Madison in 1907; and
WHEREAS, Madison is home to Illinois' oldest Bulgarian
Orthodox Church, Holy Trinity, built by Macedonian Bulgarians
with the current church building existing since 1910; and
WHEREAS, The Granite City Bulgarian community published
the first Bulgarian newspaper in the United States, the Vox
Populi, or Voice of the People, from 1907 to 1950; other
Bulgarians newspapers, such as the New World (1908-1909),
Emigrant (1909), Freedom (1914-1917), Macedonian Tribune
(1927-present), and others, followed in its wake; and
WHEREAS, Stoyan Yurukov became the first Bulgarian pilot
to fly in the skies above Chicago in 1912, charting the course
for many other Bulgarian pilots who have lived and worked in
the Windy City; and
WHEREAS, Bulgarian emigrants from the region of Macedonia
founded the Macedonian Patriotic Organization in 1922; the
organization continues to work for human, civil, and economic
rights of all individuals, regardless of ethnicity, who hail
from the geographic region; and
WHEREAS, Assen Hristov Jordanoff, a Bulgarian American

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engineer and pilot, emigrated to the United States after World
War I, becoming one of the fathers of civil aviation in the
United States; and
WHEREAS, The Macedonian Bulgarian Stoyan Christowe, a
journalist for the Chicago Daily News, wrote a book titled
This is My Country, a semi-autographical book about the
immigrants arriving in the United States from southeast Europe
at the beginning of the 20th century and a book found on the
bedside table of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the time
of his death; and
WHEREAS, John V. Atansoff, a Bulgarian American, created
the first automatic electronic digital computer in 1939, an
invention for which he was presented the National Medal for
Science and Technology by President George H. W. Bush in 1990;
and
WHEREAS, In the Spring of 1943, the Bulgarian people
resisted Nazi pressure to deport Bulgarian Jews to Nazi
concentration camps and, in doing so, rescued approximately
50,000 Bulgarian Jews from the worst terrors of the Nazi
regime; and
WHEREAS, The Bulgarian people acknowledge with sadness,
grief, and regret the deportation and confinement of over

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11,000 Jews from the Bulgarian administered Thracian and
Macedonian territories during the war; and
WHEREAS, With the conclusion of World War II, Bulgaria
fell victim to communism and was cut off from interaction and
intercourse with the free world by the Soviet government's
Iron Curtain, resulting in the expulsion and flight of some of
its most educated, knowledgeable, and prosperous citizens; and
WHEREAS, Illinois became a safe haven for many Bulgarian
political dissidents and refugees, fleeing from the repressive
terrors of communism; and
WHEREAS, Communism maintained its firm grip on Bulgaria,
holding the people captive, until the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989; and
WHEREAS, The fall of the Berlin Wall and the following
dissolution of the Soviet Union freed the Bulgarian people to
proclaim and institute a democratic and multiparty political
system; and
WHEREAS, Within 20 years of the fall of communism,
Bulgaria became a member of NATO and an integral part of the
European Union; and

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WHEREAS, Bulgaria, as a member of NATO, is a strategic
partner to the United States and a key ally in eastern Europe,
contributing to the stability of the Balkan Peninsula and
Black Sea region; and
WHEREAS, Bulgaria and the United States entered into the
U.S.-Bulgarian Defense Cooperation Agreement in 2006,
providing the U.S. military access to specified Bulgarian
military facilities, including the Novo Selo Training Area;
and
WHEREAS, In 2020, the United States and Bulgaria signed a
10-year Roadmap for Defense Cooperation to foster increased
military cooperation and preparation; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. and Bulgarian militaries conduct
numerous military-to-military engagements, involving joint
training exercises and peer-to-peer engagements to enhance
interoperability and cooperation; and
WHEREAS, Bulgarian troops have stood alongside American
soldiers in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and
Bosnia and Herzegovina; and
WHEREAS, In 1960, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley
proclaimed March 3 (Bulgarian Liberation Day) as Bulgaria Day

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in Chicago, instituting an annual Bulgarian flag-raising
ceremony at Daley Plaza in Chicago that continues until this
day; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago metropolitan area is today considered
the home of the largest Bulgarian diaspora; and
WHEREAS, The two Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Churches in
the Chicago metropolitan area, St. Sophia (established in
1938) and St. John of Rila (established in 1996), along with
the Bulgarian Evangelical Church (New Life), serve as social
and religious centers, maintaining Bulgarian culture and
traditions; and
WHEREAS, Illinois is home to 13 Bulgarian Sunday Schools
that perpetuate Bulgarian language, culture, and history in
our communities; and
WHEREAS, Bulgarian Americans have greatly enriched the
cultural, technological, and civic life of Illinois,
contributing through their cultural centers, schools,
churches, dance groups, businesses, and other civic
organizations to the social, cultural, civil, and economic
development of the State of Illinois; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE

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HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we send our warmest congratulations and best wishes to the
people of the Republic of Bulgaria as they celebrate the 145th
anniversary of their liberation on March 3, 2023; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That we confirm the rich friendship that binds
our peoples together; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we declare March of 2023 as Bulgarian
American Heritage Month in the State of Illinois; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
delivered to the Consul General of the Republic of Bulgaria in
Chicago, President Joe Biden, and all members of the Illinois
Congressional Delegation.