Svetlana Karadjova: My mission in Timișoara is to connect people from Banat and Bulgaria

Vladimir Mitev

Summary

Here is a summary of the interview with Svetlana Karadjova, which traces her multifaceted efforts to preserve the identity of the Banat Bulgarians and build new ties between Bulgaria and Romania.

Svetlana Karadjova is a philologist, public figure, and researcher whose work is dedicated to the Banat Bulgarians—a community that has preserved the ancient Bulgarian language and unique traditions for centuries. Since the end of 2025, she has been a lecturer in Bulgarian language at the Western University in Timișoara.

Academic and educational activities

Karadjova’s first semester in Timisoara was marked by a surprisingly high interest in the Bulgarian language.

• Free courses: Over 40 people (mostly ethnic Romanians) applied to study the language.
• Training: Groups were formed for beginners and advanced learners, with the latter including local Bulgarians who wanted to improve their literary language skills.
• University cooperation: Bulgarian is now part of the university’s regular program as an elective subject, and academic ties are expanding through joint conferences between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Western University.

Falmis Society: A bridge between generations

The name “Falmis” (derived from the Catholic greeting “Praised be Jesus”) symbolizes the spiritual code of the community.

• Activities: The society organizes cultural events, scientific conferences, and concerts.
• Falmis Ensemble: The ensemble functions as a “treasure chest” for folklore, preserving dances not only from Banat, but also from disappearing Bulgarian villages, as well as Hungarian and Polish dances.

Scientific research and projects

Karadjova is pursuing a doctorate at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in order to elevate the discourse about the community to a scientific and philosophical level.

• Current projects: She participates in two projects of the Scientific Research Fund at the Institute of Bulgarian Language (BAS), focused on the literature and identity of the Banat and Bessarabian Bulgarians.
• International impact: Her publications in Romanian scientific journals (including a study of the translation of the poem “Hyperion” into Banat Bulgarian) serve as a bridge to the Romanian scientific community.

Grassroots activism

Living in Banat, Karadjova works actively to revive intellectual life in Star Beshenov.

• The “PG 33” Circle: She is trying to revive the ideas of the old “Palkenska Group 33” foundation by encouraging gatherings to discuss culture, poetry, and history.
• Personal example: Karadjova is actively learning Romanian, believing that mutual respect for languages is the key to overcoming assimilation and strengthening ties between the two peoples.

Introduction

Svetlana Karadjova is a Bulgarian public figure, publicist, and researcher. She is the long-standing president of the Association of Bulgarians in Banat in Bulgaria “Falmis” and an expert on the subject of Bulgarians in Banat. Since the fall of 2025, Svetlana Karadjova has been teaching Bulgarian at the West University of Timișoara. In the capital of Banat, she is involved in a number of activities, which she discusses with The Bridge of Friendship.

Interview

Teaching Bulgarian in Timișoara

Ms. Karadjova, you have been teaching Bulgarian at the West University of Timișoara for one semester. To what extent do Bulgarians, Romanians, and other inhabitants of this multi-ethnic city want to learn Bulgarian? What can you say in summary about your first academic semester?

The semester started a month late for me because I arrived in Timișoara at the end of October due to procedural delays.

I was warmly welcomed by the leadership of the Faculty of Literature, History, Philosophy, and Theology of the West University, represented by the dean, Prof. Dr. Dana Percec, and the vice dean, Dr. Ana-Maria Radu-Pop, as well as the entire administration. They immediately offered to announce a free evening course in Bulgarian for representatives of the local community. We were surprised that 42 people enrolled, most of them of Romanian ethnicity. This demonstrated the great interest in the Bulgarian language and the opportunities for fruitful collaboration in the future.

At the beginning of the course, the candidates, who represented about half of those who had signed up, were divided into two groups: beginners and advanced. The second group included Bulgarians with roots in Dudești Vechi (the main village of Banat Bulgarians – note of the translator), who study Bulgarian as their mother tongue at school from first to twelfth grade. The beginners are mainly ethnic Romanians, who study the language with great diligence and are progressing rapidly. In conclusion, I can say that in the first semester there were only two regular students who studied the language last academic year with the former lecturer, Dr. Grigor Grigorov. For the second semester, I have four students enrolled, and the language is included in the regular curriculum as an option.

Association of Bulgarians in Banat Falmis

You have long been building bridges between Bulgarians in Banat and Bulgarians in Bulgaria, or even between Bulgarians in Banat from both places. You are also connected to the Falmis organization. What has happened to the organization in recent years?

First of all, I need to explain a little what “Falmis” actually is. The word “Falmis” comes from a greeting among Catholics – “Glory to Jesus.” The Bulgarians in Banat shortened it to a single word – “Falmis.” This is the greeting they use when they meet on the street or wherever they go. The response is “Praise Jesus” or, in Banat Bulgarian, “Uveć falin/falim!” (“May He be praised forever/Let us praise Him forever!”). The greeting, as a combination of its two forms, was the name of a newsletter that we published in Bărdarski Geran between 1998 and 2003. 

The bridge was already present in the title of this publication. The bridge that is in the greeting. If you greet someone with “Falmis” and they respond with “Uveć falim!”, it means that they are part of our community. They know the code through which we can understand each other. The spelling was also symbolic – the first part is in Cyrillic and the second in Latin, to show the two variants of the language and its spelling.

Gradually, this name was applied to all the activities I was involved in. In 2016, I created a dance troupe in Sofia for the Association of Bulgarians in Banat in Bulgaria, with the aim of expanding its activities and promoting Bulgarian folklore from Banat at home and abroad. September 2026 will mark the 10th anniversary of the ensemble’s founding.

At that time, we decided that the name could successfully replace the long name of the Association of Bulgarians in Banat in Bulgaria and be called “Falmis” for short. Thus, starting in 1998, Falmis gradually took over all activities related to contacts between Bulgarians in Banat in the three countries where they live today—Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

For 27 years, all our activities have focused on maintaining the bonds between us, on preserving and developing the spiritual world that has kept our memory and traditions alive and which is within each of us. Because if we lose our identity, then Bulgarian society as a whole will lose an interesting part of itself. One reason is that the Bulgarians in Banat are a community that has preserved an old version of the Bulgarian language, and linguists continue to show unwavering interest in it and in everything that happens in the community in terms of writing and speaking. The other reason is the testimony of a community that has survived for centuries, preserving its Bulgarian identity, separate from the linguistic and spiritual community of the Bulgarian cultural territory.

What are the association’s current activities?

I currently live in Timișoara, I am in Sofia less and less and rarely go to Bulgaria, where the association is based, but that does not prevent me from organizing life there from a distance. The association is mainly involved in organizing events such as book presentations, scientific conferences, concerts, and participation in various celebrations. The most attractive and active sector of its activity is the ensemble, which is currently in a slight stagnation due to the change of artistic director, but we hope that something good awaits us this year. We hope to have a very enthusiastic restart and to make progress in the various dances we perform. Currently, in addition to Bulgarian dances from Banat, we also perform Hungarian and Polish dances. We collaborate very well with the Hungarian Cultural Center and the Polish Cultural Center in Sofia.

Of course, we also dance authentic Bulgarian dances from villages where there are no longer any young people to perform them. This is precisely the mission of the Falmis ensemble—to preserve and be a treasure chest that collects the treasures of folklore that no one else can perform anymore. At the moment, I think we are doing well in this role.

Traditionally, we have adopted January 25 as the birthday of the Falmis concept. According to the Catholic calendar, this is the day of St. Paul’s Conversion. The former Paulicians, now Catholics and Bulgarians in Banat, believe they are somehow connected to St. Paul. That is why we accepted that the date on which the church celebrates his conversion is important for the Bulgarians in Banat. When the first issue of the Falmis newspaper appeared in 1998, we decided that this date was crucial and had many meanings that could be interpreted in different contexts.

For the second year in a row, we have not organized an annual concert, but we will try to ensure that in 2026 there will be various events to remind people again of the Bulgarians in Banat from Bulgaria. I am actively working on my book, which I want to publish this year, so one of the events related to books about the community will be its presentation.

As for the presence of the theme in the scientific field, we have organized three successful conferences over the years. This year, we did not organize a separate conference to celebrate the anniversary of the concept. With a recently launched project, we have united the Bulgarians of Bessarabia and Banat, and in October we will organize a large-scale conference in Sofia. There we will talk about our community in parallel with the Bulgarian community in Bessarabia. This is currently linked to the activities of “Falmis” in the various manifestations of this organization and the various structures it supports.

Research activity

You are also active as a scientist—in fact, you have a doctorate related to the Bulgarian community in Banat. As I understand it, you recently published an article in a Romanian magazine. What have you discovered in terms of science and research on the language, traditions, differences, and religious aspects of the Bulgarians in Banat?

Yes, I embarked on this career and development quite late, because I realized, not without outside help, that if we do not raise the discourse about the Bulgarians in Banat to a level higher than the purely folkloric or ethnographic, we cannot expect other Bulgarians to perceive this community as equal to them. That is why I was a doctoral student at the Institute of Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. My academic supervisor was Prof. Ivan Mladenov, who helped me realize that writing about the community must also involve philosophy and science, so that it can be on an equal footing with all other communities and so that people can gain self-confidence, which will give them a dignified place in today’s world. Scientific activity is also a bridge, because all my efforts are aimed at drawing attention to the Bulgarians in Banat, seeking contacts and communicating with other groups or, in principle, with the entire Bulgarian community.

I am currently participating in two scientific projects funded by the Scientific Research Fund. These are my own initiatives, and I am glad that my colleagues at the Prof. Lyubomir Andreichin Institute of Bulgarian Language at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences have embraced the idea of working with the Bulgarians in Banat and are contributing their knowledge, skills, and scientific research to enriching scientific knowledge about the community. One of the projects is led by Associate Professor Magdalena Abadzieva. It deals with the cultural identity of Bulgarians in Banat and Bulgarian Catholics, especially literature and the written word. The project will last three years and will end in the spring of this year.

The other project started very recently, at the end of 2025, and will last two years – it is about Bulgarians in Bessarabia and Banat. The project is led by senior assistant professor Dr. Tatyana Braga. Again, the field of research is identity, language, culture, traditions, and again, linguists have lent a hand to turn the idea into reality. It is a constant search for bridges of connection with both mother Bulgaria and another historical group—a separate branch of the Bulgarian community, which has its own path of development.

Currently, I have published quite a few articles in various publications and collections, in which I participate together with colleagues from the first project. At the end of 2025, my first publication appeared in a Romanian scientific journal, and this is the first step on this bridge, on which we will seek contacts with Romanian scientists, so that the Bulgarians in Banat, who are aware that they are mediators and intermediaries between countries, can also perceive the scientific path as part of their role as mediators.

Grassroots activity

You have, I would say, an activist approach to the topic of Bulgarians in Banat, because you organize quite a few events and communities. Even now, living in Banat, you often visit Dudeștii Vechi, where various events or initiatives related to you take place. I would like to ask you to tell us more about this activity—the so-called grassroots activity, the activist activity in the field among the Bulgarians in Banat.

Yes, I think we need to work actively with people, because “one swallow does not make a spring.” One person cannot reverse processes through their efforts alone. No matter how hard they try to reach more places, they cannot express what needs to be expressed in every possible way. That is why, regardless of where I have lived over the years – in Bardarski Geran (my native village, which is the largest village of Bulgarians in Banat in Bulgaria), in Sofia or now in Banat – the whole idea of my existence in this world is to involve more people in this cause. I believe that, despite the difficulties, we have also had some good achievements.

Only those who have worked with people know how difficult it is to constantly focus on a single goal and how difficult it is to maintain enthusiasm in a group. There is always fatigue, there is always saturation at certain moments, but we must not forget that the main purpose of this activity is to preserve the language, culture, and self-awareness of more people. Whenever a community follows its path, be it spatial or historical, people get lost. But the goal is to preserve potential, knowledge, and memory so that there are people who can pass on this knowledge to others who will come after us.

That is why the approach I work with may seem activist. It has proven to be effective—I have been doing this for almost 30 years and there are visible results. If we manage to attract more people to this cause, it will only broaden the scope and enrich the process with new qualities.

Culture is a process, and if each of us contributes a particle of our skills and knowledge, it will enrich the whole. If we constantly live with the awareness that ideas must circulate between Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia and that people must live in a virtual community inhabited by language, memory, culture, and thoughts about our common future, then I believe that each of us will have fulfilled our duty.

The Bulgarians in Banat have a particularly developed sense of duty. Each of them believes that they have a mission to do something great for their community. No matter how strange the people in this community may seem, if you get to know them better, you will see that each of them truly believes that they must contribute, through their own abilities, to the common process of preserving memory and language. These are processes that I observe, study, and even try to provoke, because it is not enough to recognize processes and record events. We must be able to provoke such events, bring communities together, and make people think, so that new phenomena can arise in the ferment of thought and dialogue. I am optimistic. I believe that, no matter how difficult it may be to preserve what is most valuable in today’s disintegrated world, people will be able to cope with this transition.

Would you like to say something more specific about the events and activities that you provoke or that are related to you among the Bulgarians in Banat?

I am trying to activate an intellectual circle in Dudeștii Vechi, because that is where the largest compact group of Bulgarians in Banat lives. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a foundation called “PG 33” was established there. “PG 33” stands for “Paulichean Group 33.” Initially, there were 33 members. Their idea was to be a civic association that would serve as a symbolic spiritual opposition to the authorities. They were poets, artists, sculptors, rebels, who even published their own samizdat-style magazine, in three issues. In this magazine, they published not only the organization’s manifestos, but also poems and graphics. They tried to present a modernist trend in culture.

Because the Bulgarians in Banat are very attached to history, folklore, tradition, clothing, and the words of their ancestors are highly valued. It is somewhat difficult for modernist trends, which are normal for the surrounding world, to gain ground. In my opinion, in the 1990s, this foundation represented that modernist rebellion, expressed through graphics and poetry with a very modern sound. And although the foundation has been dissolved and has not been active for 15 years or more, I believe that the idea of such a circle is still viable.

We cannot endlessly create new structures. We need to see what already exists, activate it with the good it has brought, and move forward with it. That is why the idea of a new beginning for PG 33 came about when I came to live in Timișoara. Every Saturday I go to Dudeștii Vechi to meet with a group of people, talk about culture, discuss poetry, historical facts, or personalities. Each of us is free to present a topic we are working on. I believe that such a college (I call it that symbolically), which provokes thought, reads texts, and corrects through questions and opinions, is very useful for the process of thinking in the community and for the emergence of new texts. If there are written texts, it means that care for the language has already been manifested. If a person has written in Banat Bulgarian, it means that they have revived the language within themselves and are able to transpose it into the written word, because writing requires more effort than speaking.

Learning Romanian

When we talk about this connection between different communities and about overcoming cultural, historical, or identity boundaries, we must mention that you are currently learning Romanian. Obviously, some of the bridges will also be to Romanians, insofar as I understand that there are Romanians who want to learn Bulgarian, and you are already teaching them. In addition, you are curious about life and people in Romania. In this regard, what is happening or what is going to happen?

I have always been interested in learning this language, and now I am studying Romanian with great pleasure and perseverance, because I want to integrate into that environment as quickly as possible. I want to feel not only the melody of the language, but also the way of thinking and living in Romania. Since I am researching a community that has lived in this area for so long, I should somehow get closer to the spiritual world in which they live.

At the moment, I cannot say that I speak Romanian fluently, but by the end of this academic year I hope to be able to communicate more freely.

Also, when Romanians show interest in the Bulgarian language, we must show them respect and make an effort to learn their language in order to encourage them to learn ours. I communicate with Bulgarians around Bucharest, in the villages of Popești-Leordeni and Cioplea. There, assimilation is so strong that young Bulgarians no longer know the Bulgarian language. And even for that, I need Romanian. There are Bulgarian Catholics around Bucharest, and in order to understand each other, we often have to resort to English or Romanian. Perhaps if someone learns Romanian and shows that they are making an effort to get closer to them, there will be a reciprocal reaction and they will make an effort to learn Bulgarian.

I currently teach at the West University of Timișoara to ethnic Romanians who have nothing to do with Bulgaria, but are happy to learn Bulgarian. I hope that this interest will lead to more contacts with Bulgaria, to a better understanding between the two peoples, and who knows what else will happen.

Academic ties

As far as I know, you have ties with at least two academic institutions – the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the West University of Timișoara, and perhaps even more. Could your experience at the West University be useful for establishing academic ties, cooperation, and interaction between institutions in Bulgaria and Romania?

Of course, all these contacts here at the West University are aimed at seeking such academic partnerships. I work for the Institute of Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and for the West University. These are the official institutions, but I also participate in initiatives of other structures.

For example, in the fall, there will be a conference at the Academy of Music, Dance, and Fine Arts in Plovdiv. Researchers from the West University of Timișoara will now also participate in this conference, which I will attend for the third or fourth time. This is a sign of the bridge that has already been built between ethnologists, musicologists, and literary researchers—between people who are involved in science, study the communities in Banat, and seek channels for art. This is the most important communication—to join forces in this field of research.

The fact that the Romanian Academy in Bucharest has also shown interest in my article on the translation of Mihai Eminescu’s most famous poem, Hyperion (known in Bulgaria in various translations), is revealing. Gjuka Ghergulov from Dudeștii Vechi, one of the Bulgarian poets from Banat, translated this poem into the Bulgarian language of Banat, and quite well. Interest in such literary facts, translations, and fusions between cultures is the path along which communication in the scientific and cultural sphere can advance. These are bridges over which the spiritual wealth of Bulgarian and Romanian thought can flow. All our individual attempts to contribute to this process, if linked to the attempts of other people, will increase the network of influence and the results of this communication.

Greeting

We are at the beginning of 2026. Would you like to send a greeting to the listeners and readers of the media that will publish this interview, in the language, dialect, and norms of the Bulgarians of Banat, which I know you speak very well?

Kača idna ud banatskite balgare išta da puzdravem sate hora ud našta obštnust, kujatu ij razsipana pu celija svet, ama ne zabravla, či ij balgarska obštnust. Through you, I want to preserve the awareness that we are Bulgarians, that we preserve our language and traditions, and that we are who we are. I want more people—both here and abroad—to understand how I feel. In this world, it is not important to have a job, it is not important to have material possessions, but you have to live with something, something spiritual, that connects you to people all over the world.

[As one of the Bulgarian women in Banat, I would like to greet all the people in our community, which is spread all over the world but never forgets that it is a Bulgarian community. Over the years, they have preserved the awareness that they are Bulgarian, that they preserve their language and traditions, and all this makes us who we are. I would like more people—both our own and those around us—to understand why we do all this. That in this world it is not just about having something to eat, it is not just about having material things, but you have to live with something spiritual that connects you to people all over the world.]

Read more on Banat Bulgarians

Svetlana Karadjova: I teach Bulgarian in Timișoara to create connections and build a community

Marius Oanță: We can talk about a revival of Bulgarian identity in Romania

Photo: Svetlana Karadjova (source: Facebook/Светлана Караджова [Svetlana Karadjova])

Subscribe to the channel of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” in YouTube, where a number of video and audio interviews are published! The blog can also be followed in Facebook and Twitter. Its Telegram channel is here. And here is its Substack account.

About Author