Karen Alexanyan, the businessman from Armenia who fell in love with Bulgaria’s alphabet, culture and history

published on 7/3/23 1:43 PM

Photo: courtesy of Karen Alexanyan

At first glance nothing unusual – a foreigner visits Bulgaria, meets his partner here, and decides to stay. That is how, exactly 30 years ago, a businessman from Armenia came to Bulgaria for a week, after which his life took a completely different turn. Karen Alexanyan settled in Bulgaria in 1993. Here he got married, but he also became a fervent admirer of the Bulgaria’s alphabet, history and culture, and has been doing his best to popularize it around the world. In 2015, Alexanyan bought some land, and himself financed the so-called yard of the Cyrillic alphabet – a cultural and historical complex in Pliska near the town of Shumen.

He later created a writers’ lane there, featuring Bulgarian writers, but also authors from other countries writing in the Cyrillic alphabet.

“Nobody knows who created the Greek alphabet, but we do know the Cyrillic alphabet was created by saints – the disciples of the brothers Cyril and Methodius,” says Karen Alexanyan.

Today, these letters are used by approximately 250 million people in the world. In the 8 years since it has existed, the Yard of the Cyrillic Alphabet has been visited by more than 200,000 people from the country and abroad.

“All guests who have been shown and told the facts now have a much greater respect for Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people. I have not been given any help, not even moral support by any Bulgarian institution,” he says. Otherwise Karen Alexanyan is holder of a number of distinctions in this country and abroad, nevertheless he has been living in Bulgaria on a permanent residence status for 30 years. For this reason, Bulgarian public figures and citizens set up a committee which quickly gained public support, and in April 2021, submitted an application to the president of Bulgaria for granting Karen Alexanyan Bulgarian citizenship. Throughout all of these years he has never submitted such an application because of the red tape, and because, as he himself says of the “bureaucratic arbitrariness” that many like him have encountered when they have come to Bulgaria:

“This is a success for the Bulgarian citizenry, because people prevailed over the administration, and thanks to them I was given Bulgarian citizenship (in June, 2023). All foreigners who apply have to wait for 4-6 years. A group of intellectuals and a petition signed by more than 10,000 supported my application for citizenship, and still the entire process took more than 2 years. So, what can ordinary people expect? That is why the law must change. Bulgarian citizenship should be given quickly as a priority to Bessarabian Bulgarians because they get Romanian citizenship much more quickly.”

Karen Alexanyan has a special place in his heart for Pliska, and he says the town carries the memory of the country in the very first centuries of its existence.

“Now, all together we should popularize that town because it is the true face of Bulgaria. It is now time to make every effort for the restoration of the Grand Basilica in Pliska, it is the mother of the Bulgarian church.”