have imposed no serious
economic hardship on any significant group of people. They also contain
a large percentage of the Bulgarian people, although numerous population
resettlement movements have contributed to this end. None of its borders
are officially disputed.

The total boundary of Bulgaria is about 1,415 miles long. Rivers account
for about 425 miles of it, the Black Sea coast for 248 miles, and a
great portion of the remainder adheres to ridges in high terrain.

The western and northern boundaries are shared with Yugoslavia and
Romania, respectively, and the Black Sea coastline constitutes the
entire eastern border. The southern boundary is shared with Greece and
Turkey.

Nationalists have territorial ambitions stemming from the size of the
Middle Ages Bulgarian empire that encompassed about one-half of the
Balkan Peninsula but, in the local political climate that has existed
since World War II, such ambitions are not seriously considered.

The post-World War I boundaries were established in rough detail by the
Treaty of Peace between the Allied and associated powers and Bulgaria,
signed in 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine. They were demarcated by
international commissions between 1919 and 1922, formalized by the
Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, and reconfirmed by the Treaty of Paris in
1947.

During World War II, again as an ally of Germany, Bulgaria briefly
reacquired the coveted portions of Macedonia and Thrace, but the
interwar boundaries were restored without much deliberation in 1947 with
the agreement of the Soviet Union as well as all of the other major
victorious allies. Small deviations from the borders established in the
early 1920s have been made for local reasons, but none of them have been
of national significance.

The 335-mile border with Yugoslavia was drawn in an attempt to follow
the high ridges separating the watersheds of the Morava and Vardar river
valleys in Yugoslavia from those of the Iskur and Struma valleys in
Bulgaria. The border starts in the north at the junction of the Timok
River and the Danube, but it follows the river for only about ten miles.
Leaving the Timok (with a few exceptions when it must cross river
valleys), it remains on high ground until it reaches the tripoint with
Greece. Although nationalist Bulgarians continue to feel that Bulgaria's
share of Macedonia--which it shares with both Yugoslavia and Greece--is
less than just, there are no overt official disputes of the bo