Mayor of Moldova's Taraclia expects deeper cooperation with Bulgarian authorities

80 percent of the city's population are ethnic Bulgarians

published on 3/10/25 3:55 PM

Vyacheslav Lupov

Photo: Private archive

Nearly 80% of the population of the Moldovan city of Taraclia are ethnic Bulgarians. Historically, the city was founded in the early 19th century by Bulgarian settlers as a result of the series of Russo-Turkish wars.

The current mayor of the city, Vyacheslav Lupov, was born in the capital Chisinau, but he is a Bessarabian Bulgarian who cares about preserving the self-awareness of the Bulgarians in the Taraclia region and the city’s more active cooperation with the Bulgarian authorities. In 2023, he begins his second term as mayor, but admits that he has great difficulty communicating with the Moldovan authorities. The reason is political – he won his first term as a candidate for an opposition party in Moldova, and this one as an independent candidate. However, in both votes, he received significant support from his fellow citizens. ‎

Forum of the mayors of Balkan cities B40 in 2025

Vyacheslav Lupov was among the special guests at the B40 forum of Balkan cities in Sofia. The mayor of Taraclia also used the time to meet with representatives of the legislative and executive branches in Bulgaria to whom he raised the issue of the expected financing of a Bulgarian Cultural Center. A decision to build one has already been made by the Bulgarian government. In an interview with Radio Bulgaria, Vyacheslav Lupov expressed hope for more active cooperation with the Bulgarian authorities. According to him, the Bulgarian embassy in Chisinau deals primarily with politics, which hinders normal communication with Bulgarian citizens seeking assistance from them. ‎

Mayors from Balkan countries gather at B40 forum in Sofia

Following an agreement signed between the governments of Bulgaria and Moldova last summer, the Grigoriy Tsamblak State University in Taraclia operates as a branch of the Angel Kanchev University of Ruse. In this way, a large number of Moldovan citizens of Bulgarian origin from the Taraclia region and Gagauzia were given the opportunity to access Bulgarian higher education. The training is in specialties from seven professional fields of the University of Ruse: "Pedagogy of Education", "Administration and Management", "Informatics and Computer Science", "Mechanical Engineering", "Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation", "Communication and Computer Engineering" and "General Engineering". However, there are problems:

Grigoriy Tsamblak State University of Taraclia

"You know that half of the funding has been coming from Bulgaria for quite some time. In addition, this is the only university in Moldova where students receive a double scholarship - from both Moldova and Bulgaria. At the same time, however, it is not in demand at all. About 160-200 students study there per year, which is very few", the mayor of Taraclia told Radio Bulgaria. "Because for a long time, professions that are not in demand by children have been taught there, instead of introducing professions that are in demand, for some reason this is not being done. We strongly hope that the leadership will change and I think that then it has every chance of becoming one of the most popular universities in Moldova. Because if education at this university will be recognized in European countries, this will be a great prerequisite for young people to study there." ‎

Currently, the specialties at the University of Taraclia are for a social worker, folk dance teacher, folk music teacher. IT specialists are also being trained in part-time form and the training is in Bulgarian, explains Lupov and adds:‎

University of Taraclia marking March 3, Bulgaria's National Day of Liberation

‎"There is no problem speaking Bulgarian. Almost everyone there, including the young people, speaks Bulgarian. I arrived in Taraclia six years ago and I didn't know it at all. Now at least I understand it because I communicate with the people. Bulgaria has long provided Bulgarian language teachers who work in schools and kindergartens, and Bulgarian is taught in universities."‎

In addition to being the mayor of the city, Vyacheslav Lupov is also a businessman who is trying to contribute to the improvement of Taraclia. As such, he often faces various obstacles from the Moldovan authorities and gives an example with the reconstruction of the Museum of Cultural Heritage in the city:

"We won the European Village project in Moldova. This is money that is borrowed from Europe and is distributed among the settlements that win the projects. Last year we won, literally today a tender procedure for the interior design of this museum began. The problem is that the projects do not reach us. I say again - this is about politics, because I am from the opposition, from the wrong party. This project was given to us only because it is so big and serious and we are actually implementing it so that they can show the Europeans - look, we are doing something."

There is an idea for the Museum of Cultural Heritage to be part of a larger ethno-cultural complex, also including a theater that works entirely at the expense of the city, a hotel, craft workshops, restaurants with Bulgarian national cuisine and a small chapel, so that this becomes a small Bulgaria on the territory of Moldova.

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Photos: private archive, BTA, tdu-tar.md, Facebook/Museum of Cultural Heritage Taraclia

English publication by Rositsa Petkova

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