125 years adoption of the Tarnovska constitution

With the adoption of the Turnovo Constitution on April 16, 1879, by the Constituent Assembly, the Bulgarians made their European civilization choice after nearly five centuries of oppression and deprivation of rights under the despotic rule of the Ottoman Empire, foreign to their democratic traditions and Christian culture.

The Constitution, which the Bulgarians adopted then, is assessed as one of the most democratic in Europe at the time. Its final version by far surpassed the initial draft in democratism and progressiveness, even though the draft itself was thought by the conservative circles to be very bold as it contained the presumption that the newly liberated Bulgarians will be able to build their state without falling under foreign dependence and without abusing or distorting the great rights and freedoms they had gained. The makers of the Turnovo Constitution, who after long and hot debates formulated a basic law of markedly liberal democratic character, drew on the constitutional experience of the most advanced countries in Europe and America and the theoretical knowledge in the field of constitutional law of eminent jurists from West European countries and Russia. But despite this copious theoretical basis, as contemporary researchers of constitutionalism in Bulgaria noted, the Turnovo Constitution would not have reached this perfection if the Bulgarians did not want it and were not ready for it long before their liberation.

At the Church Council in Istanbul in 1871 the Bulgarians manifested their democratic traditions in the discussions of important decisions in the interest of their common affairs. The assembly at Oborishte in 1876 which, applying the basic principles of parlamentarism, voted the historical decision the Bulgarians to rise in an armed rebellion to restore their state, is rightfully considered to be the immediate predecessor of the Constituent Assembly. The political program of the Bulgarian Central Revolutionary Committee, drawn at a national convention and sent to the Istanbul Ambassadorial Conference, said that Bulgaria has to be liberated and gain its political independence, and expressly pointed out that the future free Bulgarian state must have a constitutional form of government, elected by the people: “The Bulgarian state shall be governed independently under a constitution drawn by a legislative body elected by the people.”

When on April 16, 1879, the deputies unanimously signed the Turnovo Constitution, they were all convinced they had done their duty to their motherland and remained faithful to the legacy of the functionaries of the Bulgarian national liberation movement by creating a Constitution that opened broad horizons for quick restoration and development of the Bulgarian state system on the basis of constitutionalism, parlamentarism and democratic values.

This is also today’s assessment of the maturity of the Bulgarian society and above all the Bulgarian intelligentsia, of its political maturity and good knowledge of world tendencies in the field of civil society and the structure of the modern national state. The Bulgarian deputies in the Constituent Assembly in Turnovo had the necessary preparation for public and political life, general education and adequate knowledge of the structure and government of a modern state to lay down in the basic law of their newly liberated homeland those constitutional principles which laid the foundations of the political and legal europeization of Bulgaria and cleared the road to civil society and parliamentary democracy under the supremacy of the law.

According to the way of election, the constitutors gathered in Turnovo were of four kinds:

• deputies by right of their position, namely clergymen, members of the Supreme Court, chairmen of provincial, district and trade courts, members of the administrative provincial, district and town councils;


• deputies elected by the districts of the five provinces in the Principality, one for every 10,000 men;


• representatives of institutions and societies, including the Bulgarian communities in Vienna, Odessa, Braila and Kishinev;


• deputies appointed by the Russian Emperor’s Commissioner.

However, deputies who arrived in Turnovo from Eastern Rumelia, Macedonia, Breznik and other places within the bounderies of Turkey did not qualify for participation in the Constituent Assembly.

The initial draft of the Turnovo Constitution was made by the office of the Russian Commissioner with the assistance of his legal adviser Lukiyanov and the participation of many Bulgarians who had obtained their education in law and other social sciences in European universities and at Robert College.

The initial draft, as Dondukov-Korsakov wrote in one of his official reports, “resembled a modified form of the organic statute of the Serbian Principality of 1869”. Tabled in the Constituent Assembly, this draft underwent considerable changes with amendments borrowed mostly from the Belgian constitution. In the adopted Turnovo Constitution influences from other modern constitutions can also be discerned, including some texts from the basic laws of the neighbourly Balkan states of Romania and Greece.

The draft was sent to Petersburg for approval where some changes were made in it. The text returned from Petersburg was entered for discussion and adoption in the Constituent Assembly which opened its session on February 10, 1879. This draft contained 170 articles divided in 22 chapters. It settled the constitutional-monarchical government of the Bulgarian Principality, placed in vassal relations to Turkey. The Prince’s dignity, according to the draft, was hereditary for the descendants of the first elected Prince. The National Assembly was not entirely elective but was formed by three categories of persons: a) by right of position; b) appointed by the Prince; c) elected deputies. In addition, it was deprived of legislative initiative, and its chairman and underchairman were appointed by the Prince. The draft also envisaged the formation of a State Council.

The Constituent Assembly elected a 15-member committee to study the draft and prepare a report on it. Shortly the committee was ready with its report and submitted it for discussion. It contained two proposals – the introduction of electoral qualification and the setting up of a senate – which were rejected.

If we juxtapose the draft statute, the committee report and the final text of the adopted Constitution, we will see that they differ considerably.

Instead of the proposed partial electiveness of deputies, appointed governing body and deprivation of legislative initiative, the Constituent Assembly adopted general suffrage, entirely elective national assembly with elective governing body, legislative initiative and the right to inquire into the work of the executive power.

Under the Berlin Peace Treaty of 1878, Bulgaria was to have a monarchical form of government and therefore the question of monarchy or a republic was not subject of discussion at the Constituent Assembly. But the Bulgarian deputies adopted a constitution which made the state a parliamentary-constitutional monarchy with broadest political rights of the citizens, freedom of the press, general suffrage, etc. In the final version of the constitution, the Bulgarian legislators gathered in Turnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, skillfully combined the most progressive achievements of constitutionalism and the egalitarian ideas and democratic traditions of the Bulgarians.

The Turnovo Constitution affirmed the division of powers into legislative, executive and judicial. It granted the Prince (Tsar) broad prerogatives in the three powers. He was also to appoint the government. Hence the executive power could influence the other two powers, but the Constitution also laid down the responsibilities of the government. The Bulgarian deputies had long debates on the rights and prerogatives of the government and the need of a strong executive power in the initial period of building up the Bulgarian state. A special report of the parliamentary committee reads: “Now we need a constitution that would guarantee the rights of the people, lay down solid foundations of a freedom-loving development and at the same time give full power to the government within its competence.” The deputies were allowed legislative initiative. They would not only discuss and vote bills but could themselves propose bills for discussion and adoption by the National Assembly. While parliament is sitting, they would have immunity – penal non-liability. General suffrage was introduced for all men without restriction.

In the field of the judiciary, the Constitution provided for the setting up of civil, martial and religious courts but did not allow extraordinary courts. The Turnovo Constitution affirmed the legal equality of all citizens and prohibited the division of society into strata, nobility titles and privileges.

The Bulgarian deputies decided that no one can claim privileges, consequently there can be no privileged delegation. A new text was introduced that “nobility titles and other distinctions, orders also, cannot exist in the Bulgarian Principality”. An opportunity was only left for the Prince to establish an insignia but only for military men during war. On the same grounds the constitutors rejected the proposal for a two-chamber parliament. Conservatives insisted on a senate, to make a final inspection of the bills passed in the lower chamber. They also proposed the introduction of property and educational qualification, but the liberal views prevailed and finally the deputies voted a constitutional text on a unicameral structure of the Bulgarian parliament. It should be noted that in this epoch unicameral parliaments were still a rarity in parliamentary practice.