{"id":1244,"date":"2010-01-01T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T09:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/uncategorized\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-november-21\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T09:59:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:59:03","slug":"on-this-day-in-bulgaria-november-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-november-21\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in Bulgaria: November 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>November 21, 1912 \u2014 Drazki Torpedoes the Ottoman Cruiser Hamidiye<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On November 21, 1912, during the First Balkan War, the Bulgarian torpedo boat <em>Drazki<\/em> struck the Ottoman protected cruiser <em>Hamidiye<\/em> in the Battle of Kaliakra. The action took place in the Black Sea and became one of the most celebrated episodes in Bulgarian naval history. Although Bulgaria\u2019s navy was small, the attack showed that lighter vessels could threaten a much larger warship when used boldly and at close range. <em>Hamidiye<\/em> survived, but the hit damaged Ottoman naval prestige and gave Bulgaria a powerful symbol of courage at sea. The name <em>Drazki<\/em>, meaning \u201cDaring,\u201d became especially fitting after the battle, and the vessel later became a museum ship, preserving the memory of Bulgaria\u2019s early 20th-century naval service.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>November 21, 2002 \u2014 NATO Invites Bulgaria to Accession Talks<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On November 21, 2002, at the NATO Summit in Prague, Bulgaria was invited to begin accession negotiations with the Alliance, together with Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The invitation marked a major foreign-policy milestone after the end of communist rule. During the 1990s, Bulgaria had gradually reoriented its security policy toward Euro-Atlantic integration, while reforming its armed forces and political institutions. The Prague decision confirmed that this long process had reached a decisive stage. Bulgaria formally joined NATO in 2004, but the invitation in 2002 was the turning point that made membership practically certain. It also placed Bulgaria within the wider post-Cold War enlargement of NATO, reshaping the country\u2019s strategic position in Europe and the Black Sea region.<\/p>\n<p>Continue with <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-november-20\/\">November 20<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-november-22\/\">November 22<\/a>. For more stories and places, explore <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/category\/from-above\/\">Bulgaria From Above<\/a> and the guides in our <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/category\/bulgaria\/\">Bulgaria<\/a> category on <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/\">Bronicable<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this day in Bulgarian history: Drazki torpedoed the Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye in 1912, and NATO invited Bulgaria to accession talks in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-this-day-in-bulgaria","latest_post"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On 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