The Bulgarian Gendarmerie' (Жандармерия – ''Zhandarmeriya'') is part of the

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...

n Ministry of Internal Affairs or "MIA". (Bulgarian: ''"Министерство на вътрешните работи"'' or "МВР", pronounced ''

evere Evere (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region ( Belgium). On 1 January 2006, the municipality had a total population of 33,462. The total area is which gives a population density of . In common with all of Brussels' ...

'). It forms part of the country's National Police Service. The Genderarmerie originated from the Interior Troops of the MIA after the transition period from a socialist regime to democracy between 1989 and 1991. It was organised as a National Service "Gendarmerie", equal in status and independent from the National Service "Police". It was a militarized

special police Special police usually describes a police force or unit within a police force whose duties and responsibilities are significantly different from other forces in the same country or from other police in the same force, although there is no consiste ...

force, deployed to secure important facilities and buildings, to respond to riots, and to counter militant threats. Its agents are trained to operate in both urban and wilderness environments so as to be able to carry out a wide range of duties. For riot duty the commandos are equipped with Makarov 9x18 pistols, protective gear, gas grenades, police sticks and

non-lethal weapon Non-lethal weapons, also called nonlethal weapons, less-lethal weapons, less-than-lethal weapons, non-deadly weapons, compliance weapons, or pain-inducing weapons are weapons intended to be less likely to kill a living target than conventional ...

s. When performing high-risk tactical operations they are armed with 5.45x39mm

AKS-74 The AK-74 (Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet U ...

U rifles, which are specialized versions of the original Kalashnikov assault rifle. The Gendarmerie was meant to be a force structure intermediate between the army and the police which has military status. The service members had military-style ranks from sergeant to

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

, following a system used throughout the Bulgarian police forces. The overall commander of the force was usually a Major General. The reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 2012 has the service disbanded and its manpower and equipment absorbed into the Police with a change in the naming from ''Gendarmerie'' to ''Specialized Police Forces'' (, erroneously translated into English as Special Police Forces, which could be seen on some of the daily attire of its service members). The name change was reverted to Gendarmerie in 2014, but the service did not regain its separate status and it remained a part of the Main Directorate of National Police (''Главна дирекция "Национална полиция"'').

Current structure

After the latest reform of the service its members no longer hold military-style ranks, having transferred to the uniform ranking system of the police. At the head of the Gendarmerie is a director with the two-star rank of a senior commissary, aided by a deputy director with the rank of a commissary (corresponding to an army colonel). * Central apparatus: ** Administrative and Training Sector ** Sector for Protection of Banking and High Security Institutions ** Sector for Organization of Protective Measures ** Commandature Sector * Territorial organization. Each zone department is headed by a chief inspector (lieutenant-colonel equivalent). The only exception is the ZGD Sofia, as it manpower almost equals the other seven ZGDs combined and is therefore headed by a commissar (a colonel equivalent): ** Zone Gendarmerie Department Sofia ** Zone Gendarmerie Department Pleven ** Zone Gendarmerie Department Plovdiv ** Zone Gendarmerie Department Montana ** Zone Gendarmerie Department Kardzhali ** Zone Gendarmerie Department

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...

** Zone Gendarmerie Department Varna ** Zone Gendarmerie Department

Gorna Oryahovitsa Gorna Oryahovitsa ( bg, Горна Оряховица ) is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, town in northern Bulgaria, situated in Veliko Tarnovo Province, from Veliko Tarnovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Gorna Orya ...

The Gendarmerie units are a high-readiness operational reserve of the Bulgarian police, held centrally under the command of Main Directorate of National Police. Each of the provincial directorates of the National Police has a similarly equipped and tasked Specialized Police Forces unit and these number from over 530 (in Sofia's metropolitan police department SDVR) to as few as a squad of less than 10 people in most provincial ODMVR departments. These units are visually similar to the Gendarmerie and function in a similar manner, but locally for their respective territorial departments. A current reform plan of the government (as of 2020) calls for the integration of the Ministry's primary counter-terror unit – the

SOBT The SOBT ( Bulgarian: Специализиран отряд за борба с тероризма; English: Specialized Force for Combating Terrorism) is a Bulgarian counter-terrorism unit, specialized in unconventional warfare and special operati ...

and the Gendarmerie Directorate into a new Main Directorate of Gendarmerie, Special Operations and Counter-Terror (''Жандармерия, специални операции и борба с тероризма" - ГДЖСОБТ'') (in a manner similar to the amalgamation of the French Gendarmerie's GIGN and territorial quick reaction units). The plan has encountered serious criticism from within and without the Ministry of the Interior, political parties and security, public order and counter-terror experts.

References

External links

Chief Directorate "Gendarmerie" on the website of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulgarian Gendarmerie Gendarmerie Gendarmerie Gendarmerie