Turkey sending Turkish textbooks to Bulgaria

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 07:50:31 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Turkey sending Turkish textbooks to Bulgaria

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

Turkey sending Turkish textbooks to Bulgaria


TURKEY SENDING TURKISH TEXTBOOKS TO BULGARIA
 
ISTANBUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday it would send tens
of thousands of Turkish-language schoolbooks to neighbouring Bulgaria
for the ethnic Turkish minority there. Bulgaria's ethnic Turks make up
nearly 10 percent of its population and were the source of deep
tensions between the two countries in the 1980s when, under Communist
dictator Todor Zhivkov, the ethnic Turks were forced to adopt Slav
names amid curbs on Muslim religious freedom. Rights were restored
after the Bulgarian overthrow of Communist rule in 1989 and relations
are now warmer. Many ethnic Turks who fled to Turkey have since
returned. The donation of text books was organised by Abdulhaluk Cay,
a state minister and member of the far-right Turkish nationalist wing
of the coalition government. The minister said in a statement it was
part of a continuing programme.
 
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.

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