Turkish leader praises Bulgarian minority policy

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Subject: Turkish leader praises Bulgarian minority policy

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

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Turkish leader praises Bulgarian minority policy


Turkish Daily News
21 May, 1999
 
Turkish leader praises Bulgarian minority policy
 
The political leader of the ethnic Turks in Bulgaria has praised the
Bulgarian government's treatment of minorities, the Anatolia news
agency reported.
 
"The Bulgarian model on ethnic minorities should be an example for all
countries, particularly Yugoslavia," Ahmet Dogan, the leader of the
Movement for Rights and Freedom (HOH), said in the southern Bulgarian
town of Jebel.
 
Dogan was speaking at a commemoration ceremony organized to mark the
10th anniversary of the beginning of Bulgaria's ethnic Turks'
resistance movement to the then Communist regime which had stripped
them of all cultural and religious rights in a severe assimilation
campaign.
 
Despite praising the approach of the Bulgarian government, Dogan said
that regions with predominant Turkish population were being
discriminated economically.
 
"Nobody can guarantee the ethnic peace if investments are not made in
these regions," Dogan warned.

Although in jail at the time, Dogan was the mastermind of the May 1989
protests which the Turks launched against the Communist regime. The
protest resulted in a massive exodus of Turks to Turkey and the
consequent collapse of Communism in Bulgaria.
 
The assimilation campaign against the Turks, which started in 1984,
brought Turkey and Bulgaria to the brink of war at the time.
 
Bulgaria's liberal President Petar Stoyanov apologized for the
atrocities during an official visit to Ankara in 1997.
 
The meeting in Jebel was attended by 3,000 people, including Turkish
and Macedonian ambassadors to Sofia, Tahsin Burcuoglu and Nikola
Todorchevski. Representatives of the Turkish communities in Macedonia,
Greece and Romania were also present.
 
The commemorations were expected to continue on Thursday evening with
a conference in the northeast city of Shumen. President Stoyanov was
expected to deliver the opening speech of the conference titled
"Minority problems and the Bulgarian model for their solution."
 
Copyright c Turkish Daily News

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