Restoring the Ethnolinguistic Rights of Bulgaria's Turkish Minority

Abstract

This article presents a fairly detailed account of the positive changes in restoring the ethnolinguistic rights of Bulgaria's Turkish minority since the post-10 November 1989 reversal of former Communist leader Todor Zhivkov's policy of cultural-linguistic assimilation. In spite of strong opposition and nationwide protests by various nationalist parties and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of ordinary Bulgarians, gone are the worst abuses of the Zhivkov era, such as the government's prohibition of ethnic Turks speaking Turkish in public, learning their ancestral language in school, bearing Muslim names, performing Turkish folk music and dance, or having access to periodicals, books, radio and TV programs in Turkish.