Language Research

Updated (March 2003)

THE MACEDONIAN MINORITY

The Bulgarian government has continuously restricted a number of fundamental rights of the Macedonian minority, either through outright discrimination or uneven application of the laws, which on their surface do not seem to discriminate against the Macedonians.

Besides Turks and Roma, other minorities did not have a chance to declare their ethnic identity in the 2001 Census. The state refused to recognize its sizeable Macedonian minority (in 1992, 10,800 people) and used the census to promote its official attitude that the members of this group are ethnic Bulgarians. Various radio and TV stations promoted the notion that Bulgaria is largely a homogenous country and people should identify themselves as Bulgarians.

The United Macedonian Organization (OMO Ilinden) was unable to counter this view because their access to the media has been denied. Instead they printed and distributed throughout the Region of Pirin almost 80,000 flyers stating that people have the right to declare themselves as ethnic Macedonians and should not fear persecution. Several Bulgarian lawyers were consulted and even though they said that the flyers were legal, the police and Bulgarian media started a campaign to frighten the Macedonian population by claiming that the leaders of OMO Ilinden Pirin will be charged and jailed.

The only Macedonian newspaper in Bulgaria, "Narodna Volya," is published in Blagoevgrad, in both the Bulgarian and Macedonian languages. This newspaper has its subscribers also in Macedonia; however, they have not received their copies since August 2001. The Editor-in-Chief filed complaints against the post office and the police in Blagoevgrad but the problem has not been solved yet.

Source: MHRMC (Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada) 2001 Annual Report, the Macedonian Minority in Bulgaria, January 21, 2002, http://www.mhrmc.ca/reports/b01.html

THE USE OF LANGUAGE IN PRISONS AND ADMINISTRATION

One serious problem that arose after 1990 was enforcement of Article 33 of the Law on the Executions of Sentences. All prisoners were forced to speak only Bulgarian with their relatives during the family visits even though their command of the Bulgarian language was poor. This hampered communication and sometimes led to the conflicts between prisoners and guards.

There is no legal provision prohibiting the use of minority languages in contacts with the administrative authorities. In oral communication, Turkish is often used in the municipalities having Turkish officials. All written documents; however, are in Bulgarian as a matter of custom and because the subsequent court procedures must be carried on in Bulgarian.

LOCAL NAMES

The Turkish minority, but in fact also all other minorities have had problems to display traditional local names, street names and other topographical indications intended for the public in their language. The procedure and requirements for naming and renaming of the objects is established by the Decree 1315 from 1975, which is still in force. According to this decree, names of the objects with a national significance (mountains, rivers, forests, lakes, islands, national parks, big dams, etc.) are given by the President of the Republic and names of the objects with a local significance (streets, gardens, schools, neighborhoods, etc.) are given by the Municipal Councils. One of the requirements is that the names must "reflect the wealth and beauty of the Bulgarian language" (Article 4). This Article blocked several times municipal decisions to rename a local object in the region populated by ethnic Turks.

Source: Minority Rights in Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, September 1999, http://www.ihf-hr.org/reports/Minoroties/Bulgariafin.pdf

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Updated (September 2006)

A fact-finding mission of representatives of the European Free Alliance (EFA) party has been held in Bulgaria to witness how the country deals with the issue of Macedonians living on its territory. The mission revealed that Bulgaria is continuously failing to comply with international accords concerning human rights and the protection of ethnic and linguistic minorities, while historic-based propaganda is used to justify a hostile attitude towards the Macedonian minority.

According to Guenther Dauwen, the Party's co-director, the situation of Macedonian minority there resembles that in Greece; Bulgaria recognizes no separate Macedonian nation or language and puts all sorts of obstacles in order to avoid electoral participation of Macedonian political parties. For example, Bulgaria changed the law for the formation of a legal political party. Now 5,000 signatures are required for the official application instead of 500 in the past.

OMO Ilinden Pirin, the organization for Macedonians in Bulgaria, and EFA observer member, is so far the only victim of the 5,000-quota policy; they also face hostile Bulgarian authorities and press. Stojan Georgiev, the Vice President of OMO Ilinden Pirin, told the delegation that after a request to host an event in the city of Blagoevgrad/Gorna Dzumaja, the mayor replied that they should go to Macedonia to do it.

According to OMO Ilinden Pirin, the mainstream media often use defamatory statements when referring to the Macedonians in Bulgaria. EFA were told during the visit that there were reports that OMO Ilinden Pirin tried to "bribe" Roma and Turks in the city of Goce Delcev with 50 Leva (24 Euro) in order to collect the necessary amount of signatures for the registration of the party. Georgiev categorically rejected these allegations, pointing to the miserable financial situation of the party and its members and urged EFA to intervene so that the EU makes the recognition of the Macedonian minority conditional to Bulgaria's EU accession.

Source: Eurolang News, September 20, 2006 by Georgios N. Papadakis http://www.eurolang.net/

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Updated (January 2008)

MACEDONIAN MINORITY CALLS ON INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTION TO INTERVENE

Members of the OMO Ilinden organization have called on the Macedonian authorities and European institutions to protect the Macedonian minority against the Bulgarian assimilation.

OMO Ilinden chairman, Jordan Kostadinov, declares that no one opposes Bulgaria for its violation of the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The Macedonian Kanal5 TV reported that Bulgaria had refused to register OMO Ilinden-Pirin party, mobilized police to stop meetings of Macedonians who are deprived of their right to learn their mother tongue, which Bulgaria considers a dialect of the Bulgarian language.

Mr. Kostadinov also said that it is important that both Macedonia and international institutions intervene to change the situation.

Source: Focus News Agency, January 30, 2008 http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n132579

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