Nationalism versus multiculturalism: the minority issue in twenty-first-century Bulgaria

Abstract

The paper negotiates ideas, views and beliefs of Bulgarians towards the ethnic minorities of their country published in the Bulgarian press during the period of 2005–2009. Through these aspects it becomes clear that three years after Bulgaria's accession to the European Union and despite various state attempts to integrate minorities – mostly initiated and funded by the EU and various governmental and non-governmental organizations – prejudice and racism have not been overcome, the Other is still differentiated and the way to multiculturalism is very long. The research field is limited to the Turkish and the Roma minorities, which are “visible” in the sense that they are officially recognized.

Keywords:

• Bulgaria
• ethnic minorities
• Roma
• Turks
• nationalism
• multiculturalism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the journal editor Professor Florian Bieber and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and valuable suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

Both the Bulgarian political leadership and intelligentsia, by making reference to scientific data, claim that the Macedonian minority is a figment of the imagination and the product of the expansionist aspirations of the neighboring Republic of Macedonia. In their view, a Macedonian nation does not exist even beyond the borders of the Bulgarian territory; it is a contrivance that serves purely political interests, since all the Slavic populations of Macedonia have been established as being of Bulgarian descent. Similarly, the dominant view on the Pomaks is that they are Bulgarians – as indicated by the language they speak – who were converted to Islam over the five centuries of Ottoman rule. See Rechel 90–95, 102–06.

It should be noted that there are limited references to minorities in the Bulgarian press, a thing that reflects their position in Bulgarian society as well as the inclinations of the ethnic majority towards them.

The articles presented and analyzed in this category appeared on the website Novinite.com (The News) and the newspaper Duma (Word), also available on the Web. Given the scarcity of signed articles expressing views about minorities, the two media were selected as data sources for the following reasons: (1) Since Novinite (the Sofia News Agency), a free-access website initiated in 2001, is Bulgaria's largest English-language news provider directed at a global audience, it supposedly echoes and is addressed to a “progressive” section of Bulgarian society. In this way, it is easier to trace new trends, if any, concerning opinions about minorities. (2) In order to counterbalance such approaches, a more “traditional” political newspaper was accessed, i.e. Duma, affiliated with the Socialists.

Most of the articles of both the second and third categories are published in various major Bulgarian newspapers. However, citations are made only to Novinite and Duma, as the data sources play little role in their evaluation.

The Bulgarian name for the Romani people is Cigani, which has derogatory connotations. However, all the authors cited in this paper use the politically correct word Romi (Roma).

The abstract noun of the Cigani which the author made up.

The title To Chicago and Back was borrowed from the book of the same name published in 1894 by the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov, in which he voiced acute social criticism.

It was a stone pyramid with the crescent moon and a cross at the top, and the inscription: Bulgaria, they died for you.