Nationalist legacies and European trajectories: post‐communist liberalization and Turkish minority politics in Bulgaria

Abstract

The politics of ethnic minorities in post‐1989 Central East and Southeast Europe (CESE) has been characterized by an apparent paradox between, on the one hand, well‐integrated minority parties at the national level, on the other hand, strong demands for decentralization and local self‐government. This article examines the impact of post‐communist reforms, since the late 1990s taking place within the frame of European integration, on ethnic politics and state‐minority relations in CESE focusing on the case of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria. It argues that liberalization cum European integration in CESE states fundamentally transform inherited national divisions, and integrate minorities in existing political and state institutions. At the same time, such integration is constrained by the legacy of state socialism that consolidated ethnic differences by embedding them in economic‐territorial structures. In doing so, it set the frame for the growth of a fundamentally distinct minority politics on a regional basis that diverges as much from the traditional nation‐state model as from the liberal approach to post‐communist democracy, market reform and European integration.

Notes

Rezultati ot Prebrojavaneto na naselenieto – Demografski karakteristiki [Results from population census – Demographic aspects] Vol.1 (Sofia: National Statistical Institute, 1994), p.194. In the past 15 years, the size of the Turkish minority cannot be estimated with certainty due to profound demographic changes, ongoing emigration and disputes over proper census methods and categories in counting minorities. The 1992 census recorded 800,052 ethnic Turks in Bulgaria or 9.43 per cent of the population, which, however, included a number of Roma and Pomaks (Muslims speaking a Bulgarian dialect) who also identified themselves as Turks. Their actual number was closer to 600,000–700,000, a significant contraction of the minority’s size just three years earlier due to large scale emigration in 1989–1991. On this issue, see Mihail Ivanov and Ilona Tomova (1994) and Antonina Zhelyaskova (1999: 172).

The province of Khurdzali includes eight municipalities (obshtini): the central one of Kircali, and the peripheral ones of Ardino, Dzebel, Ivailovgrad, Kirkovo, Krumovgrad, Momchilgrad and Tchernootchene. The province of Razgrad includes seven municipalities: the central one of Razgrad, and Kybrat, Samuil, Loznitsa, Isperih, Tsar Kalojian and Zavet.

One of the party’s central demands was the abrogation of Bulgaria’s 1991 constitution. See the party’s founding declaration ‘Programna Deklaratsia na Turska Demokratitcheska Partja’ (1992), signed by its president Mr Kenan.

Demografski I Sotsialno‐Ekonomitcheski Harakteristiki – Rusenska Oblast [Demographic and Socioeconomic Aspects – Region of Ruse] (Sofia: National Statistics Institute, 1994). In the province of Razgrad, one out of three state employees in the agricultural sector are Turkish Muslims and only one out of thirteen are Bulgarians. Ethnic Turks have depended for their income on agriculture much more than Bulgarians (Petkov and Fotev 1989: 254).

Those who resisted were subject to sanctions such as loss of job, and imprisonment or internment in other parts of the country. Human rights organizations documented a large number of violent incidents in the northeast and southeast regions of the country, including several killings. See Destroying Ethnic Identity – The Turks in Bulgaria. Also see Bulgaria – Imprisonment of Ethnic Turks (London: Amnesty International, 1986).

Despite protests from the ranks of socialists and opposition alike, the CEC charged with administering the June 1990 elections directed the district electoral commissions to register candidates nominated by the MRF. It argued that the MRF’s earlier registration as an organization was sufficient to allow it to field a slate of candidates, a claim that admittedly had a shaky legal basis (Bell 1997: 366).

Four out of the five judges that supported the legality of the MRF were appointed by UDF leaders Zhelyu Zhelev as president of the republic in 1991–96 (see Ganev 2004).

In the 1990s, its local power declined largely due to ongoing illegal immigration of ethnic Turks. In the last 1999 local elections, it won 7.4 per cent of the vote and elected mayors in 22 municipalities. See ‘Constitutional Watch,’ East European Constitutional Review, Vol.8, No.4 (Fall 1999).

Interviews at the local offices of the MRF in Kircali (23 November 1995) and Momchilgrad (20 January 1996). For a more detailed discussion, see Anagnostou 1999a, ch.4.

See a series of articles in Prava I Svobodi, the MRF’s newspaper, issues No.46 (November 1995), No.48 (8 December 1995), and No.49 (15 December 1995).

Statement by the Prime Minister Ivan Kostov at the opening of the autumn session of the National Assembly on 2 September 1998 (⟨http://www.government.bg/eng/prime_minister/statements/kostov2.html⟩).

See the speech by Ahmet Dogan in the 5th National Conference of the MRF, Sofia, 15–16 February 2003 (⟨http://www.dps.bg⟩).