MINORITY POLICIES IN BULGARIA: PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS
AN ANALYSIS prepared for the Contact Point on Roma and Sinti Issues / ODIHR
The problem
Widely reported frictions between some Bulgarian and
Roma communities during the summer of 2007 have again
illusrated that, in Bulgaria, there have been few results
from the implementation of official policies aimed at Roma
integration. As regards the Turkish minority, in spite of
considerable progress in recent years, it is still too early
to speak of a definitive overcoming of all prejudicial
stereotyping and distrust.
Some history
As the Ottoman Empire pulled out after 1879, Bulgaria
emerged as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society,
containing upward of a dozen of different ethnic-religious
communities. To a considerable extent Bulgarian society lost
the capacity to see itself as multi-cultural during the
nationalism of the first half of the 20 th century and the
socialism that followed to 1989.
This Analysis overviews the situation as regards the
three biggest minorities: the Turkish, the Roma and the
Bulgarian-Muslim. The emphasis is on the Roma.
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