Bulgaria, Turks and the politics of apology
During Bulgaria's 'Restoration of Names' process, nearly one million ethnic Turks were humiliated, says author.
London, United Kingdom - In 1989, under the last Communist government, nearly five per cent of the population in Bulgaria left the country as a result of the forced ethnic assimilation policy for Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish population. Soon after, Communism collapsed.
The action, cynically called "Restoration of the Names" or "Revival Process", did not contribute to the end of Communism in Bulgaria. It was more like a sign of the agony of a rotten regime resorting to the shock of populist nationalism to defibrillate its dying heart. It took the Bulgarian parliament 22 years to adopt a declaration apologising to its own citizens for the suffering inflicted on them.
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