Bulgarians Again Protest Rights for Ethnic Turks

Strikes and mass protests by Bulgarians opposed to new freedoms for ethnic Turks paralyzed towns and cities across the country Friday.

What started as a token two-hour stoppage in the southern town of Kurdzhali five days ago grew into a general strike that spread throughout the country.

Shops and factories closed in Kurdzhali and the nearby town of Haskovo, as well as in Stara Zagora and Devnia, site of the country’s biggest chemical plant.

Strikes, some total and others symbolic, were reported in several towns in the northeast, including Targovite, Sumen and the Black Sea resort of Varna. There were protests also in Ruse near the border with Romania.

The new Communist leadership, which last month restored to the Muslim Turks the religious and cultural rights denied them under former leader Todor Zhivkov, appealed for unity.

“There can be no future in isolation. We have to live within Europe and preserve peace in the Balkans,” National Assembly President Stanko Todorov said in a televised speech.

Under Zhivkov, overthrown in November after 35 years in power, the nation’s 1.5 million Turks were forced to assume Bulgarian names and banned from practicing their religion.

Responding to the rise in nationalist sentiment, Todorov told the nation: “In Bulgaria, there will be only the Bulgarian flag, and the official language of Bulgaria is Bulgarian. This is in the constitution.” But he added that the constitution also guarantees equal rights to all Bulgarians.

He said Parliament will form a commission, headed by Communist Party leader Petar Mladenov, to discuss the matter with all concerned.

Todorov’s speech appears unlikely to appease the growing numbers who have joined the protests. Thousands of Bulgarians are planning a mass rally Sunday in Sofia to maintain pressure on the government to reverse its policy.

Last year, tens of thousands of ethnic Turks were reported to have fled Bulgaria to escape persecution and ethnic unrest.