From: lb@cs.man.ac.uk (Luben Boyanov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Re: Forwarding from TRKNWS-L
Keywords: tolerance, past, present
Date: 28 Sep 92 10:13:03 GMT
Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.

In article <1992Sep27.190208.21050@samba.oit.unc.edu> Bruce.Scott@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Bruce Scott) writes:
>>BULGARIA: PEACE IS POSSIBLE EVEN IN THE BALKANS
>>ETHNIC HARMONY IN BULGARIA
>>
>>BULGARIA'S MUSLIM MINORITY ENJOYS PEACEFUL RESURGENCE
>
>Good article. Let me express my hope that (a) these good people can
>continue living peacefully together, nurturing mutual trust,

Yes, let us pray for that. Reading old books and articles in recent time, I
was nicely surprised to find out the the Turks in Bulgaria enjoyed rights
and priviledges, which they didn't have in any other Balkan country (well,
except in Turkey :-) ). When Southern Dobrudja was taken from Bulgaria and
given to Rumania after BW2, the muslim population protested vigorously
about that because it lost it's civic rights it had hitherto enjoyed. The
muslims were fully represented in the Bulgarian parliament during those
years. Very similar was the picture after WWI, when Southern Thrace went to
Greece. 

Let me quote you (it's the only document at hand at present) an excerpt
from a memorandum of the National Executive of the British Labour Party:

" In the southern portion of the Dobruja, which was seized by Roumania in
1913, the population consists almost entirely of Bulgarians and Moslems.
The latter desire to be re-united with their 600 000 co-religionists in
Bulgaria, the only Balkan State in which the Moslems, satisfied with the
liberties allowed them, have remained since the disappearance of Turkish
rule. According to the Peace terms however, the whole of the Dobruja is to
remain under the intolerant rule of the Roumanian Government.
...
  It is apparently intended, however, to hand over Western Thrace, or a
large part of it, to Greece although the only justification for taking it
from Bulgaria would be to restore it to Turkey. The representatives of the
Bulgarian Moslems, notwithstanding Greek statements to the contrary, stated
emphatically in the National Assembly on March 5th 1919, that they
preferred Bulgarian to Greek rule."


Alas, all this was ruined by the communist nationalistic policy of the
Jivkov regime in the mid-80ies, and chauvinistic propaganda was spread for
the first time in Bulgaria. Despite the present good developmets, the truth
is that it will take years, the consequences of this propaganda to be
removed. It's good to be proud of your country and people, but alas,
governments sometimes spread the seeds of nationalism and chauvinism behind
the mask of patriotism, seeking the foreign enemy as an excuse for it's
inability to solve problems of national reconciliation. I was angered that
this information (which I found in all books from the past) describing the
good coexsitance beween Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria, was hidden
away, and only the 'unfortunate' moments (I don't doubt that such existed
and what happened in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, but such
'examples' can be found elsewhere ...) were presented in Bulgaria for
the period 1984-89. It's nice to see the good old virtues and traditions
being restored again.


>Gruss,
>Dr Bruce Scott                             The deadliest bullshit is


Best regards

Luben
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