Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

State Control of Minorities in Bulgaria

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13523270701507030

1743-9116

Bernd Rechel,

European and International Law Studies

Abstract The political participation of minorities in post-communist Bulgaria continues to be shaped by the state control of minorities, which was characteristic of the communist past. Legal and constitutional provisions preventing the political participation of minorities continue to be applied against unpopular minority groups, while the mainly Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which has established itself in the political arena, maintains that it is not an ethnic party and pursues only a minimalist minority rights agenda. Remarkably, the restrictions on the political participation of minorities in Bulgaria have scarcely been affected by accession to the European Union. Funding for this work was provided by the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom and the University of Birmingham. Notes 1. 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Annual Report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Sofia: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 2003), p.17. 103. Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Pravata na choveka v Bu˘lgariia prez 2003 g., p.14. 104. European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, Third Report on Bulgaria, adopted on 27 June 2003, published on 27 January 2004 (Strasbourg: European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, Council of Europe, 2004), p.8. 105. Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Pravata na choveka v Bu˘lgariia prez 2006 g. Godishen doklad na Bu˘lgarski khelzinski komitet (Sofia: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 2007), p.22. Additional informationNotes on contributorsBernd Rechel Bernd Rechel is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.