Source: OMO Ilinden PIRIN OPEN LETTER To: The President of the Republic of Bulgaria The Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria The Leader of the Parliamentary Commission for fighting discrimination The Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Bulgaria Dear Sirs, In the last couple of weeks on the territory of Republic of Bulgaria we witnessed unprecedented questioning and harassing of…
Source: MIC The Macedonian Parliament is preparing to adopt a declaration on the rights of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, at the initiative of DOM parliamentarian Liljana Popovska. Even though the opposition criticized the Government for not reacting to this problem on time, this document will most probably receive broad political support in the Assembly, Utrinski Vesnik reports. A few…
FACT SHEET: 5 Answers to issues raised by Bulgarian officials and press on the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria Bulgarian Government Claim: No Macedonian minority exists within Bulgaria’s borders. According to the 2001 Bulgarian census (www.nsi.bg/census/ethnos.htm), 5,071 citizens declared themselves as ethnic Macedonians. Regardless of this highly under representative figure, the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute contradicts the claims of the Bulgarian…
Source: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Sofia/Vienna, 21 November 2006. Gathered for their annual General Assembly meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 16-19 November 2006, members of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) expressed concern about the rise in anti-minority rhetoric and discrimination in Bulgaria. The extremist nationalist party Ataka (“Attack”), which gained representation in the Bulgarian…
Source: Macedonian daily newspaper Dnevnik Translated by UMDiaspora Staff The European Commission ought to watch closely the situation in Bulgaria and help the Macedonian party OMO Ilinden PIRIN to be registered as a political party, the European Free Alliance (EFA) has requested. “The anti- Macedonian hysteria in Bulgaria must stop and the party of the Macedonians OMO Ilinden PIRIN should…
On July 18th, 2006, Nelly Maes, the President of the European Free Alliance sent a letter to Olli Rehn, the Commissioner of Enlargement of the European Commission in reference to Bulgaria’s denial to recognize its quite large ethnic Macedonian minority urging him to monitor the situation. Mr. Commissioner of the European Commission, As President of the European Free Alliance (EFA),…
Source: MHRMI Bulgarian politicians and media are in an uproar following the congress of Macedonian political party OMO Ilinden PIRIN. The party called for the Macedonian language to be taught in schools and news to be broadcast in Macedonian on Bulgarian state television. On its website, the Focus News Agency referred to this as the “Scandal of the Day” and…