Racism and Intolerance in Bulgaria

Council of Europe Appeals on Bulgarians to be Tolerant

AIM Sofia, 23 June, 1998

All Bulgarians have always stressed hospitality and tolerance as their traditional virtues. The Commission for the struggle against racism and intolerance of the Council of Europe, however, in its latest report, denies this allegation. It assesses that Bulgarians prefer not to open the doors of their homes although they brag with hospitality. Moreover, experts of the Commission think that the Bulgarians are still under influence of the past when, at the time of the rule of former communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria was "shut for visitors" and isolated.

Like any official document, the report of the Commission of the Council of Europe about the situation in Bulgaria sounds flat and boring, but the schematic phrases conceal the portrait of a modern Bulgarian. He is a comparatively well balanced and manifests tolerance to foreigners as long as they do not knock on his door. He is also egocentric, puts his own identity on a pedestal, which is warranted by relevant legal regulations.

According to this document, Bulgaria is one of the European states with comparatively good behavior. However, experts claim that it still "has something on its mind, evades something both in internal and in foreign policy, as well as concerning rights of man and minorities". To the last minute, Sofia refrained from signing the General Convention on Protection of Rights of Ethnic Minorities and finally did it when it had no more manoeuvring space. However, although signed in October last year, the Convention still has not been ratified by the Bulgarian parliament.

Experts of the Commission of the Council of Europe were surprised by aversion the Bulgarians feel towards the Romanies. The situation is not much better in other European countries either, but in Bulgaria this intolerance towards the Romanies is manifested on all levels - from everyday life in the neighbourhood to the official administration. According to Bulgarian legislature, the Romanies are equal with all the other Bulgarian citizens and this is most obvious at the time of elections when different parties fight for their votes, but as soon as their interests are satisfied, they send the Romanies back to their ghettoes. However, a small "gypsy" from the "Romany capital", Pazarjik, with a Bulgarian family name of Ivanov is on the best way to have the state of Bulgaria sentenced in Strasbourg for violating his human rights. His appeal because he was badly beaten up at a police station should any day now be put on trial at the court in Strasbourg and chances are that our country will be sentenced. Until now more than 200 Bulgarians have appealed to the court in Strasbourg on different grounds, but only former prime minister Andrei Lukanov who was killed in fronmt of his home a year and a half ago, and the already mentioned young Romany managed to exert pressure on the state through the European Court.

According to the experts of the Council of Europe, the authorities in Bulgaria in general are not aware how vulnerable they are in such a delicate sphere as human rights. As an example, the case of deputy of the ruling League of Democratic Forces (SDS) Ivan Sungarski is mentioned. Just before the report of the Commission for the struggle against intolerance was published, Sungarski publicly stated his thoughts about Bulgarian Romanies on national radio: according to him they are abusing their right to have children, and when they do, they let others take care of their up-bringing. Non-governmental attorneys' organizations immediately reacted sharply to the words of the deputy of SDS who is, among other, one of the mediators between two factions of the divided Bulgarian Orthodox Church and who works on their union. The leadership of the ruling political force intends to disassociate itself from the words of its representative, trying to prove that this was his personal opinion and not the practice of the authorities.

The ruling circles could also be reproached for being insincere and hypocritical concerning religious issues, it is stated in the report of the Commission of the Council of Europe. It is also stated that the Orthodox religion in Bulgaria has a domineering role which is guaranteed by the Constitution, but which is according to experts not democratic. The government tried to explain this situation by the fact that other parts of the Constitution explicitly guarantee freedom of religion and equality of all citizens, regardless of whether they are believers of atheists. To various complaints of different sects, the authorities answer that they came to Bulgaria after passing of the new Constitution and that this is the reason why it does not meet their requirements.

There is, however, a large group in Bulgarian society which is according to the official statistics of the current authorities completely extinct. They are the atheists. The data the government has given to the Commission of the Council of Europe say the following: there are 7,274,592 Orthodox Bulgarians, 1,110,295 Muslim Bulgarians, 53,074 Catholics, 21,878 Protestants, 9,672 Armenian Gregorians, 2,580 Jews. Not a single Bulgarian is listed as atheist, despite the fact that just ten years ago, until the fall of Zhivkov's regime, the then Bulgarian communist party greatly tolerated atheism. Nowadays, the authorities seem to be ashamed of the very word, but in its religious cordiality keep forgetting that modern Europe is after all founded on secular principles. And while in many European countries, wearing crosses and other religious symbols is banned in school, some school principals demand that catechism be re-introduced as a school subject as an expression of the geratest level of democracy.

in the past few years, there is also a deteriorating attitude towards foreigners. On the one hand, they are constantly the target of organized crime in Bulgaria which has been flourishing lately. The Commission states numerous cases of stollen diplomatic cars, robbed embassy buildings or apartments of diplomats. The authorities justify these by saying that the Bulgarians also suffer because of that same crime and state a counter-argument: you Europeans are not exactly gracious to us, the Bulgarians with the Schengen-visa barrier in front of us... On the other hand, Bulgaria has also raised its own wall of visas for visitors from unattractive countries under the pretext that it was getting ready to join Europe so that it had to take care of European restrictions in migration processes. To be perfectly honest, we suffer not so much from xenophobia as from poverty, sociologists in Sofia claim. That is why Bulgaria is opened to the rich and closed to poor citizens, because it hopes that it will have what to charge from the former and is afraid that it will have to take care of the latter. For that same reason it has not signed the European Social Charter, it is claimed in the report of the Commission for fighting racism and intolerance of the Council of Europe.

AIM Sofia

GEORGI FILIPOV