Dokument #1081893
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Information on the above-mentioned subject
is contained in Response to Information Request BGR16517.E of 26
February 1994 and in the DIRB Question and Answer Series papers
entitled Bulgaria: The Impact of Reform of May 1991, pages
10 to 12, and Bulgaria After Zhivkov of February 1990, pages
6 to 9. These documents are available at Regional Documentation
Centres.
In addition, please find attached an
excerpt from a Minority Rights Group report providing detailed
information on the attempt by Bulgarian authorities under the
Communist regime to force ethnic Pomaks, Turks and Gypsies to
change their names, a policy which primarily prevailed from the
1970s to December 1989 (Minority Rights Group Oct. 1989, 7-22).
For further information on this topic,
please refer to the attached documents.
This response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum.
Amnesty International. April 1986.
"Bulgaria: Imprisonment of Ethnic Turks: Human Rights Abuses During
the Forced Assimilation of the Ethnic Turkish Minority." (AI Index:
EUR/15/03/86). London: Amnesty International, pp. 2-13.
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
(LCHR). July 1994.
Critique: Review of the Department of
State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993. New
York: LCHR, p. 33.
Minority Rights Group. October 1989. No.
82. Minorities in the Balkans. London: Minority Rights
Group, pp. 7-22.
News from Helsinki Watch [New
York]. August 1990. "News from Bulgaria: Deep Tensions Continue in
Turkish Provinces, Despite Some Human Rights Improvements," pp.
2-7.