Information on the procedure being used to replace Bulgarian citizens' internal passports, on whether the personal identification number on the internal passport also appears on the new identity cards, or on evidence that the occasion of the replacement of theses documents is used to pressure ethnic Turks to adopt Bulgarian names could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

However, please find below information on occasions when ethnic Turks in Bulgaria were forced to adopt Christian names.

In a report on the situation of the minorities in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee gives the following information:

Attempts to change the names of the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims started already in the 1960s and were completed by 1973. After that the names and the identity of the Bulgarian Turks were targeted. In 1984-85 the government changed by force the names of more than 850 000 Turks and some Muslim Roma with the explicitly stated aim to "bulgarize" them and started systematic action of suppression of any resistance to the process. Police and special troops were largely used in this action with many killed and still more imprisoned or banished. This resulted in an exodus of some 350 000 Turks to Turkey in 1989, which provoked serious international pressure on the communist regime and contributed significantly to its fall in November 1989. About 100 000 of them later returned (1999).

In a report dated 5 October 2000 on the launch of a "first nationwide programme in the Turkish language," Reuters states that "in the early 1980s Bulgaria's ethnic Turks were victims of forcible assimilation under the communist regime. They were urged to adopt Slav names and their religious and human rights were severely curbed. With the overthrow of totalitarian rule in 1989 their rights were restored and more that half of the 300,000 ethnic Turks who left for Turkey have since returned."

According to Slovaphilia, some 10,000 Muslims (which includes ethnic Turks) demonstrated for several days in December 1989 in Sofia asking the Bulgarian government for "their names back" (26 June 2000). The Bulgarian government responded favourably to the demonstrators' request and apologized "'for the crimes of the past"' (ibid.).

Country Reports for 1999 reported "no restrictions [in Bulgaria] on speaking Turkish in public or the use of non-Slavic names."

For further information on the situation on the ethnic Turks in Bulgaria, please consult BGR31044.E of 8 February 1999 and BGR33183.E of 17 November 1999. The Second Report on Bulgaria of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), made public on 21 March 2000, contains information on the situation of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate 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. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted.

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Sofia. 1999. Report on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. http://www.bghelsinki.org [Accessed 20 Oct. 2000]

Council of Europe, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Second Report on Bulgaria. 21 March 2000. http://ecri.coe.int/en/02/02/12/e0202120010.htm [Accessed 19 Oct. 2000]

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999. 2000. United States Department of State. Washington, DC. http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/algeria.html [Accessed 19 Oct. 2000]

Reuters. 5 Oct. 2000. "Bulgaria's TV starts Turkish-Language Programmes." (Minority Electronic Resources, MINELRES) http://racoon.riga.lv/minelres/archive//10052000-16:05:23-22250.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2000]

Slavophilia. 26 June 2000. Matthew Brunwasser. "No More Hiding From the State." http://www.tol.cz/jul99/specr06004.html [Accessed 11 July 2000]

Two oral sources did not provide information.