Document #1223909
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
On 9 May 1989, the Bulgarian government
applied a new law, which would not become effective until 1
September for all Bulgarian citizens, to the Turkish minority. This
new law "guaranteed the right of Bulgarian citizens to obtain
passports for travel abroad." [ Rada Nikolaev, "A Year of Crucial
Change in Bulgaria", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Report on
Eastern Europe, Vol. 1, No. 1, 5 January 1990, p.10.] As a
result, more than 300,000 ethnic Turks crossed into Turkey between
early June and 22 August when Turkey introduced visa requirements.
[ Ibid.]
According to the Embassy of Bulgaria in
Ottawa, more changes of a democratic nature were made to the
citizenship law in December 1989. The source states that several
thousand (more than 90,000) ethnic Turks have returned to Bulgaria
under the new legislation and have the right to recover their
Bulgarian citizenship. The Embassy has provided the IRBDC with a
translation of the 1989 changes to the citizenship law which is
attached. The changes include acceptance of dual citizenship, the
possibility for foreign citizens to obtain Bulgarian citizenship,
and the recovery of lost citizenship. [ Chargé d'Affaires,
Embassy of Bulgaria, 25 January 1990.]
According to a Minority Rights publication
of October 1989, Turkish authorities claimed that most
Turkish-Bulgarians who returned to Bulgaria did so because of
"fears of reprisals against remaining relatives in Bulgaria. Turkey
has also charged that some of those who returned have been denied
access to their old homes and sent to labour camps." [ Hugh
Poulton, Minorities in the Balkans, (London: Minority Rights
Group, October 1989), p.22.] A report in the Christian Science
Monitor says that Bulgarians gained from the Turkish exodus by
"buying up Turkish apartments and automobiles at bargain prices." [
William Echikson, "Turkish Discrimination Persists", The
Christian Science Monitor, 22 January 1990, p. 6.] This is
confirmed by a report in The Economist. [ "History Returns",
The Economist, 13 January 1990, p. 44.]
Turks who left their jobs without giving
notice were to have been punished according to the provisions of
the Labour Code with heavy fines or disciplinary dismissal. [ This
information on the problems faced by returned ethnic Turks comes
from: Rada Nikolaev, "The Social and Economic Problems Caused by
the Exodus", Radio Free Europe Research, 5 October 1989,
p.17.] Most would be rehired but would lose seniority; others would
be transferred to less skilled work.
2) According to an official at the Embassy
of Bulgaria in Ottawa, passports for private citizens
(non-diplomatic or special) are issued through the Passport
Department of the Department of Foreign Travel within the Interior
Ministry. [ 2 February 1990.]