Bulgaria's TV starts Turkish-language programmes

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 16:05:22 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Bulgaria's TV starts Turkish-language programmes

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

Bulgaria's TV starts Turkish-language programmes


BULGARIA'S TV STARTS TURKISH-LANGUAGE PROGRAMMES
 
SOFIA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's state television launched the
first nationwide programme in the Turkish language on Monday for the
big ethnic Turk minority in the Balkan state. The news in Turkish
followed daily afternoon news in Bulgarian. Bulgaria, in which ethnic
Turks comprise about 10 percent of the 8.5 million population, is
holding membership talks with the European Union. In a general
election next year, the MRF partyk, which represents ethnic Turks, is
likely to be a serious powerbroker in the struggle between the current
reformist government and its Socialist opponents. 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 than
half of the 300,000 ethnic Turks who left for Turkey have since
returned.
 
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

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