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Ethnic Diversity in Bulgaria: Institutional Arrangements and Domestic Discourse*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Bernd Rechel
Bernd Rechel*
Affiliation:
Centre for Russian and East European Studies, European Research Institute, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Email: Bernd.Rechel@gmail.com
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Extract

This article examines the application of the concepts of minority rights, racism and multiculturalism to the case of Bulgaria. It explores how—if at all—these concepts have been accommodated within the domestic discourse on ethnic relations. Overall, it will be seen that Bulgaria has been slow to face up to its multi-ethnic reality: apart from the cessation of communist assimilation campaigns, hardly any positive minority rights were adopted after 1989. There were, however, clear changes in the discourse on ethnic relations, in particular regarding the notion of the “Bulgarian ethnic model,” which now figures prominently in the discourse of most political parties.

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Nationalities Papers , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 331 - 350
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Copyright © 2008 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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