By Claudia Ciobanu
SOFIA, Mar 15 2008 (IPS)

Take a population frustrated by poverty and corruption. Add the anti-minority discourse of extreme-right parties. And spice it with anti-Islamic talk of the &#39war on terror&#39. And in just a few years, you can have enough ethnic tensions.

On Mar. 11, a mosque in Dobrich town in north-east Bulgaria, 30 km from the Black Sea coast, had to be temporarily closed because of a bomb threat. "The bomb is to be detonated to kill Turks and gypsies," said an anonymous caller. On Feb. 16, graffiti saying "Turks, die" was found at the entry to the Office of the Grand Mufti (supreme interpreter of Islamic law) of Bulgaria.

"These acts disturb us," Grand Mufti Mustafa Alish Hadzi said in a statement. "Our anxiety is heightened by the fact that mosques, schools and other buildings related to our religion are desecrated almost every month."

Turks represent about 9.5 percent of the 7.8 million population of Bulgaria. They live mostly in the north-east and south-east of the country. Turks began to settle in the region from the late 14th century when the Ottoman Empire started to build up its domination of the Balkans.

Turks were persecuted severely during the Communist regime (1946-1989). They were forced to deny their identity, change their names to Slavic ones and even made to leave en masse for Turkey.

After 1989, however, Bulgarians were keen to end this heritage of persecution. In the first few years after the regime change, many of the rights of Turks were restored, such as education in their native language, freedom to celebrate their holidays, and the right to participate in political life.

The Constitution of 1991 does not acknowledge the existence of ethnic minorities, but various legislative acts adopted since refer to the rights of groups other than the majority. In 1999, Bulgaria ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, with both acts having priority over national legislation.

In the 1990s, Bulgaria was considered an oasis of ethnic peace in the troubled Balkans. One reason was that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) was a coalition partner in three goverments. MRF is widely seen as representing Turks, although MRF itself fights this label, and the Constitution does not allow ethnically based parties.

A study in 1999 by the Centre for Documentation and Information on Europe-South-Eastern Europe in association with the Helsinki Committee concluded that Turks in Bulgaria are well integrated and that "anti-Turkish feelings in the country do not run high." But researchers did warn that deterioration of economic conditions and the use of minorities as scapegoats by politicians could threaten peaceful multi-ethnic co-existence in Bulgaria.

Half a decade later, such bleak predictions started to come true. Incidents like the one at the mosque in Dobrich and at the Office of the Grand Mufti have become frequent over the last few years.

Marko Hajdinjak from the International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations in Sofia (IMIR) told IPS that the main reason for the rise in anti-Turkish feeling is frustration.

"There has been growing disappointment, first over the (ex-king) Simeon government (2001-2005). There were high hopes linked with it, which came to nothing. Then there was this totally illogical belief that after Bulgaria enters NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), life will improve magically, although there is no connection. And then, nothing much improved after EU accession."

Political scientist Rossen Vassilev, who has been studying Bulgaria&#39s ethnic problems, says frustrations were accentuated by the toughening of economic conditions "stemming from or coinciding with" the country&#39s entry into the European Union (EU) on Jan. 1, 2007. "Since then, retail prices have skyrocketed, while average salaries and pensions have remained basically unchanged, placing Bulgaria at the very bottom of the EU in terms of economic well-being."

"People are looking for a scapegoat, and minorities are always a convenient one," Marko Hajdinjak says, emphasising that the group most responsible for promoting anti-Turkish discourse was the extreme-right party Ataka formed in 2005.

A further reason for antipathy towards Turks, often invoked by Bulgarians, is a perception of corruption among MRF members. "Since MRF is an important part of the government coalition," Rossen Vassilev told IPS, "it is being blamed for the country&#39s economic conditions and for the government&#39s seeming tolerance of and even involvement in the horrendous level of official graft and corruption."

While most Bulgarians agree that all parties are corrupt, MRF cannot really be punished by the electorate because there is no other party representing minorities strong enough to challenge MRF. The rise in anti-Turkish sentiment is further linked to the &#39war on terror&#39, says Marko Hajdinjak, since the media has been bombarding audiences with the message that Islam equals terrorism. "Not that this is something that excuses Bulgarians, but it is happening all over Europe."

Researchers say anti-Turkish views are most common among youth in urban centres like Sofia, inhabited by relatively few Turks. Lacking the experience of daily cohabitation with ethnic Turks, these Bulgarians are most vulnerable to the negative propaganda of the extremists.

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