site.btaHundreds of Turkish-Arabic Toponyms in Stara Zagora Area Renamed, Grand Mufti's Office Protests
NW 16:25:31 31-05-2018
LG1625NW.121
121 POLITICS - STARA ZAGORA - TOPONYMS - RENAMING
Hundreds of Turkish-Arabic Toponyms
in Stara Zagora Area Renamed,
Grand Mufti's Office Protests
Stara Zagora, Southeastern Bulgaria, May 31 (BTA) - The Stara Zagora Municipal Council Thursday resolved to rename 838 localities currently bearing Turkish-Arabic names, "Dnevnik" reports. The resolution was passed, 39-2 with four abstentions, the nationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) party said on its website. The change was initiated by councillors of VMRO, Ataka and the National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB). VMRO described the vote as a "major success."
The only municipal councillors who voted against the resolution were those representing the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The Grand Mufti's Office of the Muslim Denomination in Bulgaria reacted strongly to the name change. It issued a declaration voicing "serious concern" and condemning the move as a "violation of the achievements of law in modern Europe and Bulgaria's democratization after the periods of turbulence and the Cold War". "This undertaking is a sort of regeneration process which this time affects place names rather than the names of people," the Grand Mufti's Office said, referring to an internationally condemned campaign to assimilate Bulgarian Muslims, launched by the Communist regime in the mid-1980s.
"This is a political incursion into the natural territory of language with an adverse effect on the religious and ethnic tolerance of the multicultural society in Bulgaria," the declaration says. The Grand Mufti's Office notes that most of these geographical features have never had any other names in history.
"The change of names shows that racism and intolerance of everything related to Muslims have reached a very critical level. This process is exceedingly dangerous and may draw a new line of division in society," the Muslim leadership in Bulgaria argued.
Back in 2014, on a motion by VMRO and Ataka councillors, the Stara Zagora Municipal Council resolved on renaming 51 nucleated settlements with Turkish-Arabic names in the territory of the municipality. Last year, an ad hoc committee including representatives of GERB, NFSB, Ataka, VMRO and the Reformist Bloc began work on studying localities and looking for the most appropriate names.
In 2012 VMRO attempted to push through a motion for the renaming of 11 dispersed settlements with Turkish-Arabic names in the area of Varna (on the Black Sea), followed by 215 such localities in 2014. In both cases the move was rejected by the regional administration, which argued that localities can only be renamed at State level as they are an element of national security. PK/BR
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LG1625NW.121
121 POLITICS - STARA ZAGORA - TOPONYMS - RENAMING
Hundreds of Turkish-Arabic Toponyms
in Stara Zagora Area Renamed,
Grand Mufti's Office Protests
Stara Zagora, Southeastern Bulgaria, May 31 (BTA) - The Stara Zagora Municipal Council Thursday resolved to rename 838 localities currently bearing Turkish-Arabic names, "Dnevnik" reports. The resolution was passed, 39-2 with four abstentions, the nationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) party said on its website. The change was initiated by councillors of VMRO, Ataka and the National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB). VMRO described the vote as a "major success."
The only municipal councillors who voted against the resolution were those representing the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The Grand Mufti's Office of the Muslim Denomination in Bulgaria reacted strongly to the name change. It issued a declaration voicing "serious concern" and condemning the move as a "violation of the achievements of law in modern Europe and Bulgaria's democratization after the periods of turbulence and the Cold War". "This undertaking is a sort of regeneration process which this time affects place names rather than the names of people," the Grand Mufti's Office said, referring to an internationally condemned campaign to assimilate Bulgarian Muslims, launched by the Communist regime in the mid-1980s.
"This is a political incursion into the natural territory of language with an adverse effect on the religious and ethnic tolerance of the multicultural society in Bulgaria," the declaration says. The Grand Mufti's Office notes that most of these geographical features have never had any other names in history.
"The change of names shows that racism and intolerance of everything related to Muslims have reached a very critical level. This process is exceedingly dangerous and may draw a new line of division in society," the Muslim leadership in Bulgaria argued.
Back in 2014, on a motion by VMRO and Ataka councillors, the Stara Zagora Municipal Council resolved on renaming 51 nucleated settlements with Turkish-Arabic names in the territory of the municipality. Last year, an ad hoc committee including representatives of GERB, NFSB, Ataka, VMRO and the Reformist Bloc began work on studying localities and looking for the most appropriate names.
In 2012 VMRO attempted to push through a motion for the renaming of 11 dispersed settlements with Turkish-Arabic names in the area of Varna (on the Black Sea), followed by 215 such localities in 2014. In both cases the move was rejected by the regional administration, which argued that localities can only be renamed at State level as they are an element of national security. PK/BR
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