site.btaGagauz People Must Be on a Par with Rest of Bulgarians When Applying for Bulgarian Citizenship, Experts Say

Gagauz People Must Be on a Par with Rest of Bulgarians When Applying for Bulgarian Citizenship, Experts Say

Sofia, September 10 (BTA) - The Gagauz people are of Bulgarian origin and their applications for citizenship should be treated equally as those of the other Bulgarians, reads a scientific opinion of the consultative council on the problems of Bulgarian historical communities abroad under the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, quoted by the Justice Ministry on Wednesday.

The Gagauz people are an ethnographic group who in addition to Northeast Bulgaria, also live in Moldova and Ukraine and to a lesser degree in Russia, Turkey, Romania and Greece. According to scientific information, the Gagauz people, along with other groups of Bulgarians, have resettled in the region of Besserabia, located in today's Moldova and Ukraine, at the beginning of the 19th century. They are Turkic-speaking Orthodox Christians.

According to the opinion, the citizenship applications of the Bulgarian Gagauz people from the former Soviet republics must be treated equally as those of the other Bulgarians, who posses official documents proving their ethnic origin. There are no Gagauz people who are not of Bulgarian origin and this must be taken into account when their naturalization applications are reviewed.

The opinion has been sent to Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov and to his Deputy Petko Petkov in his capacity as chairperson of the interdepartmental citizenship council under the Justice Ministry.

The consultative council, whose members are Acad. Georgi Markov, Acad. Vassil Gyuzelev, Acad. Stefan Vodenicharov, Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov, Prof. Plamen Pavlov and Assoc. Prof. Alexander Grebenarov, has reached the conclusion that, in light of the objective scientific truth and accuracy, it would be appropriate for the notion of Bulgarian-Gagauz people to be adopted and used in Bulgarian official and political documents and become part of the administrative practice.

The expressed opinion is supported by the Foreign Ministry with a letter, containing information about Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov's visit to Odessa and Bolgrad at the beginning of June. The letter states that given the opinion expressed by the consultative council and the Gagauz community's demands for equality when their Bulgarian citizenship applications are received, it would be appropriate and consistent with national interest for the Justice Ministry and State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad to take actions for creating such an opportunity, including through changing the regulatory framework.