Talks Started on Bulgaria’s Ethnic Strife

SOFIA, Bulgaria —  Communist officials began talks Monday with opposition leaders and members of the Turkish minority and the Slav majority on ethnic conflicts that erupted in a wave of nationwide protests over the last week.

The meeting at the National Assembly building, chaired by Parliament President Stanko Todorov, was called after four days of nationalist rallies. The demonstrators were protesting a decision by Communist leaders allowing ethnic Turks and Muslims to use their Muslim names and practice their religion without restrictions.

The government news agency BTA reported that representatives from all official and opposition groups, as well as delegations from dozens of cities, are taking part in the forum, which the agency termed unprecedented in Communist Bulgaria.

Todorov on Sunday night called for the weeklong “social forum” on “several aspects of the national question.”

BTA did not identify who was taking part in the forum. It said the meeting Monday was to discuss how to organize the talks. Formal negotiations will begin today.

However, BTA said the participants unanimously approved an appeal to the people to call off all rallies and strikes to ensure a “peaceful and businesslike atmosphere” at the talks.

At a rally Sunday, anti-Turk demonstrators threatened to start a general strike if their demands were not met that a referendum be held on the minority issue.

News media controlled by the two-month-old leadership that replaced hard-liner Todor Zhivkov reported that local officials who are holdovers from the old regime appear to be using the ethnic issue to try to stall reform.

Zhivkov had imposed the restrictions on Bulgaria’s 1.5 million ethnic Turks and Muslims that were revoked by the reformist Communist leadership Dec. 29. The restrictions had helped caused the flight of more than 300,000 Turks from Bulgaria last year.

Nationalists among the Slav majority, who are mainly Orthodox Christian, fear that the Turkish minority is growing too fast and poses a threat to the country of nearly 9 million.