One of our latest cases before the ECHR is related to a brutal nationalist assault against the main mosque in downtown Sofia, Kanev said. In May 2011, nationalists jumped over the fence, brutally beat the guard and burst into the mosque just minutes before the morning prayer. Then they attacked the other Muslims with stones, crying out: Terrorists! Go to Turkey! Dont soil our land! Yet, the perpetrators were only found guilty of insulting a police officer. The Bulgarian court made no mention of the crimes overtly religious dimension. Openly nationalist and xenophobic rhetoric is made possible by the way history is understood and taught in schools, said Hristo Ivanov, adding that analysts agree that the perception of history in Bulgaria has led to the emergence of nationalist violence. A decade ago, Bulgaria promoted itself as a country with a unique ethnic model of tolerance, commonly citing two examples. In 1943, politicians - together with the Orthodox Church - managed to save all of the 50,000 Jews living in what is Bulgarian territory today. And in 1989, just after the Berlin Wall collapsed, it restored the rights of the Turkish minority, which had been previously stripped by the communist regime. But those examples are often quoted only partially: Many Bulgarians deny the role of the state in the deportation of Macedonian and Greek Jews to death camps. Moreover, when people of Jewish origin speak out about that, they are often denounced as ungrateful, says Bali. dw.de/nationalism-and-unchecked-violence-in-bulgaria/a-17477423
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 03:34:28 +0000
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