Model for Monitoring the Implementation of Minority Rights on Local Level in Bulgaria (Ardino Municipality)
Publisher: International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations*, Sofia, Bulgaria
55 Antim I St.
1303 Sofia
Bulgaria
Tel: +359 283-23112/24044
Fax: +359 2 9310-583
http://www.imir-bg.org
Synopsis
In the spring of 2006 IMIR’s team conducted research in the Ardino municipality in Bulgaria as part of an international project prepared and financed by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The objective was to examine the relationships between different communities, while focusing on minority rights protection in a municipality with a reversed demographic proportion – the national minority in this case is the local majority.
According to the official web site of the Ardino municipality, the number of local residents is 15, 171 people (2003), of which 68.2% are Turks, 16.9% are Bulgarians and 14.9% are others. The towns and villages in the municipality have diverse ethnic balance: some, like Ardino and Byal Izvor, have a mixed population (Turks, Bulgarian Muslims and Bulgarian Christians in Ardino, and in Byal Izvor, in addition to these three groups, there also Roma); others have a homogeneous Turkish population (for example Borovica, Suhovo) or a homogeneous Muslim Bulgarian population (for example Zhaltusha and Padina). The overwhelming majority of the people in the municipality are Muslims. Some Orthodox Christians live in Ardino and several families in the village of Padina have converted to Evangelism. Thus, the Bulgarian Christians, whose number is no more than several hundred people, and the Roma, who are about 20 – 30 people, form the smallest community in the Ardino municipality.
Finalreport_IMIR-Ardino_eng.pdf (212.83 kB)
