THE TREATMENT OF THE TURKISH MINORITY BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA AND BULGARIAN REFUGEES IN TURKEY.

SEC. 704. THE TREATMENT OF THE TURKISH MINORITY BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA AND BULGARIAN REFUGEES IN TURKEY. (a) Findings.— The Congress finds that— (1) the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria is a signatory to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights by the United Nations, and the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Accords); (2) the Helsinki Accords express the commitment of the participating states to respect the fundamental freedoms of conscience, religion, expression, and emigration, and to guarantee the rights of minorities; (3) the 1971 Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria declares that fundamental rights will not be restricted because of distinction of national origin, race, or religion, and guarantees minorities the rights to study in their mother tongue and freely practice their religion; (4) despite its international obligations and constitutional guarantees, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria has taken numerous steps to repress Turkish language and culture, including prohibiting the study of the Turkish language in schools, banning the use of the Turkish language in public, making the receipt and reading of Turkish publications a punishable act, and jamming the reception of Turkish radio and television programs in Bulgaria; (5) the right of the ethnic Turkish community to freedom of religion has been severely circumscribed by the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, which has closed a number of mosques and barred the importation of copies of the Koran; (6) emigration by ethnic Turks and others has been banned with only a few exceptions; (7) beginning in December 1984, the Bulgarian authorities forced the Turkish minority to change their Turkish names to Bulgarian ones, and hundreds of ethnic Turks were killed, injured, or arrested by Bulgarian forces in 1984 and 1985 when they protested this new policy; (8) the Bulgarian authorities have used both force and coercion to resettle ethnic Turks from their local villages to areas in Bulgaria with small Turkish populations; (9) in May 1989, Bulgarian troops and police attacked ethnic Turks and others who were peacefully demonstrating against their discriminatory treatment in Bulgaria; (10) hundreds of demonstrators were killed or wounded in these attacks, and hundreds more were arrested; and 104 STAT. 76 (11) since these demonstrations, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria has forcibly expelled or coerced into emigrating to Turkey thousands of ethnic Turks without either their money or their possessions, often resulting in the separation of families. (b) Policy.— It is the sense of the Congress that the Congress— (1) strongly condemns the brutal treatment of, and blatant discrimination against, the Turkish minority by the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria; (2) calls upon the Bulgarian authorities to immediately cease all discriminatory practices against this community and to release all ethnic Turks and others currently imprisoned because of their participation in nonviolent political acts; (3) calls upon the Government of Bulgaria to honor its obligations and public statements concerning the right of all Bulgarian citizens to emigrate freely; and (4) urges the President and Secretary of State to make strong diplomatic representations to Bulgaria protesting its discriminatory treatment of its Turkish minority and to raise this issue in all appropriate international forums, including the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting on the environment in Sofia, Bulgaria, this year. (c) Allocation of Funds for Assistance to Certain Turkish Refugees.— Of the funds authorized to be appropriated by section 104(a)(1) for the fiscal year 1990, $10,000,000 shall be available only to the Republic of Turkey for assistance for shelter, food, and other basic needs to ethnic Turkish refugees fleeing the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and resettling in the sovereign territory of Turkey.