Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said Monday that people who committed oppression and persecution against Bulgaria's Turks and Muslims during the communist regime remain unpunished.In a Facebook post, Borisov published a report titled, To Overcome the Inhuman Treatment and the Applied Oppression against Turks and Muslims.Borisov, who came to power in November 2014, said that "the biggest crime was the attempt to erase evidence."
He said that Turks were given freedom, but in exchange they were requested not to call those responsible for the crimes to be held accountable.
He said that there would be no political amnesty for these crimes and that even if it was late, justice must be sought.
The assimilation campaign of Bulgaria's communist leader, Todor Zhivkov, for the Turkish minority resulted in more than 300,000 people migrating to Turkey in the late 1980s. Bulgarian Turks are the descendants of Turks in the Balkan region, which was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries. The communist assimilation policy has been viewed as an attempt by the party's ailing leadership to use nationalism to create a homogenous country. It is estimated that Turks constitute about 9 percent of Bulgaria's more than 7 million population.
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