site.btaMRF Submits Legislative Package on Revival Process Reparations, Minority Rights, Civil Registration and Electoral Rules

The parliamentary group of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) announced Thursday that it has submitted a package of draft laws concerning the rights of representatives of the Turkish and Muslim communities, including those who were affected by the so-called “Revival Process” of forcible assimilation. In this internationally condemned campaign in late 1984 and early 1985, Bulgaria's Communist regime forced Bulgarian Turks to adopt Slavic names, limit their religious activity, and refrain from speaking Turkish in public. The proposed legislation also concerns Bulgarian citizens residing in the Republic of Turkiye.

The package includes amendments to the Civil Registration Act, the Act on Political and Civil Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons, and the Electoral Code.

According to the proposed changes to the Civil Registration Act, names forcibly imposed during the Revival Process would be removed from the Unified System for Civil Registration and Administrative Services of the Population (GRAO). The proposals also introduce an explicit ban on requiring such data from civil status officials. Any official who in the future requests such information from citizens would be subject to sanctions, the MRF statement said.

The draft law also introduces a mechanism aimed at resolving the issue of restoring the original names of deceased Bulgarian citizens who were victims of forced name changes.

In the sponsors’ reasoning, it is argued that the time has come for these amendments to receive broad support, in order to correct what they describe as a historical injustice committed by the former totalitarian regime against the Turkish and Muslim communities.

Regarding the Act on Political and Civil Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons, the proposals aim to further develop the existing legal framework governing the social and moral rehabilitation of individuals affected by repressive actions of the former communist regime in Bulgaria.

MRF also proposes transforming the existing supplementary pension allowance into a separate “reparations pension”, in order to emphasize the specific social status of individuals who suffered repression by the state authorities.

The proposed amendments to the Electoral Code would remove residency requirements for exercising the right to vote in local elections for municipal councillors and mayors, as well as in elections for Members of the European Parliament from Bulgaria.

They also include the removal of language-related restrictions, allowing EU citizens who are not Bulgarian nationals to conduct campaign activities more freely, with the aim of enabling them both to campaign and to make informed electoral choices.

The sponsors argued that the proposed changes are in line with the Bulgarian Constitution, the principles of universal, equal, and direct suffrage, as well as the democratic standards of the European Union and the Council of Europe, which aim to ensure the widest possible participation of citizens in public and political life.

On March 4, 2026, Parliament rejected at first reading a similar proposal to remove from the civil registration system the names forcibly imposed during the so-called “Revival Process”, At the time, MPs voted down a draft amendment to the Civil Registration Act submitted by Sevim Ali and a group of MPs from the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms parliamentary group.

Following the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria formally ended the so-called Revival Process. In December 1989, the Communist Party decided to restore the original names of affected citizens, and legislation adopted in March 1990 annulled the assimilation policy. Within a year, some 600,000 people had reclaimed their original names, according to historian Petya Pavlova.

The country subsequently strengthened minority protections through the 1991 Constitution and by joining the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 1999. In 2018, Bulgaria also included the Revival Process in secondary school history curricula, following years of public debate, according to Deutsche Welle Bulgaria.

However, despite restoring civil rights and officially condemning the assimilation campaign, Bulgaria has never created a comprehensive compensation or reparations programme for the victims. In 1991, former communist leader Todor Zhivkov and four other senior officials were charged over their role in the campaign, but none were ultimately convicted. While victims have received political rehabilitation and official recognition of the injustice, broad financial compensation has not been provided.