Valentina Zlatanova
Papers of BAS, Humanities and Social Sciences
Vol. 2, No 1-2, 2015
SOCIOLOGY
SOCIAL DISTANCES IN INTERETHNIC RELATIONS THROUGH THE EYES OF ETHNIC BULGARIANS AND TURKS
Valentina Zlatanova
Abstract: The article gives answers to many questions related to the state and perspectives of development of interethnic relations in Bulgaria, specifically as concerns the trend of development of national identity of the basic ethnic groups (Bulgarians and Turks). These questions include: whether national identity is moving towards greater ethnicization, i.e., towards collective and ethno-cultural definition of their national affiliation, or else to a more clearly defined prevalence of the civic national identity, with which every citizen of the country, regardless of his/her ethnic or religious background, has equal individual rights as all others.
The author describes how the individual choice of the type of national identity of the two ethnic communities impacts on the interethnic relations in the country.
Key words: ethnicity; social distances; social exclusion; social integration