euro|topics - Ditschew Iwajlo

08/01/2009

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Iwajlo, Ditschew

3 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Sega - Bulgaria | 14/05/2007

Politics sets the pace of the Eurovision

Ivaylo Dichev sees the results of the Eurovision Song Contest, in which Bulgaria came fifth, as political votes. "Those who were dismayed to see the break-up of Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union should take a look at Saturday's voting. ... By no means do I mean to imply that it was all down to national sympathies and that the whole thing wasn't interesting or objective, but somehow it was about more than music. You could even say Bulgaria no longer has any friends - at least there was no country that gave us its clear support. We weren't the first choice for Moldavia, Romania, Macedonia or Serbia. The Greeks put us first and Spain also gave us a relatively good score. But that was only to be expected because thousands of Bulgarian emigrants live there and they did as the Turks in Germany or the Netherlands [who voted for their home country]. ... It's surprising that Croatia gave its maximum points to Serbia, a country it fought a war with in the 1980s, and that Russia voted for Ukraine despite the serious ongoing conflicts between the two countries."

die tageszeitung - Germany | 30/04/2007

Ivaylo Ditchev on a dispute over Bulgarian history

Bulgarian cultural anthropologist Ivaylo Ditchev reports on a historical dispute about the Bulgarian town of Batak. In 1876, during the suppression of the April Uprising, the troops of the Ottoman Empire killed some 30,000 people there. A historians' conference on the creation of myths, organised among others by Berlin's Free University, has had to be cancelled following threats from nationalists. Ditchev explains: "In good communist tradition, TV stations are broadcasting images of normal citizens and school children angrily asserting that research on Bulgaria should be left to the Bulgarians. ... How could things go this far? One likely explanation is the first elections to the EU Parliament, which will be held on May 20 and which all the parties are using to cast themselves in the role of defenders of the nation's interests against 'Europe'. ... All this could be dismissed as a curious phenomenon in an otherwise small and peaceful country were it not for the example of Poland. Just as happened there, following many years of perceived humiliation, nationalist feelings are surging with unexpected force, with the difference that in Bulgaria the religion is not Catholicism but national history. The bones of the victims of Batak are beyond discourse and analysis."

Sega - Bulgaria | 19/02/2007

Ivaylo Ditchev on dual nationality

A controversial new election law passed in Sofia marginalises around 40,000 Bulgarians of Turkish origin whose official place of residence is Turkey. Despite having dual nationality, they will not be allowed to take part in the first EU parliamentary elections. Ivaylo Ditchev fears this will have consequences. "A potential ban against dual nationality would severe the country's bonds with hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians - not only those who have already been naturalised abroad, but also those waiting for naturalisation in the countries they have moved to. Can we expect an emigrant who has been struggling for a US passport for years to suddenly turn round and say: 'No, I love Bulgaria more' ? If such a law were passed, the Bulgarian nation would loose a million citizens in one go… Do we really want to become a nation of conformist rose-growers that is hostile towards anything foreign ? Or do we want to be a dynamic international diaspora that adapts, assimilates and achieves its goals in the world ?"

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