economy and therefore has not encouraged
their desires. By agreement between the two governments, about 30,000
close relatives of Turks who left Bulgaria in the 1950-51 period will be
allowed to emigrate during the 1970s. The majority of Bulgarian Turks,
however, have little hope of leaving in the foreseeable future. In spite
of the desire of its members to leave the country, the Turkish minority
has posed no serious problem to the Bulgarian government. The government
has made an effort to integrate the minority into national life, at the
same time preserving its cultural distinctions, which are guaranteed by
the constitution.

Gypsies are not considered a national minority by the state, although
they consider themselves such. Strongly attached to their nomadic way of
life, the Gypsies have been reluctant to settle in a permanent place and
to integrate themselves into the national society. They continue to
follow their traditional occupations as musicians, tinsmiths, and
horsemen.

The existence of a Macedonian minority has been disputed over many
decades by Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Bulgaria has consistently claimed
that Macedonians are ethnically Bulgarians, that their language is a
dialect of Bulgarian, and that their land is a part of Bulgaria.
Yugoslavia, on the other hand, has given legal recognition to a
Macedonian nationality by establishing the People's Republic of
Macedonia and by designating the Macedonian language one of the official
languages of the federal republic (see ch. 2; ch. 10).

The vast majority of Bulgarians have been born into the Bulgarian
Orthodox Church ever since the ninth century, when Boris I adopted
Christianity for his people. Until World War II a person had no legal
existence without a baptismal certificate from the church. In keeping
with Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is an
independent national church. It is inseparably linked with Bulgarian
nationhood in the minds of most Bulgarians because of the role it played
in preserving a national consciousness during the centuries of Turkish
rule and in spearheading a national revival in the nineteenth century
(see ch. 2).

A tradition of religious freedom and tolerance allowed religious
minorities to exist without friction. Even during World War II the Jews
in Bulgaria suffered little persecution in comparison with those in
other parts of Eastern Europe. No census of religious affiliation has
been taken since th