Bulgaria: Information on whether the penalties for failure to respond to a call-up order to perform reserve service are applied to Turkish women in a discriminatory manner, and on whether the penalties are harsher for Turkish women who return to Bulgaria after being abroad during the time they were required to perform reserve service
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 January 1996 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | BGR22801.E |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Bulgaria: Information on whether the penalties for failure to respond to a call-up order to perform reserve service are applied to Turkish women in a discriminatory manner, and on whether the penalties are harsher for Turkish women who return to Bulgaria after being abroad during the time they were required to perform reserve service, 1 January 1996, BGR22801.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aac79c.html [accessed 10 October 2022] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Information on the above-mentioned subjects could not be found among the sources consulted by the DIRB. In a telephone interview on 19 January 1995, the chair of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in Sofia provided the following information. The source has not heard of any reports since 1989 indicating that people, including ethnic Turks, who fail to perform their reserve service have been subject to prosecution.
The source added that the maximum penalty for failure of new recruits to perform their eighteen months of compulsory military service is five years imprisonment; the maximum penalty for the same offence is eight years imprisonment if the person left Bulgaria in order to avoid military service. In both cases, ethnic Turks normally receive harsher penalties than ethnic Bulgarians. The military courts, which impose the penalties for failure to perform compulsory or reserve service, are composed exclusively of ethnic Bulgarians and are often prejudicial towards ethnic Turks.
For information on the penalties for failure to respond to a call-up order to perform reserve service, please consult Response to Information Request BGR19911.E of 27 February 1995.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
Reference
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Sofia. 19 January 1996. Telephone interview with chair.
Other Sources Consulted
Other oral sources. [
