Deceased People with Forcibly Changed Names During Regeneration Process to Get Old Names

Sofia, July 10 (BTA) - Deceased Bulgarian citizens who had their names changed during a process of forcible assimilation of ethnic Turks under communism, will have their old names back by an administrative procedure without having to take the matter to a lawcourt. This was codified by Parliament Friday afeter final adoptions of revisions in the Civil Registration Act.

The change concerns persons who had their Turko-Arab names forcible replaced by Slavic names in the so called "Regeneration Process" in the 1980s.

The name restoration procedure can be started by an heir of the deceased person.

Dora Yankova (Socialist) warned of possible problems where the heirs disagree on the name restoration. Problems can also crop up in connection with inheritance, restitution and others.

Filip Popov (Socialist) said that the revision opens the door wide to fraud. He called the change "a new Regeneration Process".

He argued that it is inadmissible to allow an heir to act on behalf of a deceased person without knowing what the will of this person would have been.