The latest reports from Macedonia tell us that the US-EU-sponsored peace talks between Albanians and ethnic Macedonians have hit a new crisis. The two Albanian parties have walked out because of the Macedonian government’s refusal to accept a compromise that would mean an end to Albanians being second-class citizens.  Unless the government there can be persuaded to change its mind, or alternatively there is another proposal made that they and the Albanians can accept, it looks worryingly possible that despite all the international efforts to prevent it, Macedonia will follow Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo down the road of ethnic war.

But it is not all gloom and doom in the Balkans on the ethnic front. At least there is good news from Bulgaria.

There the former king, Simon II, who last month won the general elections and this week was formally nominated as prime minister, has forged a coalition with a party that represents the country’s Muslim Turkish minority. There is even a suggestion that the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedom, Ahmed Dogan, could become deputy premier, although he himself is not insisting on it.

This is a historic change for Bulgaria. The Turkish community which today makes up 10 percent of the population of eight million, has been subject to oppression and discrimination ever since Bulgaria managed to free itself from Ottoman rule in the late 19th century. Its size used to be much larger. Less than a century ago there were well over a million Turks in Bulgaria. The treatment accorded them by succeeding governments in Sofia forced many to emigrate to Turkey. They have been almost a non-people. During the Communist era, the authorities virtually denied their existence. There was heavy pressure on them to assimilate. They were not allowed to use their Muslim and Turkish names in schools, at work or on any official documentation; they had to accept Bulgarian Christian ones; and all other visible expressions of their Turkish and Muslim identity were firmly frowned upon. It has been better since the overthrow of communism, but Turkish villages, mainly near the border with Turkey, are still second-class when it comes to government funding for schools, clinics, roads, and other infrastructural investment.

It is not all good news on the ethnic front. Not everyone in Bulgaria is happy at having Turks in the government. One of the parties which Simon had hoped to draw into the coalition, the Union of Democratic Forces, and with whom his party spent four weeks in negotiations has refused to join specifically because of the presence of the Movement for Rights and Freedom, even though there are no policy differences between them. Ethnic resentment is clearly alive and flourishing in some parts of Bulgaria. Before last month’s elections, Simon said he wanted to be a leader of all Bulgarians. He has kept his word. He did not actually want to be prime minister; he had hoped to appoint someone else as part of a grand coalition; he has taken the job only because no one else would do it, not if it meant Turks sitting in the Cabinet. His insistence that they be included merits considerable praise. He sets a standard that others in the Balkans should copy.