Due to important new circumstances and to consultations with my mentors, concerning the effectiveness of the Project’s activities, I introduced two changes in the time-plan of my Project, which do not affect its scope and its objectives:

• the study visits to Greece and Macedonia, which were planned for the first half of 2001 had to be postponed for the fall of 2001. In the conditions of the present conflict in Macedonia it seems not reasonable to make inquiries there about the education of Islamic-minority children. I hope that within the next several months the situation will change for the better and the trip will be possible. Unexpectedly I had problems also with the organization of my study visit to Greece. It seems that there are some concerns there at the moment about the Turkish and Pomak minorities in Northern Greece, and my attempts to get assistance from my colleagues from the Democritus University were not successful so far. However, an improvement in Macedonia should influence positively also the situation in Greece, and I hope to conduct my research there too.
• After consultations with my mentor, Assoc. Prof. M. Grekova on the preparation of the typological sample of the sociological survey, we came to the conclusion that it would be better if the survey, which was planned for the towns of Shumen, Plovdiv, Kurdzhali and Smoljan, be carried out in a more focused way, i.e. only at two places, Shumen and Sliven, but including two phases: first interviews with teachers, and after that – the survey proper with the students. The interviews were to be used in the preparation of the questionnaire. Besides, we came to the idea that it would be more appropriate if the interviews and the survey are carried out for a shorter time, but by two persons. So, instead of 4 preparatory visits of 3 days each, and 5 survey visits of 5 days each (altogether 32 man/days), as planned, we had 2 interview visits of 2 persons for 3 days and 2 survey visits of 2 persons for 3 days (altogether 24 man/days), which was, in the last account, cheaper.
• The postponing of the visits to Greece and Macedonia, and the more intensive realization of the survey made it possible to finish the technical processing of the data from the survey earlier than planned, i.e. not in July, but in June.

1. Participation in the eighth IPF Seminar, Budapest - February 2001
2. Consultations with mentor Assoc. Prof. Dr M. Grekova – March 2001
3. Preparation of the theoretical model of the sociological survey – March 2001
4. Preparation of the typological sample of the survey – March 2001
5. Preparation of the interview model – April 2001
6. Conducting the interviews with 14 teachers in Sliven and Shumen – April 2001
7. Preparation of the questionnaire – May 2001
8. Conducting the survey at 6 schools – 2 in Sliven, 1 in Novachevo, 2 in Shumen and 1 in Malomir – May 2001
9. Participation in the ninth IPF Seminar, Budapest – June 2001
10. Technical processing of the data from the survey - June 2001
11. Primary analysis of the data from the survey - June 2001

On behalf of Sofia University I organized the seminar “Balkan cultural identities and civil society”, 22.04 - 24.04.2001, Sofia. Scholars from Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Yugoslavia and the USA took part. It was decided that the work on this theme continues in the form of research by national teams from all the Balkan countries, involved (participation of scholars from Turkey and Albania is to be arranged). A comparative sociological survey on the value systems in the Balkan countries is to be prepared and, if financial support is found, carried out in 2002.

On 05.05.– 06.05.2001 I took part in the Conference “Human Rights And The Dialogue Of Civilizations” in Teheran. It was organized under the aegis of the President Khatami and was associated with his initiative that the UN declares 2001 as the Year of the Dialogue of Civilizations. The conference was organized by the Mufid University in Qom, the ideological “stronghold” of the Islamic revolution in Iran. Invited from abroad were, altogether, about 20 scholars from the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Bulgaria, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Nigeria. See IRAN REPORT (different from IRAN PAPER)

I presented a paper, titled “Human Rights and Cultural Identity. The Role of the Public Sphere”. It will appear in the proceedings of the Conference, which are prepared for publication at Mufid University. The paper’s full text is available as an appendix to this report.  IRAN PAPER

BACK TO INTERIM REPORTS