Bulgaria Teen-Ager Uses Undercover Ploy to Join Exodus
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ISTANBUL, Turkey — A teen-ager hiding under a blanket in the trunk of a car was among 3,800 ethnic Turks who arrived in Turkey from Bulgaria in the past 24 hours, Anatolian news agency reported Saturday.
“If they’d caught me, I’d have been put in prison for the rest of my life,” 18-year-old Nihat Nurettinoglu told the agency after arriving in the trunk of his sister’s car.
Nurettinoglu said he had not been given a passport with the rest of his family because he was eligible for military service. Turkey says many families in similar situations in Bulgaria have left their young men behind.
The new arrivals, carrying as much luggage as they could over the refugee-clogged border, brought to 146,000 the number of ethnic Turks who have fled Bulgaria since early June, Turkish officials said.
The Turks say they are escaping from a five-year program of forced assimilation, including compulsory name changes. Bulgaria says those going to Turkey are tourists.
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