Mosques
Five hundred years of Turkish occupation left Bulgaria with some of the finest Islamic architecture in the Balkans. Prestige mosques (such as the Tombul Dzhamiya in Shumen) were restored and opened to the public by the Communist authorities, but the vast majority suffered as a result of the government's anti-Turkish policies. Many were left to slide into disrepair while others were demolished - especially during the mid-1980s, when the so-called "Regeneration Process" was at its height. Surviving mosques in Muslim areas have now been returned to the Islamic community and many Pomak villages that were formerly forbidden from building their own mosques are now doing so. Outside of purely Muslim areas, mosques are rarely open other than at prayer times due to acts of racist vandalism or the theft of kilims and other valuables, which are spirited across the border to be sold to dealers in Istanbul.
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