Bulgaria Embarks on New Quest for Cyrillic Web Domain

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has turned down in Many Bulgaria's proposal for a domain name in Cyrillic with a "бг" suffix. File photo

A poll, proposing four new versions for a Bulgarian domain in Cyrillic, has been published on the official site of the Transport Ministry in a bid to pick the one with the largest public approval.

The new versions that are subject to public discussion are “българия,” “бгр,” “бул” and/ or “бя.”

The move comes in the wake of the refusal of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to accept Bulgaria's proposal for a domain name in Cyrillic with a "бг" suffix.

The news that the proposal was turned down did not come as a big surprise since the proposed domain name was harshly criticized in Bulgaria long before it was submitted for approval by ICANN with opponents, saying it resembles too much Brazil's domain name.

Bulgarians selected the now rejected "бг" suffix with a large majority during the first poll, which showed the second most preferred suffix to be "бгр".

The procedure for registering internet addresses with alphabets different than Latin was officially launched on November 16, 2009.

At the beginning of May three Mideast countries and Russia became the first to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.

Domain names in Arabic for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were added to the internet's master directories, following final approval last month by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. A suffix for Russia in Cyrillic was also added to the list shortly afterward.

ICANN said it has received a total of 21 requests for such domains representing 11 languages so far.

This is the first major change to the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

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