Unicode sql query in cx_Oracle

Question

i have the following:

ora_wet = oracle_connection()
cursor = ora_wet.cursor()
sqlQuery = u"SELECT * FROM web_cities WHERE cty_name = 'София'"
cursor.execute(sqlQuery)
sqlResult = cursor.fetchone()

When I do this I get a TypeError: expecting None or a string on line 18 which is the cursor.execute(sqlQuery)

If I make the query non-unicode (without the u) it goes through but it returns nothing

edit: in reply to first comment:

NLS_LANGUAGE is BULGARIAN,

NLS_CHARACTERSET is CL8MSWIN1251

language is Python...

yes there is a record with cty_name = 'София'

connection is just:

def oracle_connection():
    return cx_Oracle.connect('user/pass@server')

ora_wet = oracle_connection()