advertisement
Sat, Feb 11 2012
The exodus of Bulgaria's Turkish minority - 20 years on
Communist leader Todor Zhivkov pictured in 1989
Photo: Zhivko Angelov
The BBC is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the exodus of Bulgarian Turks from Bulgaria into Turkey by offering a slideshow and an interview to illustrate the events.
Historians disagree about whether the exodus was planned by the Bulgarian authorities.
The build-up to the flight of Turkish Bulgarians started in spring 1989. Communist ruler Todor Zhivkov gave a speech on May 29 in which he stated that ethnic Turks who did not wish to live in Bulgaria could emigrate to Turkey. He demanded that Turkey open its borders to receive all "Bulgarian Muslims", who wanted to live there.
Mass demonstrations in major cities and the regions like Razgrad, Shumen, Kardzhali and Silistra continued systematically throughout May 1989. Initially, some Turkish Bulgarians were forcibly deported to Turkey. Then others, driven by the frenzied atmosphere of fear and panic, followed suit.
On the BBC's slideshow a Bulgarian-Turkish man named Serkan, then a 14-year-old boy, is heard relating how the attempts by Communists (in what turned out to be the dying days of Zhivkov's rule) to "prevent us from practising our religion and language" turned Bulgarians and more than a quarter of a million ethnic Turks into bitter enemies.
Forced out of Bulgaria, the narrator explains how the journey between his Bulgarian hometown of Silistra and Istanbul in Turkey took seven or eight days back in 1989. He relates how a huge convoy of buses and cars often ran out of supplies, having to stop at roadside cafes where the only food available was mushroom soup. "To this day I don't like mushroom soup," Serkan reveals.
In total, about 300 000 people made the journey from Bulgaria to Turkey, either staying with relatives in Turkey (if they had them) or refugee camps set up by the Turkish government. The event became known as "The Big Excursion".
"The capitalist economy (in Turkey) was a big shock to us," says Serkan. "We went through a difficult period adjusting to a system which was alien to us. In addition, we had to co-adjust to a religion that until then hadn't played a big role in our lives."
Serkan tells how when his family returned to Bulgaria in 1991 (by that time in the post-Communist area) they waged a legal battle to recover their Turkish names. They also had to buy back their original home at three times the price they had sold it for.
"For those who took part in those events the wounds haven't healed," he says.
Ironically, Serkan reveals that his father now lives in fear once more, not of the communists but of far-right groups who threaten them.
He says that what happened to his people 20 years ago was until a recently a taboo subject and that he and his brethren remain an isolated in Bulgaria.
Historians disagree about whether the exodus was planned by the Bulgarian authorities.
The build-up to the flight of Turkish Bulgarians started in spring 1989. Communist ruler Todor Zhivkov gave a speech on May 29 in which he stated that ethnic Turks who did not wish to live in Bulgaria could emigrate to Turkey. He demanded that Turkey open its borders to receive all "Bulgarian Muslims", who wanted to live there.
Mass demonstrations in major cities and the regions like Razgrad, Shumen, Kardzhali and Silistra continued systematically throughout May 1989. Initially, some Turkish Bulgarians were forcibly deported to Turkey. Then others, driven by the frenzied atmosphere of fear and panic, followed suit.
On the BBC's slideshow a Bulgarian-Turkish man named Serkan, then a 14-year-old boy, is heard relating how the attempts by Communists (in what turned out to be the dying days of Zhivkov's rule) to "prevent us from practising our religion and language" turned Bulgarians and more than a quarter of a million ethnic Turks into bitter enemies.
Forced out of Bulgaria, the narrator explains how the journey between his Bulgarian hometown of Silistra and Istanbul in Turkey took seven or eight days back in 1989. He relates how a huge convoy of buses and cars often ran out of supplies, having to stop at roadside cafes where the only food available was mushroom soup. "To this day I don't like mushroom soup," Serkan reveals.
In total, about 300 000 people made the journey from Bulgaria to Turkey, either staying with relatives in Turkey (if they had them) or refugee camps set up by the Turkish government. The event became known as "The Big Excursion".
"The capitalist economy (in Turkey) was a big shock to us," says Serkan. "We went through a difficult period adjusting to a system which was alien to us. In addition, we had to co-adjust to a religion that until then hadn't played a big role in our lives."
Serkan tells how when his family returned to Bulgaria in 1991 (by that time in the post-Communist area) they waged a legal battle to recover their Turkish names. They also had to buy back their original home at three times the price they had sold it for.
"For those who took part in those events the wounds haven't healed," he says.
Ironically, Serkan reveals that his father now lives in fear once more, not of the communists but of far-right groups who threaten them.
He says that what happened to his people 20 years ago was until a recently a taboo subject and that he and his brethren remain an isolated in Bulgaria.
-
Print
-
Send via email
- Translate to
-
Share:
Comments
To post comments, please, Login or Register.
Please read the The Sofia Echo forum comments policy.
Bulgaria has 920 000 Muslims – new report
Muslims make up 12.2 per cent of Bulgaria’s population; of the Muslims in Bulgaria, up to 15 per cent are Shia. Europe has 38 million Muslims, five per cent of its population.
More in this category
US embassy in Sofia announces youth essay contest
Works will be reviewed by a group of judges, and winners will receive certificates and prizes.
Bulgarian police bust drug distribution gang in ‘Operation Hammer’
Seven arrested, including ‘The Squirrel’ who was found in possession of 10 00 euro, Interior Ministry says. Mobile phones, computer equipment and drug paraphernalia seized.
Bulgaria’s winter weekend weather – cloudy and cold with light snow
Maximum temperatures across the country will remain mostly below zero.
Mild earth tremors in Bulgaria on February 10
The first tremor was at about 12.34am, followed by another three minutes later. Their epicentres were located between the towns of Radnevo and Topolovgrad.
Bulgaria halts electricity exports after power plant accident
There was no risk of blackouts caused by insufficient power supply, Economy Minister Traicho Traikov told Bulgarian National Radio.
© 2000-2012, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.
Web Design by RIZN
Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted.
Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only
with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site.
Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com.
Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments.
The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the
price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes,
and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.
- Economedia Group portfolio:
- In Bulgarian:
-
Business:
Капитал,
Кариери,
Пазари,
Ho Re Mag,
Регал,
Градът.bg,
Одит,
Foton.bg,
Online shop
- News: Дневник, Европа, Foreign Policy - България
- IT: IDG.BG, Computerworld, PC World, CIO, Networkworld
- Entertainment: Бакхус
-
In English:
The Sofia Echo
The NAZI rally in BG in the other tread is an example.
Did you see the transnational spirit of it? There are Bulgarian, American and other's Nation State's flags (symbols) yet they stand for racism. It would seem counterintuitive, but it isn't.
With the gradual demise of the Nation State, humans are re-inventing their means of group identity. In the Gay Pride Parade, we also witnessed a very international collection. So the Gays and the NAZIs are among the new forms of the separation, the post Nation State world will have to endure...
I think Valeri is right about the "nation state" and its origins in the wake of the French Revolution, as well as its sudden manifestation in the "Spring of the Peoples" Revolutionary Year of 1848.
But "Turk" has a very good point too about the fading of the Nation State concept and the rise in perception of minorities' rights.
(Nice to participate in a civilised discussion, unlike some of the other ones on this site !)
Turk:
"What some people don't realise is that the whole concept of nation state failed."
Yeah well, that may be, but I wonder if we'll all live to regret its demise.
You see the Nation State, is just a form of group identity. It came about in the wake of the French Revolution, as an alternative to the outmoded Dynasty based group identity in Europe.
Between the house of Habsburgs, Hohenzollen, the British crown, (with all the offshoots, including the Romanovs), the Sublime Porte, and a few banking interests, there [...]
Read the full comment you had most of the power of Europe, and by extension, of the world.
With the advent of technology and growth of productivity and population, that structure became impractical.
The problem of course is that humans will forever strive towards various forms of exclusivity and slave under the need to stand a part through some type of individual and group identity. I've given this some thought.
It's the form of group identity that's changing, not the essence. In the same time the world seems to be uniting, I think there a case to be made that it's also Balkanizing, albeit on smaller and more niche types of units.
The lesser the role of the Nation State, the closer the physical distance (through people movement) between individuals of various types of groups, and the more amplified the differences - hence the antagonism.
To be honest, I never feel more patriotic for BG as I do when I spend longer period of time among foreigners. Not because Bulgarians are nicer people - far from it, but because after a few years, I start feeling the soft pressure of benign expectation of my assimilation and that goes against my group instinct.
Your dynamic is an interesting one, because as a Bulgarian Turk, probably living in the West (judging by your English), you'd be blessed/cursed with multi-polar group identity, complete with ambivalent emotions attached to it, in that you have little connection with your ethnic mainland, yet some negative associations with the place you have the most connection (childhood), and all that superimposed with the third culture you are navigating.... no wonder you'd be ready to declare the demise of the Nation State;)
Am I far off?
I'm not trying to revive the whole victimhood approach. I'm annoyed at some of the previous comments. Just read the previous posts and you'll know what I mean.
What some people don't realise is that the whole concept of nation state failed. I'm not talking about Bulgaria only, it's the same with the Kurds in Turkey. Minorities aren't the stupid and the quiet people once they were. We are moving to a new liberal era, where the state isn't above the individual but the individual's rights are above the state. In the past, any action to [...]
Read the full comment protect the state and the political power was justified but now the state bends over to provide human rights.
My point is, there is no place for chauvinists in this world.
As for Turkey... I still think Turkey has nothing to do with this subject. It might be because of the Cold War and the possibility of hot contact, Turkey had a largely passive role in this episode. Any involvement by Turkey would have lead to NATO getting involved against a Soviet ally. That's why the Cyprus analogy doesn't apply.
Anyway... If Turkey was a liberal country, it would have been in the EU by now. There are lots of issues to sort out there.
BTW
many people in BG are anti-Russian precisely because of Russia's past.
I find that also shortsighted, because the Russians were/are the biggest victims of Socialism as it usually is - the same way I believe that Muslims are also the biggest victims of Islam.
But let me ask you - on one hand you insist that you are a Turk as any Turk, on the other you stress that we should keep Turkey out of the conversation.
It's intertwined you know. Nothing is in vacuum and Turkey - the [...]
Read the full comment country you have nothing to do with, yet claim their nationality - still refuse to admit genocide against a million Armenians.
If human/minority rights are important to you, this is one fight much more wordy than what the BG commies did.
Our Commies are the same folks that actually killed 100,000 of their own after 9.11.44... no love lost there...
Turk:
"The problem is when I hear people make absurd claims like "Bulgarian Turks aren't Turks" or "the Turks deserve it"."
I never hear anyone I associate with say stupid things like that, but alas, opinions are like a-holes - everyone has one... you can't let that affect you. I have issue with your "group suffering" though.
Think - you are reaching 20 years to claim victimhood, what's the difference for us reaching 100+ years for massacres and reasons to hate? All blink of an eye in [...]
Read the full comment historical terms.
"On top of that trying to justify the past by "putting things into perspective""
I never said that. Expelling the Turks was NOT justified. Yet, given the neighborhood - our only realistic gage for our state of affairs, we've done pretty good with our minorities, since the people actually started having a voice in BG's politics. It's important for you to make the difference - between the time when the majority Bulgarians had no say, and the times when they rule by electing their government. The difference is day and night, when it comes to the way you are treated. That's perspective.
Valeri, in my very first post I stated that I find it sad that the legacy of Zhivkov still lives on, I'm more outraged with the attitude of some people today than what happened in the past. No body is looking for ethnic tensions, we just want to get on with our lives. The problem is when I hear people make absurd claims like "Bulgarian Turks aren't Turks" or "the Turks deserve it". Unfortunately, Zhivkov tried to change the history and some people still believe the bastardised version of history, ie the coffee shop history as someone called it.
[...]
Read the full comment />
On top of that trying to justify the past by "putting things into perspective" is another absurdity. Russia doesn't have good human rights records neither, the Bolsheviks enslaved and killed millions in EE, so let's agitate all the Russians in BG, they deserve it. Can you see how absurd that is?
I hear what you are saying about the current state of the Turks in BG. But you also have to appreciate the fact that we suffered more than any other group in the fall of Communism. From our point of view, the current democracy and the freedom we have feel more earned than given rights. The BBC article largely highlights that part of the history. But some people get offended and they prefer to deny their own history or they try to justify it.
What's done is done, we all moved on. We are Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origins, we do exist and we are peaceful. Claiming the opposite is an insult and divisive.
BTW Turk,
you seem outraged about something that happen 20 years a go, and quite forget that we just got over having basically the Turks in power in BG.
No other Balkan, or other, country which the Ottomans had enslaved, has ever allowed that much political power for their Turks in their independent history.
Bulgarian people have little animosity towards Bulgarian born Turks, which I see it to be mutual... do we love each other - probably not, but it's never too late to hate, as people keep pushing it...
[...]
Read the full comment
To clarify:
The foresight I was referring to isn't the brake-up of the USSR - that may have been guessed by then, although even that prediction would've been stretching their IQ, but the Yugoslav inferno.
Nobody predicted that in 1989.
Turk:
"Trying to discredit Turkey in order to justify the way Bulgarian citizens were treated is absurd."
No my friend, it's called "putting it in perspective", and considering that we were just done talking about Rodney King below, minority right in Turkey are very much related to the topic.
Criticizing BG that it isn't Switzerland, is pointless precisely because it would lack a context. Compared to ALL of our neighbors, Bulgarians have treated our major minority with relative respect. What Zhivov did was deplorable, but I have to [...]
Read the full comment tell you - most of us only heard of it through rumors, and most certainly it was not a popular movement, that the people participated in, as it was the case in YU... When it happened, I frankly didn't believe it, because I was used to no believing much any way.
I think what Epaminonodas is saying is that had Zhivkov not expelled the Turks when he did, in a matter of a few years (when USSR dissolves and Russia is too weak to stand up to the US) there would've been a Yugoslavia there. I personally doubt that, because of the lack of ethnic hate in BG, Yugoslav style, but one never knows.
Either way that would presuppose that Zhivkov and company had an uncanny foresight, and given what a dumb bunch they were, there has to be a BIG question mark there...
As far as your religion - I am glad that you happen to be intelligent, but just look around the world, and get used to people distrust and dislike anyone associate with Islam... I am one of those people, although I always tend to allow for personal exceptions.
Valeri: Unfortunately, the subject isn't the human rights abuses in Turkey. If you have a problem with Turkey, go and post in a more appropriate place. It might come as a surprise to you but I'm an atheist and I don't care much about "Muslim brothers" neither. If you want me to criticise Turkey and the Arabs, I'll be as critical as you want me to be. However, this isn't the place and time for that.
The subject is the way we, a Bulgarian minority, were treated in the hands of Bulgaria in 1980s. Trying to [...]
Read the full comment discredit Turkey in order to justify the way Bulgarian citizens were treated is absurd. Basically, you are saying two wrongs make a right.
BBC got it spot on. We paid a heavy price for democracy in the 1980s.
Epaminondas: You haven't got a clue. You say you saw EE, but you sound like someone who only followed the official line of the Communist party. Zhivkov did not prevent bloodshed, he almost caused a bloodshed.
How is agitating a peaceful community preventing bloodshed? Are you going to imply, like other posters already have, that the Turks in Bulgaria had an IRA, ETA, PKK, or Al Qaida like organisation and that we were ready to rage a war against the state if it wasn't for the big man?
Where are all those alleged terrorists? I'm curious because I haven't met anyone that fits the implied criteria of terrorist in my community.
American:
"... they have not even been into a church since they were baptized so if I was a so called "Orthodox Bulgarian" I wouldn't be using this to throw into any one's face, they are hypocrites."
Yes and that's how we like it. Only a fool would take religion as anything more than cultural identity. Taking religion with actual beliefs, turns you into an American or an Arab. Who wants to be that...
".. in the states we had slavery in the south just 100 yrs ago [...]
Read the full comment and our black are not yelling about it and making it the most important thing in there lives, they have moved on and now enjoy a nice life in the states.."
Sorry, but this is absolute bullshit! Blacks in the US are still calling for reparations, affirmative actions, and pay backs of all kinds. Americans make so much of their insignificant history that it isn't funny. If you listen to them they take credit for everything worth doing in the last 200 years. The US is in such deep, deep kaka and to think that they still give other "advise", is deplorable.
Since you brought up Rodney King - I was there when your minority burt down half of LA, so please keep your minority lectures to yourselves!
A Turk..:
"I'll say it again, Bulgaria was lucky that the Turks chose to be passive against the late 1980s policies. Bulgaria could have easily turned into Yugoslavia. If you think we were aggressive in 1980s, look at the countries around you and see the real meaning of aggression."
I don't think Yugoslavia would've happen before the end of the Cold War. With USSR still standing, the Turks in BG had no choice but to submit.
Bulgarian Turks are fine - people like people. What I find interesting is how few Turks are ever self-critical. The fact that Turks in BG have many more rights than other minorities in Turkey, is seldom discussed. It's similar to the Arab's total intolerance for any expression of Christianity in their lands, yet they are always the first to demand religious rights in Europe.
to Ignorant American - as a free-born Brit, I lived for some years in Communist Eastern Europe preaching the cause of democracy (yes, it could be done !) Zhivkov was no saint, but he prevented widespread bloodshed, which could otherwise have happened.
Life was at its most "free" in Communist Poland, where talk was free and social contacts easy and unwatched. In former East Germany it was quite different. Hungary was more like Poland, and Bulgaria in those days a bit like East Germany. Romania was chaos then, and is chaos now.
Yeah, he was a true communist and so educated, give me a break. As you prob know is communism you do what your told not what you like and you say "he's not that bad" He had a mine like Hitler, strange idea's about a lot of crazy things. Would you like to have him back?
- Dudes, you all talk CRAP here! Todor Zivkov was NOT that bad, and you are TWISTING the true events. You are not reilable - just sound like Echoing Cymbals, spreading coffee-shop history.
I live in BG, I've heard all the stories about this crazy insane so called brilliant Zhivkov who sounds like a nut to me but what do I know, he sounds more like a KKK leader in the states. Most of these issues happened over many centuries ago so what is the problem? I know Bulgarian Turks, they are normal, kind and also smart people, they have seemed to get over the past and just want to move on and be Bulgarians, yeah they may be Muslims but most of the "regular Bulgarians" of orthodox decent don't even practice their [...]
Read the full comment religion, they have these pictures of Jesus or Mary for example in there taxi's and they have not even been into a church since they were baptized so if I was a so called "Orthodox Bulgarian" I wouldn't be using this to throw into any one's face, they are hypocrites. Look, during this terrible time, the Ottoman empire, was so long ago and people are still living there lives as if this happened yesterday, in the states we had slavery in the south just 100 yrs ago and our black are not yelling about it and making it the most important thing in there lives, they have moved on and now enjoy a nice life in the states, yes we have poverty in the black community as we do in some white community's, it's not about black or white it's about sticking together and doing what is best to survive today, together as a people, not a divided people but just Bulgarian people and fight the corruption that all of you have to deal with everyday in your country and govt. All of you Bulgarians have so many more important issues to think about and deal with then to sit and argue about something that happeded so long ago that the history isn't even so clear about it and then you take the words of this crazy commie Zhikov who I heard wrote some books but actually someone else wrote them because he only had an 8th grade education so I don't think he wrote them, someone just wrote down his twisted thoughts and look where it got Bulgaria.
People, Bulgaria has so much potential to be such a great country if you all just stick together and fight for your rights the best way you can and just hope that things will change at a faster rate then they are now. The Education in this country needs so much improvment, for example the medical schools in Bulgaria are only 6yrs longs, you didn't have to do well in high school you just needed to know the right people or pay off the right people and now the quality of health care in Bulgaria is so scary, imagin that after a man or a woman goes to medical school for just 6yrs they can hang a sign on some office and treat patients, do you really thing they have any clue what the hell they are doing? NO, trust me they do not. It's a learn as you go system and it's at the risk of all of you. My point is you all have bigger fish to fry, get your head out of the 8th century or whenever and get with the 21st century and pull together and do what you must do to improve your life now and not thing about Turks or Bulgars and all this crazy talk. I know it's an important part of your history and it should not be forgotten but just don't relive it now, move on and just love your fellow man, that's all. This American sees how much potential this country has, so why don't you all see it and I've been here for 7yrs. Like Rodney King once said "Can't we all just get along"? Have a nice day all!
BOBO, Thanks god, Turkish citizens of Bulgaria do not have twisted mine like yours. If every problem in this world were solved with EYE for an EYE the world would have been unbearable place for living organisms.
You are attributing one incident to the whole Turkish minority of Bulgaria. In effect you are labelling all of us as terrorists. The incident you are referring to was a terrorist attack and the perpetrators were executed for their actions.
You are implying that such behaviour was organised and wide spread.
Now, how many Turks have you met in Bulgaria who actively or passively supported terrorism? Before you label a large group of people as terrorists, stop and think twice or you are risking creating division in your own country.
[...]
Read the full comment
I'll say it again, Bulgaria was lucky that the Turks chose to be passive against the late 1980s policies. Bulgaria could have easily turned into Yugoslavia. If you think we were aggressive in 1980s, look at the countries around you and see the real meaning of aggression.
Yes, Turkish specialize in denial, like Armenian genocide denial, Bulgarian and Greek genocide denial...do not blame Bulgarians for Turkish expulsions, the guilty are international Bolshevik Communists, why don't you put THEM on trial?
I for one think that Bulgaria has far greater issues which concern all of its citizens. Such arguments will lead to no results.
Ha, then 9/11 was an isolated incident too. That’s what we'll be calling acts of terrorism from now on - "isolated incidents".
"They blew up a train full of women and children for Christ's sake!"
Even some Bulgarian politicians have suggested this "isolated" incident was more likely to had been organised by the regime than the Turks. For the sake of argument, let's assume the Turks were responsible for the bombing, it is still an isolated event in what was an organised and mass scale prosecution of the Turks.
"Chose peace over bloodshed”?!
They blew up a train full of women and children for Christ's sake! Is that what you call "peace over bloodshed"? You know I regret that the Ottoman Empire did not continue its expansion. It should have swept through Europe all the way to GB. The Turks would have slaughtered you all indiscriminately.
Todor Zhivkov, the communist leader of Bulgaria was "INSTIGATOR" of the events. It is absurd to think that he prevented the bloodshed in Bulgaria. The Turkish people theme-selves alone prevented the bloodshed during the Bulgarization campaign. They chose the peace over bloodshed and left the country. The Bulgarian politicians and Bulgarians should be thank full to their Turkish citizens that they did not opted for the destruction of the country. Today Bulgaria still would have been in ruins and would have been the poorest country in the continent.
20-25 years ago the Turks living in Bulgaria prevented a second Cyprus from happening by being passive against the aggressive Zhivkov regime.
20 years ago Mr. Todor Zhivkov prevented a second Cyprus. In Bulgaria the turkish minority always was a part of the agressive policy of Turkey.
This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained реклама & спам
This subject is very important for Turkish citizens of Bulgaria and therefore the relation between the majority population (BULGARS ) and the minority population ( TURKS ) of Bulgaria not defined objectively within the parameters of the 20th or 21st Centuries thinking. The Bulgarian right wing politicians always try to based their arguments regarding the relations between Bulgarians and the their Turkish citizens how the Turks treated the BULGARS during Ottoman rule. In another words their age has reached 130, but their minds are still in infancy stage and have not developed fully. I do not want to get into [...]
Read the full comment an argument regarding the events took place during the” Bulgarization “period of 1985 to 1989, because what happened and how it happened, the events are very well documented by various “ HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS “ like The Norwegian Helsinki Committee Report , The Minority Rights Group Report, Amnesty International Report and the USA Senate Report on Human Rights. Rather, I would like to point out that if was not for the rational thinking of the leading members of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria the event might have turned very ugly. Bulgarian politicians do not have to look far,they just have to analyze the events between various ethnic groups in former Yugoslavia. In my view the Turkish minority in Bulgaria have accepted the Historical developments in the Balkan Peninsula and have carried their lives forward under new rules and regulation. They have understood that in order to advance and have better job opportunities they had to learn the language of the business which in this case was Bulgarian. But that does not mean that they have to give up teaching their children their own language, religion and culture.
Thank you Kavacik - excellent post. Current Bulgarian Nationalism stems from Communist Propaganda and masks a suspicion that the BGians share more in common with TK than most people realise.
Thanks to kavacik and a Turk born in Bulgaria.
Well the past is the past. No need to relive it again, right? After all we all have Turkish friends in BG.
Let be clear on one thing, we are Bulgarian citizens of Turkish nationality or ethnic Turkish citizens of Bulgaria. We do not see ourselves as Bulgarian Turks. The Turks in Bulgaria are not deriving from the Bulgarian nationality, but the reverse is true. The present Bulgarians ancestors "Proto-Bulgarians" belong to one of the Turco-Tataric tribes who have conquered the present Bulgaria towards the end of the 7th Century. Eventually The Proto- Bulgarians in the middle of the 8th century under the ruler khan Boris adopted the customs and the language of the Slavs. ( Just to make a point at [...]
Read the full comment the time the Turkic speaking tribes were not part of the Islamic Religion yet). After tsar Simeon died in 927 his kingdom began to decline and latter his kingdom become part of Bezants empire . Therefore, when Ottomans conquered the so-called Bulgarian land there were no Bulgarian country in real sense.
Some of the Bulgarian historians might disagree about whether the EXODUS of was planed by the Bulgarian communist government or not has no bearing on the facts. We all know that consequent Bulgarian governments starting from the creation of the independent Bulgaria had delibrate policy to keep the population of the minority Turks in Bulgaria under check. The Bulgarian secret services more or less were predicting the end of the communist era , They new if they did not do anything drastically soon, feature Bulgarian governments would not be able to curve the Turkish population and therefore they would have larger number of representation in the parliament.
Jobo, very clever comments on your side. Go back in history and throw in a few alleged facts. Likewise, I'm sure the Greeks weren't happy when the Slav and the Bulgar tribes moved south of the Danube river. Whatever the history, two wrongs don't make a right.
hey Turko, i am sure you think Bulgarians lived with harmony under 500 years Ottoman holocaust genocide against Bulgarians,...you must apoligize and pay reparations just like Germans to Jews
Reading the comments I can see that the legacy of Zhivkov still lives on. Bulgarian Turks aren't Turks? I can see why Serkan and his father would be wary of the right wing Bulgarians.
It's a shame really. We used to live in harmony with our Bulgarian neighbours till 1985, then everything broke down.
And what would that be if I may dare to ask? Ignoring the fact that the Turks blew up a train full of women and children back in 1985? Or that they subjected the Armenian people to genocide?
There is no right perspective in history. There's only historical fact!!!
lan!... Read and learn the history from correct perspective...
indeed, for the BBC to criticize the decisions of Bulgarian Communists is totally anti-semitic!!
The Bulgars have nothing to do with the the Ottoman Turks. You all seem to be disregarding the fact that Bulgaria has been under Turkish domination for 5 centuries and during that time they've killed millions and millions of Bulgarians and have burnt most churches and monasteries. The Turks are not the victims here.
Ethnic Turks should just be left alone. One should not question their ethnicity, especially since todays Bulgarians come from the Bulgars who were a Turkic group anyway.
I can't beleive the absurd description of anybody as Bulgarian Turk. This is as weird as Scottish Brit or Irish Brit. This in my opinion somehow mixes nationality and religion in the same desription even though they are something different. Also it describes that ethnic group in a very wrong way, at least most of them are bulgarian muslims and the rest ethnic Turks, but bulgarian turk is absurd!!!
I have to disagree with the words used to describe those people, they are not ethnic turks, or at least most of them. May be you should pay more attention to what has happened in the rhodopa region in the last 20 years, and try to be not so politically correct!