TWENTY years after the events of 1984, which forced 300 000 Bulgarians of Turkish origin to abandon their houses and flee to Turkey, historians refer to those times as enforced Bulgarisation.
The rest of the ethnic minority in the country was forced to change their names and other harsh measures were imposed to force integration, or Slavianisation. The measures, which including forcing many ethnic Turks to change their religion, were repressive and inhuman. It was a politically driven campaign revealing the intolerance towards Bulgaria’s largest ethnic minority.
Bulgaria’s then communist government persecuted Bulgarian Turks by banning the teaching of the Turkish language, use of ethnic names and Islamic religious practices. Today 20 years after, the association for justice and rights in the Balkans, in the Turkish town of Bursa, has sought to put the issue on the agenda. It has addressed many leading institutions, political parties, group organisations and the media in Bulgaria.
“It has been 20 years since the beginning of a sinister, merciless and immoral operation aimed at liquidating the Turkish minority in Bulgaria,” their statement said.
So what in fact happened in the period between 1984 until 1989? In 1984 a national crack down was launched to erase the ethnic identity of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria. In 1986 Amnesty International estimated that 900 000 ethnic Turks were living in Bulgaria but Bulgarian officials at that time claimed there were no longer any ethnic Turks as a national minority. It was claimed that all the Muslims in Bulgaria were descended from Bulgarians who had been forced into the Islamic faith by the Ottoman Turks.
Teaching the Turkish language was prohibited by the government and 1300 Turkish mosques were closed. Turks were forced to Slavicise their names and to renounce all Muslim customs. Education in their ethnic language was prohibited, and police brutality was used to put down any resistance. Residents of Turkish populated areas were issued new passports with Bulgarian names. Failure to present the new documents meant forfeiture of salary, pension payments, and a prohibition on bank withdrawals. Birth or marriage certificates would be issued only in Bulgarian names. Traditional ethnic costumes were banned, even homes were searched and all signs of Turkish identity was confiscated. During the repressive assimilation the State Security, the militia, the special forces and the army allegedly used violence against ethnic Turks who resisted adopting Bulgarian names in place of their Turkish ones. Reportedly, many ethnic Turks were murdered but there are no records to reveal the brutality. Allegedly, between 500 to 1500 people were killed when they resisted assimilation measures, and thousands of others were imprisoned or were forcibly resettled elsewhere.
Others were imprisoned for refusing to co-operate with the assimilation techniques and the needed-by-the-state measures. The official institutions and authorities back then, accused ethnic Turks of being responsible for a bombing campaign in which almost 30 Bulgarians lost their lives. Their guilt was never proven, but it was used to arouse hatred against the minority and to support Bulgarisation propaganda.
The communist “Zhivkov regime,” named after Todor Zhivkov, persecuted the Turkish population, which numbered over one million people. Many people did not welcome the regime’s actions and were outraged at the exodus of Turks from Bulgaria. Riots followed, mainly in Sofia, demanding respect and protection for human rights.
The motives and purpose of the repressive 1984 assimilation campaign is still unclear, but historians believe that the ratio between Turkish birth rates and the Bulgarians was a major factor. Statistics from the period show that the birth rate for Turks was about two percent compared to just above zero for Bulgarians. The 1985 census would have stressed that this discrepancy. Others speculate that the low birth rate revealed the many failures of the Zhivkov regime.
The 1992 census showed that there were 822 253 people that belonged to the Turkish minority, making them 9.7 per cent of the population. They lived mainly in two major Turkish regions in Bulgaria: Shumen and Razgrad in the north, and Kardjali and Haskovo in the south.
Since November 1990 things have changed dramatically. One year after the changes the most important issue for the minority was to restore Turkish language teaching in the ethnic districts. In 1993 Turkish language education was restarted in such schools. The Turkish language taught and spoken in Bulgaria now, is much closer to the language spoken in contemporary Turkey. There are Turkish language broadcasts on Bulgarian National Radio, and there are also news broadcasts on National Television. Bulgarian Turkish language newspapers are also published. Today, the coalition Government includes the ethnic minority party, the Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The rest of the ethnic minority in the country was forced to change their names and other harsh measures were imposed to force integration, or Slavianisation. The measures, which including forcing many ethnic Turks to change their religion, were repressive and inhuman. It was a politically driven campaign revealing the intolerance towards Bulgaria’s largest ethnic minority.
Bulgaria’s then communist government persecuted Bulgarian Turks by banning the teaching of the Turkish language, use of ethnic names and Islamic religious practices. Today 20 years after, the association for justice and rights in the Balkans, in the Turkish town of Bursa, has sought to put the issue on the agenda. It has addressed many leading institutions, political parties, group organisations and the media in Bulgaria.
“It has been 20 years since the beginning of a sinister, merciless and immoral operation aimed at liquidating the Turkish minority in Bulgaria,” their statement said.
So what in fact happened in the period between 1984 until 1989? In 1984 a national crack down was launched to erase the ethnic identity of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria. In 1986 Amnesty International estimated that 900 000 ethnic Turks were living in Bulgaria but Bulgarian officials at that time claimed there were no longer any ethnic Turks as a national minority. It was claimed that all the Muslims in Bulgaria were descended from Bulgarians who had been forced into the Islamic faith by the Ottoman Turks.
Teaching the Turkish language was prohibited by the government and 1300 Turkish mosques were closed. Turks were forced to Slavicise their names and to renounce all Muslim customs. Education in their ethnic language was prohibited, and police brutality was used to put down any resistance. Residents of Turkish populated areas were issued new passports with Bulgarian names. Failure to present the new documents meant forfeiture of salary, pension payments, and a prohibition on bank withdrawals. Birth or marriage certificates would be issued only in Bulgarian names. Traditional ethnic costumes were banned, even homes were searched and all signs of Turkish identity was confiscated. During the repressive assimilation the State Security, the militia, the special forces and the army allegedly used violence against ethnic Turks who resisted adopting Bulgarian names in place of their Turkish ones. Reportedly, many ethnic Turks were murdered but there are no records to reveal the brutality. Allegedly, between 500 to 1500 people were killed when they resisted assimilation measures, and thousands of others were imprisoned or were forcibly resettled elsewhere.
Others were imprisoned for refusing to co-operate with the assimilation techniques and the needed-by-the-state measures. The official institutions and authorities back then, accused ethnic Turks of being responsible for a bombing campaign in which almost 30 Bulgarians lost their lives. Their guilt was never proven, but it was used to arouse hatred against the minority and to support Bulgarisation propaganda.
The communist “Zhivkov regime,” named after Todor Zhivkov, persecuted the Turkish population, which numbered over one million people. Many people did not welcome the regime’s actions and were outraged at the exodus of Turks from Bulgaria. Riots followed, mainly in Sofia, demanding respect and protection for human rights.
The motives and purpose of the repressive 1984 assimilation campaign is still unclear, but historians believe that the ratio between Turkish birth rates and the Bulgarians was a major factor. Statistics from the period show that the birth rate for Turks was about two percent compared to just above zero for Bulgarians. The 1985 census would have stressed that this discrepancy. Others speculate that the low birth rate revealed the many failures of the Zhivkov regime.
The 1992 census showed that there were 822 253 people that belonged to the Turkish minority, making them 9.7 per cent of the population. They lived mainly in two major Turkish regions in Bulgaria: Shumen and Razgrad in the north, and Kardjali and Haskovo in the south.
Since November 1990 things have changed dramatically. One year after the changes the most important issue for the minority was to restore Turkish language teaching in the ethnic districts. In 1993 Turkish language education was restarted in such schools. The Turkish language taught and spoken in Bulgaria now, is much closer to the language spoken in contemporary Turkey. There are Turkish language broadcasts on Bulgarian National Radio, and there are also news broadcasts on National Television. Bulgarian Turkish language newspapers are also published. Today, the coalition Government includes the ethnic minority party, the Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
