Country: Bulgaria

Group: Turks

Date: 01/31/2022

Name: Nichole Dahlen (Lead), Hunter Blevins, Erin Fagan, Blake Coram

Content Warning: Ethnocide, forced relocation, religious persecution, police violence

Approximate Time Period: 1958-1990

Beginning in 1958 Bulgaria, but culminating in 1984-1989, the Bulgarian government began an assimilation program (Bell, n.d.). The government merged Turkish and Bulgarian schools, eliminated the Turkish language in school, discontinued Turkish press, banned Muslim activities, changed Turkish names to Bulgarian names, and fined people for speaking Turkish in public (Bell, n.d., Minority Rights Group, 2015). The state fired, arrested, and brutalized Turks who resisted (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Protests and hunger strikes ensued. In reaction, the state expelled Turkish leaders to Turkey and intimidated Turks into leaving Bulgaria using police violence. Between June and August 1989, approximately 350,000 Turks fled Bulgaria (Minority Rights Group, 2015). The number of Turks who left voluntarily remains a question. Smilov and Jileva (2010) claim the Bulgarian government expended great effort to push the narrative that the resettlement was a voluntary, “great excursion”. Meanwhile, Dişbudak and Purkis (2014) recognize some forced expulsion occurred and explain the emigration of Turks as a population fleeing an oppressive state. Mahon (1999) reported that state policy was drafted to indirectly force Turks into leaving the country while allowing the state to claim Turks left voluntarily. Overall, while different sources point to varying levels of government force in Turkish emigration, this remains a case of forced away due to government policies and persecution that targeted the Turkish population.

After Zhivkov resigned in November 1989, the new Bulgarian government passed legislation that returned confiscated property to Turks who left Bulgaria during 1989, authorized all Bulgarians to choose their names, permitted Turkish classes in schools, and legalized Muslim services (Bell, n.d., Minority Rights Group, 2015, Jileva, 2010). As a result, 130,000 Turks returned to Bulgaria (Minority Rights Group, 2015). However, to this day, using Turkish for election campaigning is illegal, and Turkish classes are elective (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Additionally, since 2013, xenophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric have been on the rise in Bulgaria. (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

Ample evidence exists from reliable resources, but there is confusion between narratives, leaving some level of ambiguity.  As such, the data quality ranking is 2/3.

Sources

  1. Bell, J. Dimitrov, P., (n.d.). Bulgaria—Late communist rule | Britannica. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Bulgaria/Late-communist-rule
  2. Dişbudak, C., & Purkis, S. (2016). Forced Migrants or Voluntary Exiles: Ethnic Turks of Bulgaria in Turkey. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 17(2), 371–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-014-0411-z
  3. Jileva, E., Smilov, D. (2010, January) EUDO Citizenship Observatory Country Report: Bulgaria Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/19606/Bulgaria2010.pdf?sequence=1
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2015, June 19). Turks. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/turks-2/
  5. Vasileva, D. (1992). Bulgarian Turkish Emigration and Return. The International Migration Review, 26(2), 342–352. https://doi.org/10.2307/2547061