Country: Bulgaria

Group: Turks

Date Finalized: 02/28/2022

Team: Amanda Nelson (lead), Rayna Castillo, Laura Haas, Nichole Dahlen

Content Warning: targeted lethal violence.

Approximate Time Period: 1940-present

            Since the end of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria in 1908, Turks in Bulgaria have faced various forms of discrimination and lethal violence.  During WWII, Bulgarians inflicted lethal violence against the Turks. As a result, many Turks fled Bulgaria causing the Turkish population to drop below ten percent (CIA, 2021; Haberman, 1989; Küçükcan, 1999). Bulgaria’s government implemented a forced assimilation policy targeting the Turks (Minority Rights, 2021). The policy began to peak in 1958 when Turks resisted changing their names to Bulgarian names (Minority Rights, 2021). Bulgarians began excluding Turks from employment, as well as arresting, deporting and even killing them during this time (Bell, n.d.; Kamusella, 2019; Minority Rights, 2021).  From December 1984 through May 1985, Bulgarian forces executed several hundred Turks across Bulgaria for non-compliance with the forced assimilation policies as part of a process known as “Bulgarisation” (Federal Research Division, 1992; Minority Rights, 2021; UPI, 1986; Wikimedia, 2022). The Bulgarian government sanctioned the assassination of up to 1,500 ethnic Turks during this time (Federal Research Division, 1992; Minority Rights, 2021). In 1989, the Turks participated in mass protests and hunger strikes in response to discriminatory policies (Minority Rights, 2021). The Bulgarians retaliated with forced deportation of Turkish leaders and extreme police violence towards ethnic Turkish citizens (Minority Rights, 2021). There are also reports of Turkish concentration camps, with two specific locations (Haskovo and Belene Island) housing an estimated several thousand Turks (Dergipark; Google Books).The lethal acts of violence continued until the Communist regime was overthrown on November 10, 1989 (Küçükcan, 1999; Wikimedia, 2022).

Turks faced a reinvigoration of anti-Turkish rhetoric in 2005 (Kavalski, 2007). According to Amnesty International, many Turks fail to report victimization from hate crimes out of fear of further discrimination from Bulgarian police forces (Amnesty International, 2015). From January 2013 through March 2014, there were 80 pre-trial proceedings for hate crimes against minorities in Bulgaria, including Turks (Amnesty International, 2015). According to the United States’ State Department, there is ongoing government sanctioned police violence targeting Turks in Bulgaria, with little to no resolution for the victims (U.S. State Department, 2021). Although the level of discrimination towards Turks has improved since the fall of the Communist party, the government continued fining individuals for speaking Turkish in public as recently as 2014 (Jileva, 2010; Minority Rights, 2022). Due to the ongoing discrimination, many individuals choose not to disclose their ethnicity on official census reports, and as a result less than nine percent of Bulgarians identify as Turkish (Minority Rights, 2022).

Data Quality: 3/3 There are ample reputable sources recording the instances of lethal violence targeting Turks in Bulgaria throughout the 20th Century.

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. Laber, J. (1987). Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Bulgaria (Vol. 1245). Human Rights Watch.
  3. Bronck, J. (2019, May 8). The Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria: The Bronx Daily. The Bronx Daily | Bronx.com. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://bronx.com/the-turkish-atrocities-in-bulgaria/ 
  4. Bulgaria must investigate and prosecute hate crimes to end climate of Fear. Amnesty International. (2015, February 9). Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/02/bulgaria-must-investigate-and-prosecute-hate-crimes-end-climate-fear/ 
  5. Bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor. (2021, November 4). 2020 country reports on Human Rights Practices – United States Department of State. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ 
  6. Central Intelligence Agency. (2021, October). Bulgaria. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bulgaria/#people-and-society 
  7. Ataöv, Türkkaya. “The turks of Bulgaria.” Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi 44.1 (1989).
  8. Federal Research Division. (1992, June). Bulgaria, a country study. Library of Congress. https://tile.loc.gov/storageservices/master/frd/frdcstdy/bu/bulgariacountrys00curt_0/bulgariacountrys00curt_0.pdf
  9. Haberman, C. (1989, August 15). Flow of Turks leaving Bulgaria swells to hundreds of thousands. The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/15/world/flow-of-turks-leaving-bulgaria-swells-to-hundreds-of-thousands.html 
  10. 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
  11. Kamusella, T. (2019, March 25). Bulgaria’s denial of its Ottoman past and Turkish identity. New Eastern Europe – A bimonthly news magazine dedicated to Central and Eastern European affairs. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://neweasterneurope.eu/2019/03/24/bulgarias-denial-of-its-ottoman-past-and-turkish-identity/ 
  12. Kavalski, E. (2007). “Do not play with fire”: The end of the Bulgarian ethnic model or the persistence of inter-ethnic tensions in Bulgaria? Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 27(1), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602000701308806 
  13. Küçükcan, T. (1999). Re‐claiming identity: Ethnicity, religion, and politics among turkish‐muslims in Bulgaria and Greece. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 19(1), 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602009908716424 
  14. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/frd/frdcstdy/bu/bulgariacountrys00curt_0/bulgariacountrys00curt_0.pdf
  15. Minority Rights Group. Turks. (2021, February 5). Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/turks-2/#:~:text=resistance%20to%20the%20name-changing%20campaign%20led%20to%20dismissal%20from%20employment%2C%20arrests%20and%20killings. 
  16. UPI. (1986, April 27). Bulgaria’s clampdown on ethnic Turks proves deadly. UPI. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/04/27/Bulgarias-clampdown-on-Ethnic-Turks-proves-deadly/7707514962000/ 
  17. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, February 19). Bulgarian Turks. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Turks#:~:text=According%20to%20estimates%20reported%20by%20the%20Federal%20Research%20Division%20of%20the%20US%20Library%20of%20Congress%2C%20500%20to%201%2C500%20people%20were%20killed%20when%20they%20resisted%20assimilation%20measures%2C%20and%20thousands%20of%20others%20were%20sent%20to%20labor%20camps%20or%20were%20forcibly%20resettled.%5B35%5D