Revival Process
This article duplicates the scope of other articles, specifically Big Excursion. to the article. (March 2024) |
The "Revival Process" or the "Process of Rebirth" (Bulgarian: Възродителен процес, romanized: Vazroditelen protses) refers to a policy of forced assimilation practiced by the socialist Bulgarian government in the 1980s (1984-1989). It was the culmination of a series of repressive assimilationist campaigns directed at the country's Muslim minority. The "Revival Process" was in turn followed by the forced expulsion of over 300,000 Muslims in 1989.
Terminology
- "Revival Process" - Like with the "Big Excursion", the name "Revival Process", under which this campaign of forced assimilation is most well known, is euphemistic and ambiguous. It likewise originated from the statements and official correspondence of the socialist Bulgarian government while it carried out the policy, and its use is disliked by many of its victims. With regard for the contentious nature of the term, "Revival Process" is presented in quotations in this article.
- Turk/Muslim - While Tatars among others) were affected by the "Revival Process", most Muslim Bulgarian nationals were referred to as "Turks" by the Bulgarian government whether ethnically Turkish or not. Further complicating the matter, some Bulgarian Muslims whose native language was not Turkish themselves identified as ethnically "Turkish", or at least did not strongly contest the label. Indeed, as a result of the prevalence of Turkish-medium schools for Muslims in Bulgaria prior to the 1972 ban and the leading position of the Turkish ethnic minority among Bulgarian Muslims, many of the country's Muslims from non-Turkish ethnic backgrounds spoke the Turkish languagein their daily lives. Thus, the term "Turk" is placed in quotations in this article when referring to the wider Muslim community who did not necessarily identify as Turkish.
Forced Assimilation
Background
According to the 1975 Bulgarian census, the last taken before the start of the "Revival Process" which recorded ethnicity, "Turks" made up around 8.4% of the Bulgarian population of 8.7 Million. This was down from the final census taken before the start of the Communist era in 1946 where "Turks" comprised 9.6% of the population. The Muslim population was concentrated primarily in the country's northeast and southeast (particularly Kardzhali Province).[1]
Though the
Initial Campaigns
The policy of the
Until Zhivkov's removal from power, the Bulgarian regime denied the existence of any Muslims of non-Bulgarian origin and insisted that the Muslim population were descended from Bulgarians who had been forcibly converted to Islam under Ottoman Rule.[2] In line with this view, education policy was also gradually made more assimilationist. In 1962, Pomaks were banned from attending Turkish-language schools, and in 1972, Turkish-language schools were banned altogether.[3]
Following on from the ban on the Turkish language in schools, the government forced many Slavophone Muslims to Bulgarianize their names in the early 1970s. By 1974, 150,000 "Pomaks" and 200,000 "Turks" had been forced to Bulgarianize their names.[4][5][6]
In 1978, the regime attempted to phase out traditional and religious
Just before the start of the Revival Process proper, the regime initiated a new round of limited forced
Start of the "Revival Process"
While many Muslims had thus already been forced to
The creation of an ideologically coherent list of approved "Bulgarian" names proved to be a challenge for the authorities. While many had been made to change their names previously, the regime sought to develop a comprehensive "'Classifier of Bulgarian Names'" only in 1984.[14] In the face of difficulties regarding the acceptability of foreign names (given names and surnames of Turkish, Arabic, Armenian, or some other non-Bulgarian origin) and the association between both foreign and "Bulgarian" and religion, the decision was eventually made to draft a list of 5,000 purely "Bulgarian" names, including those with a relationship to the Orthodox Christian calendar.[15] Acceptable "Bulgarian" names were not just those of Slavic or Christian origin however, non-Islamic foreign names were also sometimes deemed acceptable.[citation needed] While this list was not completed prior to the start of the "Revival Process", some name indexes were available by that time.[12]
The methods employed by the state to coerce Turkish villages to agree to "
Beyond the
Reaction and Resistance
Similar to the system of government-controlled religious organizations which exists in the
Resistance to the "Revival Process" among the Turkish population itself, however, was strong. Given that even among the states of the
Rather than fight, however, many Turks initially attempted to escape the renaming process.[19] While the international borders of the People's Republic of Bulgaria were generally closed, Turks sought refuge within the country. Many fled into the forests and other inaccessible areas to hide from the state while others attempted to flee for the big cities (where the re-naming process was slower and more cumbersome).[19] Regardless, such escape attempts generally failed.[20]
Muslims who refused to assimilate faced imprisonment, expulsion, or internment in the reactivated
In spite of the high number of fatalities among the Muslim community, organized
Over 600 unorganized acts of "terror" were officially recorded by Sofia during the 1980s, with the regime blaming Turks and Muslims for the acts, as well as their opposition groups (such as the Turkish National Liberation Movement in Bulgaria which formally eschewed violence).[24] Of those alleged 600 attacks, the vast majority cannot be explained conclusively.[24] Of the 600, the only attack in which people undoubtedly lost their lives occurred in the village of Bunovo on March 9, 1985 wherein 7 people died.[25][1]
It is possible that some of the attacks were carried out or entirely fabricated by the Bulgarian regime in order to drum up support from the non-Muslim population.[citation needed] For example, upon the opening of secret police archives after the fall of the Communist regime, it was discovered that the perpetrators of two high-profile attacks allegedly committed by Turks in 1984, one at the Varna airport and another at the Plovidv rail station, were agents of the secret police.[26]
As a result of Muslim resistance to
1989 ethnic cleansing
Muslim Protests
Emboldened by instability in the communist Eastern Bloc, in early 1989, Turks and Muslims took to the streets of Bulgaria in a wave of protests that ultimately totaled around 60,000 participants.[27] The regime responded by arresting many, ultimately deporting more than 1,000 "'ringleaders'" to Austria and Yugoslavia.[27]
The "Big Excursion"
In response to the protests of early 1989,
While the government of Bulgaria maintained that the migration of Muslims to Turkey was voluntary (thousands from the Eastern Bloc had risked their lives to seek refuge abroad, particularly in the late 1980s), many Bulgarian Turks had been coerced into leaving the country.[30] By the time the border with Turkey was opened, state security services had already identified and earmarked individuals for expulsion.[27]
Turkey eventually closed the border with Bulgaria to prevent the further immigration of Bulgarian Turks,[10] and faced with difficulties settling in Turkey, within the first three months of their arrival in Turkey, 40,000 émigrés returned to Bulgaria. This process of return continued, and by the end of 1990, about 150,000 people had gone back to Bulgaria, which some allege suggests voluntary migration rather than ethnic cleansing.[31]
Aftermath
Domestic
On 10 November 1989, Todor Zhivkov was forced to resign,[10] and the new Bulgarian government restored the right of Bulgarian citizens to have Turkish names.[32] Not all who had been forced to change their names, however, restored their original names.[citation needed] Today, many Bulgarians of legacy (non-immigrant background) Muslim origin born during or after the "Revival Process" bear Bulgarian names, and as part of the collective trauma from the event, some are left to wonder what their name would have otherwise been.[33]
On 11 January 2012, the Bulgarian Parliament officially recognized the 1989 expulsion as ethnic cleansing,[34] and while some Bulgarian mainstream parties have been rebuked for their continued neglect and disregard for the events of 1989,[35] the events of that year are widely condemned. While the same declaration also condemned the wider campaign of forced assimilation, the domestic legacy of those campaigns and the "Revival Process" are more contentious.[citation needed]
In November 2002, the
International
The international response to the revival process was minimal at the time.[
When it was remembered, the Revival Process is usually associated with the government of
In Turkey, memory of the "Revival Process" is limited and testimony by victims is limited.[38]
Throughout the "Revival Process", many Bulgarian Turks also refuge abroad, not only in Turkey, but also in Western Europe, especially in Austria, Germany, and Sweden.[39] Many also found refuge in Australia,[39] Canada, England, and the United States.[40] Today, diaspora communities originating from these Bulgarian Muslim asylees remain.
Responsibility
One 2012 study found that Bulgarians generally blame the politicians of the time for the "Revival Process".[41] When asked who bore the blame for the campaign, respondents blamed the Bulgarian Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov, and the Secret Police. Some respondent even blamed the Soviet Union and Leonid Brezhnev (who died in 1982). The same study also found that victims do not generally blame ethnic-Bulgarians and are inclined to forgive them, with much blame instead heaped on fellow-Muslim "traitors" who collaborated with the regime.[42]
In Popular Culture
- Naim Süleymanoğlu (Bulgarian: Наим Сюлейманоглу) was an ethnically-Turkish Olympic weightlifter born in Bulgaria in 1967 as Naim Suleimanov (Bulgarian: Наим Сюлейманов). He was forced by the "Revival Process" to officially Bulgarianize his name and became known as "Naum Shalamanov" (Bulgarian: Наум Шаламанов) in 1985. The following year (1986), he defected to Turkey and began to compete for his new country in international weightlifting competitions. Following his defection he changed his name once again, this time to the name under which he is known internationally: the unabashedly Turkish "Naim Süleymanoğlu". Following his defection, he won the gold medal in his weight class in three consecutive Summer Olympic Games.
See also
- Bulgarian Muslims
- Bulgarian Turks
- Bulgarian Turks in Turkey
- Crimean Tatars in Bulgaria
- Muhacir
- Pomaks
- Romani people in Bulgaria
- Turks in Bulgaria
- Recep Küpçü
References
- ^ Eminov 1997a, pp. 213.
- ^ Eminov 1997a, pp. 229.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 7.
- ^ Eminov 2007, p. 7.
- ^ Mayuhtar-May 2014, p. 100, 133-136.
- ^ Şimşir 1988, p. 274.
- ^ Eminov 1997a, p. 227.
- ^ Eminov 1997a, p. 232.
- ^ Şimşir 1988, p. 275.
- ^ a b c d e f Vaksberg, Tatiana. "Recalling the fate of Bulgaria's Turkish minority | DW | 24.12.2014". DW.COM. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 46.
- ^ a b Pozharliev 2012, pp. 41.
- ^ Eminov 1997b, pp. 85–87.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 38.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Eminov 1997b, pp. 87.
- ^ a b c d Eminov 1997a, pp. 228.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 59–61.
- ^ a b Pozharliev 2012, pp. 59.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 58.
- ^ Büchsenschütz 2000.
- ^ These Events Need to be Discussed in the History Textbooks (Bulgarian). Dr. Mihail Ivanov (Interview). Mediapool. 22 March 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
- ^ a b Kamusella 2019, pp. 34.
- ^ a b c d Kamusella 2019, pp. 35.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 36.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 42.
- ^ a b c Tomasz Kamusella (25 February 2019). "Words matter. Bulgaria and the 30th anniversary of the largest ethnic cleansing in cold war Europe". Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Clyde Haberman (15 August 1989). "Flow of Turks Leaving Bulgaria Swells to Hundreds of Thousands". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 328.
- ^ Francesco Martino (11 April 2009). "The "big excursion" of Bulgarian Turks". Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Защо българските турци се завръщат в началото на 90-те години на ХХ в."
- ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Chronology for Turks in Bulgaria". Refworld. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
- ^ Trupia 2022, p. 56.
- ^ ДЕКЛАРАЦИЯ осъждаща опита за насилствена асимилация на българските мюсюлмани. 2012. http://www.parliament.bg/bg/declaration/ID/13813 ; Bulgarian MPs Enforce 'Revival Process' Official Condemnation. 2012. http://www.novinite.com/articles/140018/Bulgarian+MPs+Enforce+%27Revival+Process%27+Official+Condemnation
- ^ T. Kamusella. 2020. Between Politics and Objectivity: The Non-Remembrance of the 1989 Ethnic Cleansing of Turks in Communist Bulgaria. Journal of Genocide Research.
- ^ Trupia 2022, pp. 49.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 12.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 3.
- ^ a b Maeva 2008, pp. 227–229.
- ^ Hillgren, Johanna (2009). "20 år sedan bulgarienturkarna kom". Hallands Nyheter. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
De flesta av flyktingarna tvingades återvända men få av dem finns i dag kvar i Bulgarien. De har istället flytt på nytt och sökt ett liv i västländer som Kanada, England, USA, Turkiet eller Tyskland.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 66.
- ^ Pozharliev 2012, pp. 67.
Bibliography
- Büchsenschütz, Ulrich (2000). The Policies of the Bulgarian Communist Party towards Jews, Roma, Pomaks and Turks (1944-89) (PDF) (in Bulgarian). International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-26.
- Eminov, Ali (1997a). "Islam and Muslims in Bulgaria: A Brief History". Islamic Studies. 36 (2/3): 209–241. JSTOR 23076195. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
- Eminov, Ali (2007). "Social Construction of Identity: Pomaks in Bulgaria". Journal of Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe.
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(help) - Eminov, Ali (1990). "There Are No Turks in Bulgaria: Rewriting History by Administrative Fiat". In Karpat, Kemal (ed.). The Turks of Bulgaria: The History, Culture and Political Fate of a Minority. Istanbul: The Isis Press.
- Eminov, Ali (1997b). Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-91976-0.
- Kamusella, Tomasz (2019). Ethnic Cleansing During the Cold War: The Forgotten 1989 Expulsion of Turks from Communist Bulgaria. Routledge.
- Maeva, Mila (2008). "Modern Migration Waves of Bulgarian Turks". In Marushiakova, Elena (ed.). Dynamics of National Identity and Transnational Identities in the Process of European Integration. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781847184719.
- Mayuhtar-May, Fatme (2014). Identity, Nationalism, and Cultural Heritage under Siege: Five Narratives of Pomak Heritage: From Forced Renaming to Weddings. Balkan Studies Library.
- Pozharliev, Lyubomir (2012). Nationalism Revived: The "Revival" Process in Bulgaria. Memories of Repression, Everyday Resistance and Neighborhood Relations 1984-1989 (MA). Central European University History Department.
- Şimşir, Bilâl (1988). The Turks of Bulgaria (1878-1985). K. Rustem and Brother.
- Trupia, Francesco (2022). "What would have been my name? The Post-Memory of the "Generation After" the Revival Process in Bulgaria" (PDF). Contemporary Southeastern Europe. 9 (1): 47–64. . Retrieved February 26, 2023.