SHAFIGA RAHIMLI, Master’s degree at Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey
THE CONSEQUENCES OF ASSIMILATION AND FORCED MIGRATION POLICIES AGAINST THE TURKISH POPULATION IN BULGARIA IN THE 19th–20th CENTURIES The policy of ethnic cleansing and deportation directed against Muslims in the Balkans, which began in the 19th century, continued until the end of the 20th century. This policy, which was felt more intensely in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, served the aim of establishing nation-states based on a single ethnic identity rather than maintaining coexistence. When Bulgaria was established, Bulgarians were deeply concerned because the Turkish population constituted more than fifty percent of the population. The only way to reduce the number of Turks within Bulgaria’s borders was perceived as either eliminating Muslims or forcing them into exile. Reducing the Turkish population in Bulgaria was an anti-humanist political strategy designed to strengthen the position of Bulgarians in governance. During the redrawing of borders, large-scale mass migrations took place, and the primary victims of these migrations were the Turks. The assimilation policies imposed on the Turks of Bulgaria lasted for a long time and intensified significantly after the Balkan Wars and the World Wars. Even during the Cold War period, Turks in the Balkans were subjected to migration through bilateral agreements. The assimilation of Turks in Bulgaria remains a painful reality shaped by Bulgarian nationalism, the effects of which can still be observed today. This study analyzes the assimilation and migration policies applied against Turks in Bulgaria, along with their causes and consequences, based on historical and scientific facts and documents. One of Turkey’s oldest neighbors, Bulgaria is the Balkan country with the largest Turkish population (approximately 10% of its total population). Historians emphasize that Turks did not arrive in the Balkans later, but were among the indigenous peoples of the region long before the Ottoman conquest. Even the name “Balkan” itself, which is of Turkish origin meaning “mountainous, forested area,” reflects the deep historical roots of Turks in the region. It is known that Turkic tribes descending from the Huns lived in this region centuries before Christ. The presence of Turkic tribes such as the Avars, Pechenegs, Uzes, Berends, Cumans, and Kipchaks in the Balkans at least a thousand years before the Ottomans is an undeniable historical fact. As Prof. Dr. Ali Arslan states in his work “Migration or Forced Displacement in the Balkans?”, the arrival of Turks, particularly in the Southern Balkans, was not later than that of the Slavs. During the Seljuk and especially the Ottoman periods, the migration to the Balkans represented a fusion between Balkan Turks and Oghuz Turks. The settlement of Oghuz Turkic tribes in the territory of present-day Bulgaria began in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries and continued until the Ottoman conquest. Bulgaria remained under Ottoman rule for approximately 500 years, from the late 14th century until the late 19th century. Following the conquest of the region by Sultan Murad I, Oghuz Turks settled in these lands, and through interaction with local populations, they became known as Bulgarian Turks. The process of Ottoman expansion initiated by Murad I was completed during the reign of Bayezid I in 1389, after which Bulgaria came under Ottoman sovereignty. Until the 19th century, the Turks of Bulgaria lived relatively freely in the Balkans; however, their fate changed after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Prior to this war, the fact that the Turkish population in the region exceeded that of the Bulgarians was itself an indicator of this relative freedom. However, following what is historically known as the “War of ’93,” Bulgarian authorities began systematic efforts to reduce the Turkish population. These years, remembered as some of the darkest periods of oppression, witnessed massacres of Turks and triggered large-scale migrations to Ottoman territories. The period of the Balkan Wars represents a second phase marked by intensified political aggression against the Turks, characterized by assimilation and forced migration policies. These policies, accelerated by the Balkan Wars, further intensified during the First World War and resulted in devastating consequences during and after the Second World War. The migrations of 1950–1951 and 1989 clearly demonstrate that such policies continued even during the Cold War, albeit through new methods of assimilation.
