BulgarianOttoman Wars

Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars

Clockwise from right: Emperor Ivan Alexander, the remains of the Shumen fortress, Sultan Bayazid I Date Location Result Territorial changes c.1340 - 1396 Balkan Peninsula Ottoman victory, annexation of the territory of the Bulgarian Empire into the Ottoman Empire The Bulgarian Empire is conquered by the Ottoman Empire Belligerents Bulgarian Empire * Tsardom of Vidin Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders Ivan Alexander Ivan Shishman Murad I Bayezid I

Ivan Sratsimir Dobrotitsa Momchil

Lala Shahin Pasha

Strength Unknown Unknown Casualties and losses Heavy Heavy

The Bulgarian-Ottoman wars were fought between kingdoms emerging from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire, and the new emerging Turkic power, the Ottoman Turks in the second half the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century. The war ended with the collapse and disintegration of the Bulgarian Empire, with the last remaining Kingdom, the Tsardom of Vidin, being conquered in 1396. As a result of the wars the Ottoman Empire greatly expanded its territory on the Balkan peninsula, stretching from the river Danube to theAegean Sea.

The situation in the Balkans on the eve of the Ottoman invasion

From the 13th century, the two main Balkan powers Byzantium and Bulgaria saw a process of decentralization, as local feudal lords grew stronger and more independent from the emperors in Constantinople and Tarnovo. This weakened the military and economic power of the central rulers. The process grew even stronger in the 14th century, when numerous nobles came to be only nominally subordinated to the central government. In Bulgaria the powerful Shishman family ruled over the Vidin Province in the west, while in the east Balik established a quasi-independent Despotate of Dobruja. While the two Empires were facing enormous internal difficulties, the Serbs took the favourable opportunity to expand their kingdom. During the civil war in Byzantium in 1320s and 1330s, they managed to conquer most of the Bulgarianpopulated Macedonia from the Byzantines. In 1330 the Serbs defeated the Bulgarian Emperor Michail Shishman at Velbazhd and emerged as the most powerful state in the

region, and in 1346 their king Stefan Uro IV Duan received the title of Emperor with the blessing of the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander. However, after his death in 1355, his large empire disintegrated into numerous completely independent states. In Bulgaria, during the same period, Ivan Sratsimir inherited Vidin from his father Ivan Alexander in 1356, while despot Dobrotitsa nominally his subject ruled Dobrudzha. In 13411347 the Byzantine Empire was shaken in a bloody civil war between John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos. Towards the middle of the century the Balkans were tens of small states constantly in war or plotting against each other with not a single strong country with a large army. In addition to the mainly Orthodox countries such as Bulgaria, Byzantium and Serbia, there were a number of Catholic possessions to the west and south held by Venice, Genova and the Kingdom of Hungary as well as Kingdom of Bosnia whose Bosnian Church (closely related to the Bogomils) was considered heretic by both Orthodox and Catholics. The religious diversity was another source for the constant tensions in the region.

Military actions during the reign of Ivan Alexander

During the civil war in Byzantium both Palaiologos and Kantakouzenos were trying to find external allies and used foreign mercenaries. The Bulgarian Emperor supported the first opponent whose stronghold was Constantinople. John Kantakouzenos on the other hand regularly hired Ottoman Turk mercenaries from Asia Minor whose bands soon became a common thing in Thrace. Despite being their allies, the Byzantines could not fully control them and they brought the region into ruins and launched regular attacks on Bulgarian territory to plunder the villages.

Momchil's troops engaging the enemy In 1344 the independent Bulgarian ruler of the Rhodope and Aegean regions Momchil whose army grew to 2,000 men took an important role in the Byzantine civil war. At first he supported John Kantakouzenos but from the spring of 1344 he reneged on him due to the atrocities of his Ottoman allies. In June he defeated the Ottoman fleet near the Portogalos bay. At night he sent boats which burned the anchored ships of the enemy. Soon after this success he defeated the army of Kantakouzenos at Mosinopol. He was among the first local rulers who realized the threat of the Ottomans. Momchil pleaded both the Emperors of Bulgaria and Byzantium for help but received none. Even though he continued the resistance in the eastern part of the Rhodope mountains. In May 1345 the Turks led by Uner beg marched from Asia Minor to the Balkan Peninsula and made a devastating raid on Bulgarian territory driving away many people and cattle. Soon after that, on 7 July 1345 the Bulgarian forces were defeated in the battle of Peritor near Momchil's seat Xanthi by superior Ottoman forces under Uner beg and Momchil perished in the battle.

Emperor Ivan Alexander During the civil wars in the Byzantine Empire Ivan Alexander regained the control of several towns in Thrace and the Rhodopes but his frequent interference in the internal affairs of Byzantium hampered any closer relations between the two counties although they were in peace from 1332. In 1352 new Turkish forces invaded Bulgaria, devastated its southern areas and returned with huge spoils. Aitos, Diampol and Plovdiv suffered most. In the same year the Ottomans seized their first fortress on the Balkans, Tsimpe in the Galipoli peninsula and soon set firm foot in Europe. Between 1352 and 1354 they ravaged the lands around Yambol and Plovdiv as well as the lower reaches of the Maritsa and Tundzha rivers. In 1355 the Ottomans launched a campaign in the direction of Sofia and were engaged by a Bulgarian army under Ivan Alexander's eldest son and heirMichael Asen in the vicinity of the city, probably around Ihtiman. In the following battle the Turks prevailed. Both sides suffered heavy casualties including the young Micheal Asen but eventually the Turks did not reach Sofia.
The unexecuted alliance

The defeat raised serious alert not only in Tarnovo but also in Constantinople and John Kantakouzenos was forced to abdicate. Thus one of the main perpetrators of the Ottoman invasion was removed from the political scene. Faced with that threat, Bulgaria and Byzantium made an attempt for rapprochement. In 1355 the daughter of the Bulgarian Emperor, Keratsa married the son of the new Byzantine Emperor John V, the infant Andrinokos. The new relations between the houses of Tarnovo and Constantinople should have been harmful to the invaders but despite the anticipation the agreement did not pay off.

The Bulgarian lands in the mid 14th century on the eve of the Ottoman invasion In that period the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires were once again the major political power on the peninsula and the only countries which were able to stop the penetration of the Ottoman Turks and seriously resist them. After the death of Stefan Dushan on 20

December 1355 Serbia lost its political influence and his large but ethnically diverse country split into many states. Between 1354 and 1364 the Turks became masters of Thrace and a number of important castles and towns fell under their attacks including Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. From the end of the 1350s some Ottoman companies even reached the surroundings of the capital and the Emperor took precautions to repair the decayed walls of the city. It is known from the records of the Ottoman chronicler Seadeddin and other chronicles that the Ottoman advance between 1359 and 1364 involved enormous destruction and total depopulation of certain areas. Many cities were devastated (Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Sliven) while others such as Venets and Sotirgrad disappeared forever. The devastation was accompanied by mass slaughter or deportation of population to Asia Minor. Not only was there a total lack of coordination between the two Empires but they also quarreled for the Black Sea ports of Nessebar andPomorie which the Bulgarians successfully defended in 1364. The war brought nothing to the two parties involved but completely ruined the relation between the two states. The last years of Ivan Alexander Apart from the threat from the south, Bulgaria had other problems: in 1365 the Hungarian King Louis I invaded north-western Bulgaria, seized the large fortress Vidin and captured the eldest surviving son of the Emperor, Ivan Sratsimir. In futile attempts to reconquer Vidin Ivan Alexander even used Ottoman mercenaries. However, in the summer of 1369 the Bulgarian Emperor restored his authorities over the Vidin Province with the help of the Wallachian voivoda Vladislav I but that proved to be his last success - on 17 February 1371 he died. After Ivan Alexander's death the Bulgarian lands were divided in several independent states. Most of the area with centre Tarnovo came under his third son Ivan Shishman, in Vidin ruled his eldest son Ivan Sratsimir, despot Dobrotitsa held Dodrudzha and Macedonia was divided in several feudal states ruled by Serb nobles.

The battle of Chernomen and consequences

battle of Maritsa

Sultan Murad I In 1371 two feudal lords in Macedonia organised a campaign against the Turks. The Serbian king of Prilep Vukashin and the despot of Ser Uglesha who were brothers gathered a large Christian army to stop the Muslim invaders. Uglesha whose lands bordered with the Ottomans to the east had realized that if they were not stopped soon they would conquer the whole region and called rest of Serbia and some Bulgars for help but both states could not send troops. The army of the two brothers who were themselves Serbs but ruled over mixed Serbian-Greek-Bulgarian-populated lands set of to the east with 70,000 (according to other sources 20,000) Serbian-Bulgarian army. When they reached the village of Chernomen in the lower course of the Maritsa river their camp was attacked at night on 26 September by a considerably smaller enemy force under Lala Shahin Pasha and allies were routed. Valkashin and Uglesha along with most of the army perished. Immediately after the battle the armies of Murad I headed towards Bulgaria and forced the young Emperor Ivan Shishman to pull back to the north of theStara planina and overran northern Thrace. Many castles fell after prolonged sieges. The town of Diampol fought against the hordes under Timurtash for months but after the shortage of food the population was forced to surrender. During the fights in the southern slopes of Stara Planina one of Ivan Shishman's voivods, Shishkin perished. Soon the Ottomans seized the Rhodopes, Kostenets, Ihtiman and Samokov, nearly reaching the Sofia Valley. After a bloody siege they captured Bitola in the south-western

Bulgarian lands. In 1373 Ivan Shishman had to negotiate for peace. The peace treaty was humiliating: the Bulgarian ruler became an Ottoman vassal and had to give his sister Kera Tamara for Murad's wife. As a compensation, the Ottomans returned some of the conquered areas including Ihtiman and Samokov. Between 1371 and 1373 the Ottomans emerged as a considerable power which every Balkan ruler had to take into an account. They ruled over the whole of Thrace and seized the lands of Uglesha in western Macedonia. The son of Valkashin Marko and Ivan Shishman became their vassals.

The fall of the Rhodopes

The Ottoman advance after the battle of Chernomen. During the same period (13711373) the invaders took control of the Rhodopes, a mountain studded with strong and well-guarded fortresses. The Turks rushed in from the northern slopes of the mountains. After a fierce resistance fell the Rakovitsa fortress (now in ruins). It was besieged by the forces of Daud pasha and the defense

was led by the voivoda Kurt. After futile attempts to capture the castle with force the Turk agreed to negotiations and the Bulgarians surrendered and kept their property. The Ottomans fought bloody battles to take over one of the major castles in the Rhodopes, Tsepina. For 9 months its population repulsed the enemy attacks but eventually surrendered in return for their lives and property after the Turks under Daud pasha cut off the water-conduit. In the same manner was taken Stanimaka (Asenovgrad). After a bitter siege fell the fortress Batkun on the northern slopes of the Rhodopes. Its commander Georgi was killed along his men in the final assault. The Ottomans faced a stubborn resistance in the interior of the Rhodope massif. The central areas were invaded by two armies commanded by Dzhedit pasha and Ibrahim pasha. Dzhedit pasha advanced on the road Stanimaka - Bachkovo Monastery along the valley of the Chepelarska river, and Ibrahim pasha set off from Plovdiv via Parvenets and then through the valley of the Vacha River. Fighting occurred at the fortified settlements or locations Zarenitsa, Zagrad, Gradishte, Chiltepe and Karakulas (location along the valley of the Vacha), Imaretdere and Momina Voda (heights close to Ardino) and others. Especially fierce was the engagement at Momina Voda where one of the prominent Ottoman leaders Sar Baba was killed. A bloody battle also occurred at Karakulas where another Ottoman chief - Enihan Baba perished.

Fall of Sofia
While Ivan Shishman was desperately trying to resist against the strong Ottoman pressure, his brother Ivan Sratsimir not only withheld reinforcements or help but tried to make use of the difficulties which his brother faced to expand his domains over certain areas of the Tarnovo Tsardom. As Shishman's attention was pointed to the south, Ivan Sratsimir took control of the important city of Sofia which was disputed between the two brothers. However by 1373 the city was again in the Tarnovo Tsardom and it is possible that there might have been armed conflict between the two Bulgarian states. Despot Dobrotitsa also did not give any support to the Emperor in Tarnovo. He was in conflict with Genova and was involved in the internal affairs of the Trapezund Empiretrying to put on its throne his son-in-law. After the temporary hush which followed after 1373, in 1380 the Ottomans again started hostilities. With a large army Sultan Murad headed towards the south-western regions of the Tarnovo Tsardom which main objective to seize its center Sofia. After a bloody clashes in the Zlatitsa valley the Turks moved on to Sofia and besieged it. The

city which was commanded by banYanuka repulsed all the attacks of the superior Ottoman forces under Lala Shahin. The later could not continue the siege and was forced to pull back to Odrin where he reported his failure to the Sultan. While he was absent the Turks managed to infiltrate Sofia and one Muslim Bulgarian captured ban Yanuke while hunting and sent him to Lala Shahin who was in Plovdiv at that time. From there the Bulgarian commander was sent back to Sofia and when the defenders saw their captured leader they surrendered the city to the Ottomans (1382). The Ottomans installed a strong garrison and brought Muslim settlers from Asia Minor. On the following year fell Serres The new Ottoman success did not bring together Ivan Shishman and Ivan Sratsimir. Between 1384 and 1386 waged a war between Bulgaria and Wallachia, the Vlachs seized several settlements along the Danube but were later defeated and their voivoda Dan I was killed. Ivan Sratsimir took part in the actions as an ally of the Vlachs which proved the total lack of coordination between the Bulgarian states and deepened the mistrust between the two brothers. After they secured the possession of the area around Sofia, the Ottomans continued their march to the north-west. The main objective of Murad was to break the ties between Bulgaria and Serbia because despite Ivan Shishman was his vassal, Murad did not trust him and knew that the Bulgarian ruler was waiting for an appropriate opportunity to renege. In 1386 the Turks seized Pirot andNi after bitter fights killing and enslaving many Bulgarians.

The campaign of 1388

The advance of the Ottomans in the central parts of the Balkan peninsula caused serious anxiety not only for Ivan Shishman but also in Serbia and Bosnia. The Serbian Prince Lazar and the Bosnian King Tvardko organized an anti-Ottoman coalition and the Bulgarian Emperor joined them but was unable to send troops. In 1387 the united forces of Bosnians and Serbs defeated the Turk in the battle of Plocnik. However, while the Christian states did not make any attempt to exploit the victory, the Turks' reaction was swift. In 1388 a 30,000 strong army commanded by Ali Pasha passed through the eastern Balkan mountains and struck deep into Bulgaria's north. The Bulgarians were completely surprised and the invaders seized Ovech, Shumen, Madara and other towns. Due to the surprise campaign at first the towns and the castles were unable to organize proper defence but after the initial

shock the Bulgarians took precautions. When the army of Ali Pasha besiegedVarna, the defenders stiffly resisted and the Turks were forced to abandon the siege and march northwards. In Tutrakan the citizens allowed the Turks to install a small garrison but then they killed the Turkish soldiers and prepared for siege. Ali Pasha immediately burned the surrounding fields and soon the starving town had to surrender. After this success they advanced to the west towards Nikopol, one of the strongest Bulgarian fortresses along the Danube. The defence was organized by Ivan Shishman who was currently in the town. Although the Ottomans had nearly 30,000 men they could not take it and Ali Pasha had to seek reinforcements from Murad himself. According to Seadeddin the Sultan marched to Nikopol with an enormous army firmly decided to seize the town at all costs. When Ivan Shishman faced the new enemy he sought a truce. Murad agreed and the Bulgarians saved Nikopol but were forced to cede another key Danubian fortress, Silistra. However, when Ali Pasha reached Silistra, the Bulgarians refused to surrender the town. Murad besieged Nikopol for a second time and this time Ivan Shishman agreed to the Ottoman conditions and a Turkish garrison was installed in Silistra. As a result of the campaign the Turks took most of eastern Bulgaria including several key towns. Now the authority of Ivan Shishman reduced to the lands to the west of the capital Tarnovo and several castles along the Danube. To the east the Bulgarians kept Varna and the capital of the Principality of Karvuna, Kaliakra. Probably at that time Ivan Sratsimir became an Ottoman vassal.

Battle of Shipka Pass

The Battle of Shipka Pass consisted of four battles that were fought between the Russian Empire, aided by Bulgarian volunteers known as Opalchentsi, and the Ottoman Empire for control over the vital Shipka Pass during the Russo-Turkish War (18771878). The crucial moment came in August 1877, when a group of 5,000 Bulgarian and 2,500 Russian troops repulsed an attack against the peak by the Ottoman Central army. Battle of Shipka Pass Part of the Russo-Turkish War (18771878)

The Defence of the Eagle's Nest, Alexey Popov, 1893 Date July 1719, 1877 (1st stage) August 2126, 1877 (2nd stage) September 1317, 1877 (3rd stage) January 59, 1878 (4th stage) Shipka Peak and surrounding areas,Bulgaria Russian-Bulgarian victory in all four battles Belligerents Russian Empire Bulgarian volunteers Ottoman Empire

Location Result

Commanders and leaders Joseph Gourko (1st stage) Suleiman Pasha (1st to 3rd stage) Nikolai Stoletov (2nd stage) Veissel Pasha (4th stage) Fyodor Radetzky (3rd and 4th stage) Strength 5000 (1st stage) 7,500 (2nd stage) 8,000 (3rd stage) 30 000 (1st stage) 30,000 (2nd stage) 25,000 (3rd stage)

66,000 (4th stage)

40,000 (4th stage) Casualties and losses

211 on the first day 3,600 (2nd stage) 4,000 (3rd stage) 1,122 killed and 4,362 wounded (4th stage) Total: 13,500+ killed and wounded

Unknown 10,000 killed (2nd stage) 10,000 (3rd stage) 4,000 killed or wounded and 36,000 surrendered (4th stage) Total: 24,000+ killed and wounded; 36,000 captured

First Battle of Shipka Pass

In July, 1877 four Russian corps had crossed the Danube River and were moving into Bulgaria. To precede the main Russian army Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko led a detachment to capture the vital Balkan Mountain passes. Gourko approached Shipka Pass, which was held by an Ottoman garrison of 4,000-5,000 soldiers under Suleiman Pasha. On July 17, Gourko attacked from the north with four divisions. The two flank divisions captured mountain positions but the two divisions in the center were repulsed. On the 18th Gourko attacked from the south. Again the main attack on the pass was repulsed but the Russians carried some of the trenches. Gourko planned a combined attack from the north and the south on the 19th. The next day however the Ottoman forces evacuated the pass and Russia took possession of it. In just over two weeks Gourko had captured three important mountain passes but the main army would become held up the day after Shipka Pass fell in the Siege of Plevna. The Ottoman Army would make two major attempts to retake the pass in 1877 and then in 1878 Gourko delivered a final blow to the Ottoman forces in the Shipka Pass area.

Second Battle of Shipka Pass

The Second Battle of Shipka Pass took place in August 1877. After taking the pass in July, 1877 the Russian forces built up a defensive position there. Russian General Stoletov placed his 7,500 defenders (5,500 Bulgarians, 2,000 Russians) on three positions at St. Nicholas (today: Peak Stoletov), Central Hill and the reserves in between these two points.

Suleiman Pasha gathered 38,000 Ottomans and was determined to retake the pass instead of simply bypassing it. On August 21, the Ottoman forces bombarded Russian positions and then made an attack against St. Nicholas. The attack was repulsed and the Ottoman forces dug in 100 yards (91 m) away. The next day the Ottoman forces moved their artillery up the mountain side and bombarded the pass while the infantry moved around the Russian flank. On August 23, the Ottoman forces attacked all Russian positions with the main effort again at St. Nicholas where most of the defenders were Bulgarian volunteers. The Ottoman forces thought that the volunteer positions would be easy to capture, but this turned out to be their greatest mistake. Instead, the first unit that began to retreat were the Russians on Central Hill. However, they rallied when the 4th Rifle Brigade arrived and all Ottoman attacks were repulsed. On the 26th, an Ottoman attack on St. Nicholas ( a position referred to as "the Eagle's Nest") reached the Russian trenches but was repulsed again by a Bulgarian bayonet charge. More Russian reinforcements arrived and on the 26th, an attack was made against the Ottoman position but driven back to Central Hill. This ended the battle for all practical purposes. The Russians and Bulgarians had made a gallant stand. In the final having finished their ammunition, they threw rocks and bodies of fallen comrades to repulse the Ottoman attacks. Suleiman Pasha would attempt to retake the pass one more time in 1877.

Third Battle of Shipka Pass

Suleiman Pasha made a second attempt to retake Shipka Pass from the Russians after a failed attempt in August. The Russian defenses had continually been worked on since August but reinforcements were limited due to the siege of Plevna. On September 13, Suleiman began to shell the Russians. The bombardment continued in earnest until the 17th when Suleiman launched a frontal assault against the St. Nicholas position. Capturing the first line of trenches, the Ottoman forces moved towards the summit. General Fyodor Radetzky, now commanding the defenses, brought up reinforcements and a Russian counterattack drove the Ottoman forces from all captured ground. Secondary Ottoman assaults to the north were repulsed as well. This would be the last attempt the Ottoman forces made to retake Shipka Pass.

Fourth Battle of Shipka Pass

The Fourth Battle of Shipka Pass from January 59 was the final battle for Shipka Pass and a crushing Ottoman defeat.

Background
In December, 1877, the fortress of Plevna surrendered to the Russian Army, freeing a significant number of Russian troops. General Gourko now had as many as 65,000

soldiers to contend with the Ottomans. First Gourko forced the Araba Konak Pass and took Sofia. From Sofia, he moved south through the Balkan Mountains to cut off the Ottoman army fronting Shipka Pass.

The battle
General Radetzky, commanding the garrison, made preparations to attack from the pass on January 5 while Gourko brought up two columns under Generals Mikhail Skobelev and Nikolai Mirskiito cut off the Ottoman retreat. On January 8, Radezky's attack began but Skobelev was held up by unexpectedly heavy resistance and Mirskii attacked unsupported, making little progress. On January 9, Mirskii faced an Ottoman counter-attack, but Skobelev was able to move forward in support and defeat the Ottoman forces. Completely surrounded, the remaining Ottoman forces underVeissel Pasha surrendered the same day. Results Russian forces under Gourko were able to crush Suleiman Pasha's army at the Battle of Philippopolis several days later and threaten Istanbul. Today the Shipka Pass is in the Bulgarka Nature Park and is monument commemorating those who died in the battle. home to a

Turks in Bulgaria
Bulgarian Turks Regions with significant populations Bulgaria Turkey UK Netherlands 588,318 (2011 census) 326,000 (2005 est.) - 480,817(2000 census) 12,000 10,000 - 30,000

Belgium TRNC Sweden

2,620 just in Ghent 2,000 - 10,000 over 300 just in Vr Languages Turkish Bulgarian Religion Islam

Distribution of the ethnic groups (Turkish in green) by municipalities according to the 2011 census in Bulgaria

Distribution of the ethnic groups (Turkish in white) by municipalities according to the 2001 census in Bulgaria The Turks in Bulgaria (Turkish: Bulgaristan Trkleri), are a minority group, mainly concentrated in the southern province of Kardzhali and northeastern provinces of Shumen, Silistra, Razgrad and Targovishte. According to the census of population in Bulgaria from 2011, there were 588,318 inhabitants with Turkish ethnic affiliation, or 8% of the population, thus becoming the largest ethnic minority. There is also a diaspora caused by the immigrants outside Bulgaria, the most significant of which is of the Bulgarian Turks in Turkey. Turks in Bulgaria are descendants of Turkic settlers, main part Karamanids exiled from Anatolia. They came across the narrows of the Dardanellesand the Bosporus following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, as well as Bulgarian converts to Islam who became Turkified during the centuries of Ottoman rule. It has also been suggested that some Turks living today in Bulgaria may be direct ethnic descendants of earlier medieval Pecheneg, Ouz,

and Cuman Turkic tribes. The Turkish community became an ethnic minority when thePrincipality of Bulgaria was established after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. This community is of Turkish ethnic consciousness and differs from the majority Bulgarian ethnicity and the rest of the Bulgarian nation by its own language, religion, culture, customs, and traditions. DNA research investigating the three largest population groups in Bulgaria: Bulgarians, Bulgarian Turks and Gypsies confirms with Y-chromosomal STR haplotype analysis that there are significant differences between the three ethnic groups. The study revealed a high number of population-specific haplotypes and a low degree of haplotype sharing between the three ethnic communities.

Summary

Percentage of Turkish population by provinces to total population according to the 2011 census Today, the Turks of Bulgaria are concentrated in two rural areas, in the Northeast (Ludogorie/Deliorman) and the Southeast (the Eastern Rhodopes). They form a majority in the province of Kardzhali (66.2% Turks compared to 30.2% Bulgarians) and a plurality in the province of Razgrad (50.0% Turks compared to 43.0% Bulgarians). It is important to note, that it is difficult to establish accurately the number of the Turks and that it is likely that the census numbers are an overestimate because some Pomaks, Crimean Tatars,Circassians and Roma tend to identify themselves as Turks. In Bulgaria there are also other Turkish-speaking communities such as the Gajal who could be found particularly in the Deliorman region. Turks settled in the territory of modern Bulgaria during and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Being the dominant group in

the Ottoman Empire for the next five centuries, they played an important part in the economic and cultural life of the land. According to the historian Halil Inalcik, the Ottomans ensured significant Turkish presence in forward urban outposts such as Nikopol, Kyustendil, Silistra, Trikala, Skopje and Vidin and their vicinity. Ottoman Muslims constituted the majority in and around strategic routes primarily in the southern Balkans leading from Thrace towards Macedonia and the Adriatic and again from the Maritsa and Tundzha valleys towards the Danuberegion. According to Aubaret, the French Consul in Ruse in 1876 in the Danube Vilayet (which included the territory of the post-1878 Bulgarian principality without Eastern Rumelia, and also Northern Dobruja and the Ni region) alone there were 1,120,000 Muslims and 1,233,500 non-Muslims of whom 1,150,000 were Bulgarian. Between 1876 and 1878, through massacres, epidemics and hunger a large portion of the Turkish population vanished. The flow of Turks to Anatolia continued in a steady pattern depending on the policies of the ruling regimes until 1925 after which immigration was regulated. During the 20th century Bulgaria also practiced forced deportations and expulsions, which also targeted the Muslim Pomak population. The biggest wave of Turkish emigration occurred in 1989, when 310,000 Turks left Bulgaria as a result of the communist Todor Zhivkov regime's assimilation campaign, but around 150,000 returned between 1989 and 1990. That program, which began in 1984, forced all Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria to adopt Christian names and renounce all Muslim customs. The motivation of the 1984 assimilation campaign was unclear; however, many experts believed that the disproportion between the birth rates of the Turks and the Bulgarians was a major factor. During the name-changing phase of the campaign, Turkish towns and villages were surrounded by army units. Citizens were issued new identity cards with Bulgarian names. Failure to present a new card meant forfeiture of salary, pension payments, and bank withdrawals. Birth or marriage certificates would be issued only in Bulgarian names. Traditional Turkish costumes were banned; homes were searched and all signs of Turkish identity removed. Mosques were closed or demolished. Turkish names on gravestones were replaced with Bulgarian names. According to estimates, 500 to 1,500 people were killed when they resisted assimilation measures, and thousands of others were sent to labor camps or were forcibly resettled. During this period the Bulgarian authorities denied all reports of ethnic repression and that ethnic Turks existed in the country. The official government stance was that the Turks in Bulgaria were really Bulgarians who were

Turkified and that the entire Turkish population voluntarily chose to change their Turkish/Muslim names to Bulgarian/Slavic ones. The fall of communism in Bulgaria led to a reversal of the state's policy towards its citizens of Turkish descent. After the fall of Zhivkov in 1989, the National Assembly of Bulgaria passed laws to restore the cultural rights of the Turkish population. In 1991 a new law gave anyone affected by the name-changing campaign three years to officially restore original names and the names of children born after the name change. In January 1991, Turkish-language lessons were reintroduced as a non-compulsory subject for four hours per week if requested. According to the 2011 census in Bulgaria, there are 588,318 persons from the Turkish ethnic group or 8.8% of all ethnic groups, down from 746,664 persons (9.4%) at the 2001 census. 605,802 persons (9.1%) pointed Turkish language as their mother tongue. Statistic results of the 2000 census on the foreign-born population in Turkey showed that 480,817 residents were born in Bulgaria thus forming the largest foreign-born group in the country. The number of Bulgarian citizens from Turkish descent residing in Turkey is put at 326,000, during the 2005 Bulgarian parliamentary elections 120,000 voted either in Bulgaria or polling stations set up in Turkey. Census 1880/1884ab 1887b 1892b 1900 1905 1910 1920 1926 1934 1946 Turkish group ethnic Bulgarian ethnic group 2,027,241 2,326,250 2,505,326 2,888,219 3,203,810 3,518,756 4,036,056 4,557,706 5,204,217 5,903,580 Bulgaria's population 2,982,949 3,154,375 3,310,713 3,744,283 4,035,575 4,337,513 4,846,971 5,478,741 6,077,939 7,029,349

727,773 (24.4%) 607,331 (19.3%) 569,728 (17.2%) 531,240 (14.2%) 488,010 (12.1%) 465,641 (10.7%) 520,339 (10.7%) 577,552 (10.5%) 591,193 (9.7%) 675,500 (9.6%)

Census 1956 1965 1975 1992 2001 2011c

a

Turkish group 656,025 (8.6%) 780,928 (9.5%) 730,728 (8.4%) 800,052 (9.4%) 746,664 (9.4%) 588,318 (8.5%)

ethnic

Bulgarian ethnic group 6,506,541 7,231,243 7,930,024 7,271,185 6,655,210 6,464,624

Bulgaria's population 7,613,709 8,227,966 8,727,771 8,487,317 7,928,901 7,564,570

Shows the combined results of the 1880 census in the Principality of Bulgaria and the 1884 census in Eastern Rumelia.
b

The censuses in 1880, 1887 and 1892 did not have a question on ethnic affiliation. The results for the Principality of Bulgaria are by mother language. In the 1884 census in Eastern Rumelia ethnicities (excluding Gypsies) were classified by religion. c The 2011 percentage is calculated only from those who answered the optional question on ethnicity (6,680,980 in total). Source for 1880/1884 censuses: Source for 1887 and 1892 censuses): Source (1900-2021 censuses):

History
Turks, although today numerically small about 1 million people (about 2 percent of the total Balkan population) - have played a role in shaping the history of the Balkans far beyond their numbers.
Possible settlement of Turks in Bulgaria During the pre-Ottoman Period

While most Turks settled during and after the Ottoman conquest, there are indications that some Turks settled before this period. According to early historical compilations and translations ofIbn Bibis History of the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum a well founded account is presented of Turkish immigration from Anatolia to Dobruja. Ibn Bibis historical memoirs cover the period 1192-1281 well before Ottoman rule over the Balkans. The work of Ibn Bibi finished in 1281 and was written in Persian for one of the last Rum Seljuk Sultans Kaykhusraw III. In his Turkish translation called

theOghuzname Yaziciolu Ali describes how Seljuk Turk troops joined their Sultan 'Izz al-Din Kayka'us II (Kaykaus II) to help the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in his military campaigns. It is thought that during this campaign Seljuks settled in Dobruja. This migration of Anatolian Turks to Dobruja and their mystic leader Sari Saltik is also described in the works of Ibn Battuta and Evliya elebi.[38] According to sources these Seljuk Turks settled in area of Dobruja along the Black Sea coast in the borderland between what is now Bulgaria and their furthest outpost Babadag situated in Northern Dobruja. Part of them returned to Anatolia, while the rest became Christianized and adopted the name of Gagauz. For these reasons it is unclear to which extent this group is connected with today's Turkish inhabitants of the region.. There are also some doubts about these events, which according to some scholars have the characteristics of a folk legend. According to some historians such as Karel korpil have presented the view that the Turks in Deliorman are the descendants of Bulgars, who had escaped Slavization and others that these are the descendants of Pechenegs or Cumans who settled in the region around 1055. Islamization of this population before Ottoman rule has also been suggested.

Settlement of Turks in Bulgaria During the Ottoman Period

Ethnological Map of European Turkey and her Dependencies at the Time of the Beginning of the War of 1877, by Karl Sax, I. and R. Austro-Hungarian Consul at Adrianople. Published by the Imperial and Royal Geographical Society, Vienna 1878. Most of the Turkish families who settled in the Bulgarian territories left during population exchanges.

Ethnic composition of the central Balkans in 1870 by the English-German cartograge E.G. Ravenstein. The conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans set in motion important population movements, which modified the ethnic and religious composition of the conquered territories. This demographic restructuring was accomplished through colonization of strategic areas of the Balkans with Turks brought or exiled from Anatolia, establishing a firm Turkish Muslim base for further conquests in Europe. Ottoman Empire used colonization as a very effective method to consolidate their position and power in the Balkans. The colonizers that were brought to the Balkans consisted of diverse elements, including groups uneasy for the state, soldiers, nomads, farmers, artisans and merchants, dervishes, preachers and other religious functionaries, and administrative personnel. Among the earliest arrivals were large numbers of pastoral peoples such as the Yrks, Turcomans (Oghuz Turks), Tatars from Anatolia andCrimean Tatars (Qaraei or Kara Tatar) led by their chieftain Aktav. As the Ottomans expanded

their conquests in the Balkans, they brought nomads from Anatolia and settled them along the main highways and in the surrounding mountain regions. Densely populated Turkish colonies were established in the frontier regions of Thrace, the Maritsa and the Tundzha valleys. The colonization policies already begun under Orhan were continued by his successorsMurat I (136084) and Bayezit I (13891402). Additional colonists, mostly nomads again, were established along key transportation and communication routes in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly. The Ottoman authorities maintained these nomads in their tribal organization through the 16th century and began to settle them only during the 17th century. In addition to voluntary migrations, the Ottoman authorities used mass deportations (srgn) as a method of control over potentially rebellious elements in the Balkans and in Anatolia. Far away form their home bases, the potential threat of such elements was considerably reduced as in the case of the followers of the rebellious Karamani Pir Ahmed. Tribal resistance was followed by large-scale transfers of Karamanid and Trkmen nomads to Deliormanand Rumelia . Deportations in both directions occurred throughout the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. After the defeat of Bayezid I at the battle of Ankara by the forces of Tamerlane in 1402, the Ottomans abandoned their Anatolian domains for a while and considered the Balkans their real home, making Adrianople (Edirne) their new capital. The Timurid invasions and other upheavals in Anatolia brought additional Turkish settlers into the Balkans. Numerous Turkish colonists were settled as farmers in new villages. Vakf deeds and regsters of the 15th century show that there was a wide movement of colonization, with western Anatolian peasantry settling in Thrace and the eastern Balkans and founding hundreds of new villages. Some other settlers came in search of military and administrative service, and still others to establish Islamic religious institutions. Muslims were settled densely along the two great historical routes of the Peninsula, one going though Thrace and Macedonia to the Adriaticand the other passing through the Maritsa and Tundzha valleys to the Danube. The Yrks were settled mostly in the mountainous parts of the area. A census conducted between 1520 and 1530 showed that 19% of the Balkan population was Muslim. The greatest impact of Ottoman colonization in the Balkans, however, was felt in the urban centers. Many towns became major centers for Turkish control and administration, with most Christians gradually withdrawing to the mountains. Historical evidence shows that the Ottomans embarked on a systematic policy of

creating new towns and repopulating older towns that had suffered significant population decline and economic dislocation during the two centuries of incessant wars preceding the Ottoman conquest, as well as the ravages of the Ottoman conquest itself. Often re-colonization of old towns and the establishment of new towns were accompanied by bodily transplanting settlers from other areas of the Empire or with Muslim refugees from other lands. Records show that by the end of the 14th century, Muslim Turks formed the absolute majority in large urban towns in Upper Thrace such as Plovdiv (Filibe) and Pazardzhik (Tatar Pazarcik). Ottoman Architecture in Bulgaria

Banya Bashi Mosque in Sofia

Tombul Mosque in Shumen

Plovdiv Cuma Mosque inPlovdiv

Old Plovdiv Ottoman architecture has shaped and left visible marks on the Balkan urban landscape. Two distinct crafts are evident in Ottoman urban culture that of the architect and that of the master builder (maistores in Macedonia and Epirus, kalfa in Anatolia and sometimes in Bulgaria) who shared the responsibilities and tasks for the design and construction of all sorts of building projects. During Mimar Sinan's period as a chief imperial architect until the second half of the 16th century between forty and seventy architects produced designs for a very large labour force, controlled the construction of military and civil facilities, water and road infrastructure from Budapest to Cairo. The

centralized has orhassa (sultan's property and service) system had allowed a small number of architects to control all significant imperial and most vakif building sites over the vast territories of the empire. In the 18th century the empire was opened to Western influence. By the late 18th century a growing number of Ottoman Christians were recruited. Until the very end of the Ottoman state the master builders maintained a cultural equilibrium between the Ottoman spirit and architectural innovation both in the Balkans and Anatolia. Turkish, Slavic, and Greek masters combining Western styles with Ottoman views extended the architectural landscape with one of the best examples being the Filibe-Plovdivsymmetrical house. Innovations were derived from the Ottoman house and market (ar) buildings in Anatolia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Turks in Bulgaria from Liberation to Communist Rule (1878 to 1945)

Ethnic map of Bulgaria according to the census results from 1892 (Pink denotes regions with Bulgarian and Turkish population)

Population of Bulgaria between 1880 and 1910 The estimates of the number of Turks in the current Bulgarian territories prior to the Russo-Turkish war of 1878 vary. Major urban centers were with Muslim majority and remained overwhelmingly Muslim well until the 19th century. According to Aubaret, the French Consul in Ruse in 1876 in the Danube Vilayet alone there were 1,120,000 Muslims and 1,233,500 non-Muslims of whom 1,150,000 were Bulgarian. As Russian forces and Bulgarian volunteers pushed south in January 1878 they

inflicted a welter of atrocities on the local Muslim population. NYT 23.11.1877. The Ottoman army has also been accused of attacking Muslim non-combatants and using refugees to shield their retreat. Certainly many perished of hardship during their flight. The number of casualties is uncertain, it is estimated at tens of thousands. The figure of refugees is uncertain too, Professor Richard Crampton estimates it as an exodus of 130,000-150,000 people of whom approximately half returned for an intermediary period encouraged by the Congress of Berlin in 1878, while Dr. Hupchick claims that the refugees were 500,000. Atrocities against the Turks and Pomaks committed by Russian troops and Bulgaria units are also described in the 1878 Rhodope Commission signed by French, Italian, English and Turkish representatives. The Commission points out the burning of 80 Muslim villages after signing the armistice and a number of other war crimes against the Muslim civilian population. The Commission presents the figure of 150,000 refugees in and around the Rhodope Mountains. According to Justin McCarthy, the Russian aim was to inflict massive Muslim civilian casualties. The victims are put into four categories: 1) battle casualties 2) murders by Bulgarian and Russian troops 3) denial of necessities for life leading to starvation and death from disease 4) death caused by refugee status. Members of the European press who covered the war in Bulgaria reported on the Russian atrocities against Muslims. Witness accounts from Shumen and Razgrad describe children, women and elderly wounded by sabres and lances. They stated that the entire Muslim population of many villages had been massacred. It should be noted that the Ottoman army committed numerous atrocities against Christians during its retreat, most notably the complete devastation of Stara Zagora and the surrounding region, which might have provoked some of the attacks against ethnic Turks. There were also returning in the homeland Bulgarian refugees from Wallachia, Moldavia andRussia which escaped from the Ottoman rule. During the War many Turks, including large and small landowners, abandoned their lands. Though many returned after the signing of the treaty of Berlin they were soon to find the atmosphere of the lands they had left behind uncongenial and large numbers emigrated once again to the more familiar cultural and political atmosphere of the Ottoman Empire. Bulgarian population increased from two million at the 1881 census to two and a half million by 1892, and stood at three and a half million by 1910 and at four million by 1920. This increase took place while a large number of Bulgaria's Turkish-speaking

inhabitants were emigrating. At the census in 1881 the Turkish-speaking people in Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia were about 700,000 and represented 24.9% of the population, yet by the 1892 census the proportion was 17.21 percent and by the 1910 census 11.63%; in the same years the Bulgarian speaking elements were 67.84%, 75.67% and 81.63% of the total. During the Balkan Wars in August 1913 the majority Muslim population of Western Thrace (including the regions of the Southern Rhodope Mountains and the Kircaali/Kurdzhali region) established the Provisional Government of Western Thrace. The short-lived republic had a population of over 230 000 of which app. 80% were Turks and Pomaks. Western Thrace was left to Bulgaria with the Istanbul agreement signed on 29 September 1913 which guaranteed the rights of Turks living in the region. The region stayed under Bulgarian control until 1919. Since Bulgarians comprised only a fraction of the population of Western Thrace ceding the territory to Bulgaria was seen as an unacceptable option by both the population of Western Thrace and Turkey at that time. Having lost the territory in 1913 the Ottoman State intended to keep the area mainly Turkish populated with hopes of one day regaining Western Thrace.

Turkish Press in Bulgaria 18791945

The Turkish press in Bulgaria established itself almost simultaneously with the foundation of the Bulgarian Principality in 1878. Under the new (foreign)Bulgarian administration the Turkish intellectuals felt the need to communicate the new laws and regulations to the Turkish population by first providing translations of the Bulgarian State Gazette. During the years the number of Turkish newspapers and publications published in the Principality of Bulgaria rose to 90. The Turkish Press in Bulgaria was faced with many difficulties and a significant amount of newspapers operated on the verge of being banned and their journalists being expelled from the country. Turkish journalists and teachers organised by establishing the Islamic Teachers Community in Bulgaria(Bulgaristan Muallimi Islmiye Cemiyeti) and the Union of Turan Communities in Bulgaria (Turan Cemiyetleri Birlii) which was a youth organisation. The leaders of these organisations met during National Congresses held each year in different locations in Bulgaria. The largest National Congress was held in Sofia in 1929 with over 1000 participants. Between 1895 and 1945 there were several well known Turkish newspapers in Bulgaria:

GAYRET: The newspaper was founded in Plovdiv in 1895 and printed by Filibeli Rza Paa. In 1896 the famous Turkish thinker and intellectual beydullah Efendi wrote columns in Gayret and in a later stage became the newspapers head columnist. MUVAZENE: The weekly newspaper was first published in 20.8.1897 in Plovdiv by the graduates of the Mektebi Mlkiye Ulumu Siyasie and printed by Filibeli Rza Paa. The newspapers operations temporarily moved to Varna before returning to back to Plovdiv. One of the most known writers in Muvazene was Ali Fefhmi Bey who promoted the unionisation of the Turkish teachers in Bulgaria and was the instigator of the first Turkish teachers congress in Shumen. During the congress the Islamic Teachers Community in Bulgaria (Bulgaristan Muallimi Islmiye Cemiyeti) was founded. RUMEL BALKAN: Founded in 1904 by Etem Ruhi Balkan. After the first three editions the newspapers name was changed to Balkan. Daily editions were published until the eruption of the Balkan Wars in 1912. The newspaper was also printed by Maullimi Mehmet Mahri and Halil Zeki Bey. Since Etem Ruhi was often imprisoned the management of the newspaper shifted to Hsn Mahmut in 1912 and 1917 Halil Ibrahim became the head editor. The newspaper ended its publications in 1920. UHUVVET: Founded by unknown group of journalists in 24.5.1904 the weekly newspaper was printed in Rousse and focused on politics and daily events. In 1905 Mehmet Tefti became the manager of the newspaper. TUNA: Founded in 1.9.1905 by Mehmet Tefti, Tuna was a daily newspaper printed in Rousse. After 415 editions the newspaper ended its operations, however on 13.10.1908 the publications of Tuna resumed after a group of intellectual Turks established a separate company designated to meet the needs for a Turkish daily newspaper in the region. The main contributors in the new Tuna newspaper were Tahir Ltfi Bey, Hafz Abdullah Meik and Kizanlikli Ali Haydar. TERBYE OCAI: Established in 1921 by the Islamic Teachers Community in Bulgaria (Bulgaristan Muallimi Islmiye Cemiyeti) and printed in Varna between 1923 and 1925. Known contributors in Terbiye Ocai were Osman Nuri Peremeci, Hafz Abdullah Meik, Hasip Ahmet Aytuna, Mustafa erif Alyanak, Mehmet Mahsum, Osmanpazarli Ibrahim Hakki Ouz, Ali Avni, Ebuinasi Hasan Sabri, Hseyin Edip and Tayyarzade Cemil Bey.

YOLDA: Founded in 1921 by Hafz Abdullah Meik and published every second week in Shumen. Yolda was one of the first Turkish childrens publications in Bulgaria. DELORMAN: Owned by Mahmut Necmettin Deliorman the newspaper started its publications in 21.10.1922 in Razgrad with Ahmet Ihsan as its head editor. Between 1923 and 1925 Mustafa erif Alyanak took on the job of head editor with weekly editions. Deliorman also functioned as the main publication for the Turkish Union of Sports Clubs in Bulgaria. Turkish columnists such as Hasip Saffeti, Ahmet Aytuna, Hafiz Ismail Hakki, Yahya Hayati, Hsmen Celal, etin Ebuinasi and Hasan Sabri were household names in Deliorman. TURAN: Founded on 6.5.1928 in Vidin, Turan was a channel for the Union of Turkish Youth Communities in Bulgaria. The newspaper was also printed in Kardzhali and Varna until it was closed in 1934. TEBLGAT: Founded in 1929 and published by the office of the Grand Mufti and Islamic Foundations in Sofia. RODOP: Founded in April 1929 in Kardzhali by Ltfi Takanolu. Rodop focused on the rights, freedoms and national matters of the Turkish population in Bulgaria. Most known writers in Rodop were Mustafa erif Alyanak and mer Kaif Nalbandolu. As many other Turkish newspapers in Bulgaria Rodop was forced to stop its operations during 1934 and its writers were either expelled or forced to seek refuge in Turkey. Professor Ali Eminov from Wayne State College has compiled an extensive list: Works by Native Turkish Writers in Bulgaria/Turkish Newspapers Published in Bulgaria With the right-wing coup d'tat of 1934, Turkish-language press was suppressed. Only in the course of the first year, ten of the newspapers were closed down (including Deliorman and Turan), and by 1939, a single newspaper Havadis ("The News") survived, only to be closed down in turn in 1941. The explanation cited was that the newspapers were disseminating Kemalist (Turkish nationalist propaganda. Transfer of Land The transfer of land from Turkish to Bulgarian ownership which was the most important effect of Turkish emigration was a complex process. Such transfers had taken place before 1878, for example parts in the Tatar Pazardzhik district, where Bulgarian landowners had been unknown in 1840, some two thousand plots had been

bought by them between 1872 and 1875. In 1877 and in the following years the process of transfer took place on an immensely greater scale, both here and elsewhere. In 1875 some 50% of the land in Rumelia was owned by Turks. A decade after 1878 as much as a quarter of the arable land in Bulgaria transferred from Turkish to Bulgarian ownership. With the outbreak of war some Turks sold their property, mostly to wealthy local Bulgarians. Other Turks rented their lands, usually to dependable local Bulgarians, on the understanding that it would be handed back if and when the owners returned. Most departing Turks, however, simply abandoned their land and fled, the fall of Pleven had made it clear that the Russians were to win theWar. As the Turks fled many Bulgarians seized some of the land now made vacant. The incidence of seizure varied regionally. In the north-east the Turks were numerous and, feeling safety in numbers, few of them had left and those remaining were therefore strong enough to discourage seizures by Bulgarians. In the north and south-west on the other hand almost all Turks had fled and their lands were immediately taken over by local Bulgarians who often divided up the large estates found in these areas. In the remainder of northern Bulgaria transfers, often under the cloak of renting, took place in approximately one third of the communities. In the Turnovo province, for example, there were seventy-seven Turkish mixed Turkish-Bulgarian villages of which twenty-four (31.0%) were seized by Bulgarians, twenty two (28.5%) were later repossessed by returning Turkish refugees, and another twenty-two remained unaffected; the fate of the remaining nine is unknown. In the south-west there was much more tension and violence. Here there was no provisions about renting and there were cases of Bulgarian peasants not only seizing land but also destroying buildings. In vast majority of the cases it was local Bulgarians who seized the vacant land but Bulgarians from other parts of Bulgaria where there had been little Turkish emigration and Bulgarian refugees from Ottoman repressions in Macedonia and Western Thrace also took part in the seizures. In later months the publication of the terms of the Treaty of Berlin naturally intensified the flow of refugees from these areas and according to the prefect of Burgas province as helping themselves to migr land in a most arbitrary fashion. In Burgas and the rest of Eastern Rumelia the Treaty of Berlin intensified the land struggle by making Bulgarians more determined to seize sufficient land before Ottoman sovereignty was restored. It also encouraged the former Turkish owners to return. With these problems the Russian Provisional Administration had to contend.

The Provisional Administration did not have the power, even if it had had the will, to prevent so popular a movement as the seizure of vacant Turkish land, but nor could the Administration allow this movement to go completely unchecked for this would give the Turks and the British the excuse to interfere in the internal affairs of the liberated territories. Given these dangers the Russians handled the agrarian problem with considerable skill. In the summer of 1877 Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia, Thrace and Ottoman Rumelia had been allowed to harvest the crops left by Turkish migrs and in September all Bulgarians, the incoming refugees and the indigenous, were allowed to sow vacant Turkish land, though it was insisted that this did not in any way signify a transfer of ownership. With the mass exodus of Turks after the Treaty of San Stefano the Provisional Administration had little choice but to allow the Bulgarians to work the vacant land with rent, set at half the value of the harvest, to be paid to the legal owner. In many cases the Bulgarians simply refused to pay this rent and the Russians were not over-zealous in collecting it. When the Treaty of Berlin guaranteed Turkish property rights and restored southern Bulgaria to the Sultan's sovereignty at least 80,000 of the 150,000 Turkish migrs had returned by September 1878. This caused enormous problems including housing the returning Turks whose property had been taken over by Bulgarians or destroyed. In September local authorities ordered that any houses taken over by Bulgarians were to be restored to their former owners on the latter's demand, whilst other returning Turks were given Tatar or Circassian land. These problems were insignificant compared to those raised when the returning Turks demanded the restitution of their lost lands. In July 1878 the Russian Provisional Administration had come to an agreement with the Porte by which Turkish refugees were allowed to return under military escort, if necessary, and were to have their lands back on condition that they surrendered all their weapons. In August 1878 it was decreed that those returning would not be immune from prosecution and anyone against whom any charges were substantiated would be deprived of his lands. This decree, more than anything else, discouraged the return of more Turks and from the date of this enactment the flow of returning refugees began gradually to diminish. There were, however, many claims still to be dealt with and in November 1878 mixed Turkish and Bulgarian commissions were established in all provinces to examine these claims. The decisions were to be made in accordance

with rules drawn up by the Russian embassy in Constantinople in consultation with the Porte, and under them Bulgarians could secure the legal right to a piece of land if they could produce the authentic title-deeds, tapii, and thereby prove that the land at dispute had originally been taken from them forcibly or fraudulently. After the departure of the Russians in the spring of 1879 the administration in Plovdiv ordered to enforce court decisions returning land to the Turks. Only half of the courts had recorded such decisions. Other actions were even less emotive and in 1880 the position of the Bulgarians in Eastern Rumelia had improved. The Plovdiv government introduced new methods for authenticating claims, allowing local courts to issue new title deeds if they were satisfied that existing documentation proved ownership, or if local communal councils had issued certificates attesting ownership. Most local councils were entirely Bulgarian or were dominated by Bulgarians and decided in favour of their co-nationals far more often than did the mixed commissions with whom the prerogative of adjunction had previously rested. In many instances, too, Bulgarians refused to relinquish land they had seized and as late as 1884 there were still Turkish landlords demanding the implementation of court orders restoring their property. The Bulgarians in Rumelia were also helped from 1880 onwards because the Turks began to drift once more into exile. This was very much the result of disappointed hopes for a full restoration of Turkish power south of the Balkan range. By 1880 the Bulgarians had gained complete control of the province and to this many Turks, and particularly the richer and previously more influential ones, could not adapt. The Turks had never allowed the Bulgarians social or legal equality. Now they were forced to concede their superiority and for many Turks this was too much to bear and they gratefully accepted offers of land from the Sultan and returned to the more familiar atmosphere of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were also encouraged to emigrate from Bulgaria by regulations which affected the cultivation of rice - which was originally introduced to the region by the Turks. This was part of a project to eradicate malaria that included also draining of swamps in the Tundzha, Arda, and Maritsa Basins. The project succeeded in eradicating malaria, however, it also exacerbated droughts in those regions. Rice was a staple crop for the Turks and in its prohibition many of them saw yet another sign of unacceptable Bulgarian domination. An even more important impulse to Turkish emigration was the Bulgarian land tax of 1882. By Moslem law all land was owned by God but after the abolition of feudalism in the 1830s use of that land conferred

temporary wardship upon the user, and thus the tithe which had been the main levy on land until 1882 conformed to traditional Moslem codes of thought and practice. The land tax did not. Furthermore land tax applied to all land in a man's possession not, as under the tithe, merely to that part which had been cultivated. This hit the Turks hard for they customarily left large proportion, in many cases as much as half, of their land fallow. Taxation now fell on the fallow land too but production and earnings could not be increased by the same proportion and as a result many of the remaining Turkish owners of large estates left Rumelia. Significantly 1882 was the peak year for the sale of larger Turkish properties in Rumelia, though the sale of such properties continued steadily throughout the first half of the 1880s. From the end of the war to the summer of 1880 only six large Turkish chifliks in Eastern Rumelia had been sold but the five years before union with the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885 saw the sale of about a hundred. That most of the larger Turkish owners and many smaller ones left Rumelia was undoubtedly an important factor in the easy attainment of Bulgarian supremacy in Rumelia during the early 1880s. In Principality of Bulgaria as in Rumelia the chaos of war had allowed a number of seizures to go unrecorded meaning that the new occupiers were to be left in untroubled possession of their land. The Constituent Assembly had considered a proposal to legislate such illegal transfers but no action had been taken as Karavelov had easily persuaded the Assembly that it was pointless to legislate about so widespread a phenomenon. The Bulgarians in the Principality could afford such bold stance as there was little danger of direct Ottoman intervention over the land question. There was a constant stream of emigration by Turks from Bulgaria and by the early 1890s so many Turks had left the former Turkish stronghold of north-eastern Bulgaria that the government in Sofiabegan to fear that the area would be seriously under-populated. In 1891 the Minister of Finance reported to the Subranie that there were 26,315 vacant plots in the country, many of them in the north-east and most of them under twenty dekars in extent. In Bulgaria the government also took possession of Turkish land which had been vacant for three years. A number of returning Turkish refugees who demanded restitution of or compensation for their lands were denied both on the grounds that they had without duress left their property unworked for three years. Land rights of Muslim owners were largely disregarded despite of being guaranteed by the powers. The historian Michael Palairet has claimed that de-Ottomanization of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia led to the economic decline in the region, which is contradicted by many other

historians, who show rapid growth of the economy as well as rapid industrial development and growth of exports in Bulgaria after 1878.

Human rights
Bulgaria's constitution and various international treaties required it to grant minorities, including the Turkish population, equal treatment before law (however, the Tarnovo constitution also required, discriminatorily, direct government control over all, minority or majority, religious communities). The policy of equal treatment was pursued inconsistently. All in all, Turks and other Muslims were able to freely maintain their own cultural life during most of the time until World War II, but with periods of gross human rights violations, including a major onslaught during the rightwing authoritarian regime in the last decade of that period. Other abuses included denied access to public service and refusal of tax relief and agricultural loans as a way to encourage emigration, as well as state appointment of Muslim muftis. The condition of Turks and Bulgarian Muslims worsened gravely after the 1934 coup d'tat and the establishment of Boris III's quasi-dictatorship[81] and remained so until the Communist takeover. Muslim minority teachers were deprived of pensions and the participation of the Muslim community in political and cultural life was minimized. As mentioned above, there was an immediate assault on Turkish-language press and by 1941 all Turkish-language newspapers were banned. This was justified with the claim that it promoted Kemalist ideas. In general, pro-Kemalist organizations were systematically dissolved, as Kemalism was regarded as a form of pan-Turkism that turned the Bulgarian Turks into a fifth column of Turkey. Ironically, emigration to Turkey was nevertheless banned during this until the early 1940s, when the government decided to issue emigration permits en masse in order to get rid of the "fifth column". Turkey, on the other hand, was very reluctant to admit any huge immigration from Bulgaria. At the same time, the overall conditions worsened even more, as the pro-Nazi regime closed all Muslim minority schools as well as schools with a significant number of Muslim or Turkish members, shut down mosques and even medical centres in predominantly Muslim areas, and systematically distributed smaller wartime foodstuff portions to Turks and other Muslims than to non-Muslim Bulgarians. The Turks were not targets of violent assimilation attempts during most of this period, although Bulgarian-speaking Muslims (Pomaks) were targeted in two such stateorganized campaigns - once during the Balkan wars (which was later revoked by the

Liberal Party government elected also with Pomak votes), and once in 1942, by the notorious Bulgarian-Mohammedan Cultural-Educational and Charitable Association Rodina. This also involved a ban on Pomak-Turkish intermarriage and coercive replacement of the Pomaks' Muslim names with Christian ones. Language and Education After the Russo-Turkish War in 1878 the Turks in Bulgaria lost their social and political domination in Bulgaria. The official Turkish language became the language of a minority. In 1875 there were 2,700 Turkish primary schools, 40 secondary schools and 150 medreses in the Danube Vilayet. By 1913 the number of Turkish schools was reduced to 1,234 all of which had to be financed by the Turkish community. Following the First World War the Bulgarian government provided financial assistance to the Turkish schools and their number grew to 1,712 with 60,481 pupils. As the fascist regime gained power in 1934, Turkish school, which had adopted the Latin alphabet following the reforms in Turkey, were forced to teach in the Arabic script. This in order to reduce the nationalistic influences coming from Turkey. As the Communists took control in Bulgaria in 1944 they delivered on their promises for more liberties for the ethnic minorities. Turkish schools were reopened and the usage of the Latin script allowed. The new regime however nationalised the schools and took them under state control. In 1944 there were 84,603 Turkish children in school age, 40,388 of whom did not attend school. According to the law graduates from Turkish schools were considered as illiterate. In 1956 the number of Turkish schools is put at 1,149 with 100,843 pupils and 4,527 teachers. After 1958 the Turkish language in these schools was replaced with Bulgarian as the official language and Turkish became an elected subject. After 1970 teaching Turkish in schools was abolished and by 1984 the use of the Turkish language itself was deemed illegal. The only two remaining bi-lingual journals Yeni Ik and Yeni Hayat were printed in Bulgarian only. Turks in Bulgaria During Communist Rule (1945 to 1989) Initial Improvements (1944-1956) After the Communist takeover in 1944, the new regime declared itself in favour of all minorities and inter-ethnic equality and fraternity (in accordance with the classic doctrine of proletarian internationalism) and annulled all the "fascist" anti-Muslim decisions of the previous government. This included banning the "Rodina"

organization, re-establishing the closed Turkish minority schools and founding new ones. The new constitution had many provisions regarding minority protection and in particular guaranteed the right to mother tongue education and free development of culture for all national minorities. Further legislation required new Turkish minority textbooks to be issued and allocation of air time for radio broadcasts in Turkish. For the first time since the ban by the previous regime, Turkish-language newspapers and magazines and Turkish-language editions of Bulgarian press were launched, starting in 1945, including Vatan ("Fatherland"), Ik("Light"), Halk Genlii, Yeni Ik and Yeni Hayat ("New Life"). In 1947, even an "affirmative action"-like policy was implemented, as Turkish minority members were accepted to higher education institutions without an entrance examination; such practices would continue in later years, as special efforts were made to further the active involvement of Muslims in the Communist Party and in the political life of the country; but this special treatment may have been motivated also by the hope that such integration could encourage their cultural assimilation as well. However, the emigration of Turks and Pomaks to Turkey was periodically banned starting in 1949; Turkey also obstructed immigration from Bulgaria with tough requirements. Also, Turks and other minorities were not admitted into military service for some time, and even after the official decision to allow it in 1952, their admission would still require them to meet certain undefined political criteria. The Assimilation Policy (19561989)

The Imaret Mosque, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, also known as the Sehabddin Pasha Mosque, built in 1444; during the late 1980s, the grounds of the mosque were turned into rubbish tip; this photograph was taken in 1987. Today, this mosque is again in use and is also a branch of the Archeological Museum, and a popular tourist destination . In the garden yard of this mosque are a number of grave markers where notable citizens of "Philibe" were buried. These valuable historic markers are badly deteriorated by vandalism, time and neglect. Starting in 1956, the regime gradually began to embark on a long-term assimilation policy towards the Turks in Bulgaria, which was routinely pursued with more or less intensity until the end of Communist rule and culminated in two periods of intensive

campaigns, each lasting several years. The most wide-ranging and public one, directed against the Turks, took place in 1984-1985 and was officially called "the Revival Process" (a term also used, though more rarely, for the other large campaign, which was organized against the Pomak identity in 1971-1974). One of the main aspects of these campaigns were the forced name-changing episodes of the countrys Muslim population, as well as efforts to obliterate traditional clothing, prohibit Muslim customs and deny the use of Turkish language. Apart from these violent episodes, the long-term policy was expressed in various other facts: for example, Turkish-language publications were closed down one by one, and by 1981 only a single newspaper ( Yeni Ik ) survived, until it ceased to be published in 1985. Significantly, the new "Zhivkov constitution" of 1971 replaced the term "national minorities" with "nationals of non-Bulgarian origin". Campaign against the Pomaks The assimilation policy targeted first the Bulgarian speaking Muslim population, the Pomaks, continuing the practice of the pre-Communist regime. Some of the methods used by Rodina were adopted by the Communist regime and the Pomaks were systematically targeted mainly in 1964 and 1970-1974. There are numerous examples of the brutality employed during these forced assimilation operations such as the events in March 1972 in the village of Barutin where police and state security forces violently crushed a demonstration against the assimilation policies of the regime by the majority Muslim population killing 2 civilians and inflicting gunshot wounds on scores of others. In March 1973 in the village of Kornit sasituated in the mountainous region of South-West Bulgaria the local Muslim population resisted the forced name changing and attempted to demonstrate against the governments suppressive actions. As a response the Bulgarian security forces killed 5 villagers and wounded scores of civilians. By 1974, 500 of the 1,300 inmates of the notorious Belene labour camp were Pomaks who had resisted pressure to change their names. The "Process of Rebirth" The Process of Rebirth (also "Process of Revival" - Bulgarian:Vazroditelen protses) was the culmination of the assimilation. With this explicit policy, enacted between 1984 and 1989, the Bulgarian government forced Bulgarias Turkish community 900,000 people or 10 percent of the country's population, to change their names. The people affected were all ethnic Turks. By 1984 other Muslims, mostly the Muslim Roma and the Pomaks had already been forced to give up their Turkish or Muslim

names for Christian names. The government had been encouraging the educated Turks to voluntarily adopt Bulgarian names. The exact reasons for Zhivkov's mass-scale assimilation programme are unclear, but it is believed that one of the main factors was the projection that by 1990 the Bulgarian population would experience a zero or negative population growth resulting in increasing Muslim population and declining Bulgarian population. In June 1984, the Politbureau voted a policy named For the further unification and inclusion of Bulgarian Turks into the cause of socialism and the policies of the Bulgarian Communist Party". The plan was to rename all Islamic minorities with Slavic names, ban the wearing of distinctive Turkish clothing, to forbid the use of the Turkish language and close down the mosques. The assimilation campaign was sold to the ethnic Bulgarian majority as an attempt for national revival and was called by the authorities the The Revival Process. The ideology behind the term, originally used for the less publicized attempts at assimilation of the Pomaks in the early 1970s, was the claim that the targeted minority had originally been Bulgarian before its conversion or assimilation during the period of Ottoman rule. Thus, the assimilation was supposedly justified by it being a restoration of the population's original "real" identity. As it was later to turn out the regime was misled by its own agents among the Turkish minority and was taken aback when the Turkish minority refused to submit to the assimilation campaign. The regime found itself in a position where it had to use violence. On December 24, 1984 Bulgarian police and security forces fired the first shots against the Turkish community in the village of Mlechino (Present name of St Kesii). While Mlechino was held under siege by Bulgarian security forces some 200 Turkish villagers from the smaller nearby towns attempted to break the siege and protest for the return of their passports and reinstatement of their Turkish names. This pattern repeated in many areas in Bulgaria populated with Turks. People from smaller towns and villages attempted to march and enter larger towns and villages to find a government official with greater jurisdiction who would be able to explain why the Turks were being targeted and when they would be able to reinstate their Turkish names and receive back their original identification documents. Often these larger towns of central administration were unreachable since they were besieged by Bulgarian security forces.

On 25 December 1984, close to the town of Benkovski, some 3,000 Turkish protesters from the nearby smaller villages confronted Bulgarian security forces and demanded to have their original identification papers back. The Bulgarian security forces managed to disperse the crowd claiming that they have no idea where their identification papers were and urged them to go back to their villages and inquire from the local mayors. The large police presence was explained with undergoing security forces exercise manoeuvres. After returning to their towns and discovering that the local municipality didn't have their passports and ID documentation the crowd headed back, this time more decisively, towards the town of Benkovski on the next day (26 December 1984). The Bulgarian police and security forces were prepared and awaiting with some 500 armed men in position. When the crowd of 2,000 Turkish villagers approached the Bulgarian security forces opened fire with automatic weapons wounding 8 people and killing 4. One of the killed was a 17-month old Turkish baby. The killed were from the villages of Kayaloba, Kitna and Mogiljane. Judging from the wounds of the dead and wounded the police and security force had been aiming at the midsection of the bodies. The captured demonstrators were faced down on the snow for 2 hours and blasted with cold water coming from the fire fighting trucks. In a report by Atanas Kadirev the head of the Ministry of Interior Forces in Kardzhali it is stated It was interesting that they were able to absorb all the water from the fire fighting trucks in a standing position. The temperature that day was minus 15 degrees Celsius. On the same day, 26 December 1984, the Turkish community in the village of Gruevo, situated in Momchilgrad county, resisted the entry of security forces vehicles into the village by burning truck tires on the main road. The villagers were temporarily successful, but the security forces returned later that night with reinforcements. The electricity to the village was cut. The villagers organised at the village entrance but were blasted with water mixed with sand coming from the hoses of the fire fighting trucks. Some of the security forces opened fire directly at the villagers and several civilians were wounded and killed. The wounded from bullets attempted to seek help from hospitals but were refused medical treatment. There are reports of incarcerated Turks committing "suicide" while held for police questioning. In demonstrations in Momchilgrad at least one 16-year-old youngster was shot and killed and there are reports of casualties also in Dzhebel. According to the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior during these few Christmas days there have been some 11 demonstrations in which approximately 11,000 Turks participated. A large number of the arrested protesters

were later sent to the Belene labour camp at the gates of which it is written All Bulgarian citizens are equal under the laws of the People's Republic of Bulgaria One of the most notable confrontations between the ethnic Turk population and the Bulgarian State Security apparatus and army was in the village of Yablanovo during January 1985 where the Turkish population resisted the tanks of the 3rd Bulgarian Army for 3 days. When the village was overrun by the Bulgarian Army the town hall was made a temporary Command Centre and became the scene of terrifying acts of brutality in the name of Bulgarisation. The torture and violation of the captured resisting Turks was later continued in the underground cellars of the Ministry of Interior in the city of Sliven. The interrogation methods applied on the captured villagers were depicted with the torture of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion. Over 30 people are reported killed during the events in Yablanovo. The regimes violence did achieve its immediate aims. All Turks had been registered with Slavic names, Turkish was forbidden in public and the mosques abandoned. This however was not the end of the matter but the beginning of the revival of the Turkish identity where the oppressed minority strongly re-defined itself as Muslim and distinct. Bulgarians came to be seen as occupiers and oppressors and protest demonstrations took place in some of the bigger villages in the southern and northern Turk enclaves. Moreover, the Turkish community received the solidarity of Bulgarian intellectuals and opponents of the regime. Militant attacks Several militant attacks were committed in the period between 1984 and 1985. The first attack was on August 30, 1984, when one bomb exploded on Plovdiv's railway station and another one in the Varna airport on a date when Todor Zhivkov was scheduled to visit the two towns. One woman was killed and 41 were wounded. On March 9, 1985, attacks going even further as an explosive device was planted on the Sofia-Burgas train and exploded on Bunovo station in a car that was specifically designated for mothers with children, killing seven people (two children) and wounding nine. The accused perpetrators, three Turkish men from the Burgas region who belonged to the illegal Turkish National Liberation Front (TNLF), were arrested, sentenced to death and executed in 1988. According to other sources the Turkish National Liberation Front was not founded until June 1985 (three months after the Bunovo attack). Certain publicists, such as Bulgarian politician and lawyer Yanko Yankov, have suggested that the three men were actually associates of the

Bulgarian State Security Service, drawing the conclusion that the terrorist acts were provocations, organized by the regime., On July 7, 1987, militants detonates three military fragmentation grenades outside hotel "International" in Golden Sands resort at the time occupied with East German holiday-makers, trying to get attention and publicity for the renaming process. Apart from these acts, the ethnic Turks in Bulgaria used nonviolent ways to resist the regime's oppression, though as noted above there were some violent clashes during the actual renaming process. Notably, intellectuals founded a movement, which was claimed to be the predecessor of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). It used civil disobedience and focused on providing information to the outside world of the physical persecution and suppression suffered by the Turks in Bulgaria. The activities of the movement consisted of peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes with the goal of restoring civil liberties and basic human rights. The "Big Excursion" In May 1989, there were disturbances in regions inhabited by members of the Turkish minority. In the so-called May events of 1989, emotions reached the boiling point and tens of thousands of Turkish demonstrators took to the streets in the north-eastern and south-eastern provinces. The demonstrations were violently suppressed by police and the military forces. On 6 May, members of the Turkish community initiated mass hungers strikes and demanded the restitution of their Muslim names and civil liberties in accordance with the countrys constitution and international treaties signed by Bulgaria. The participants were members of the Democratic League and the Independent Association. The regime responded with mass detentions and the deportation of activists to foreign countries such as Austria and Turkey. Individuals were driven to the Yugoslav, Romanian or Turkish borders, presented with a tourist passport and extradited without even having a chance of contacting their families first. The mass demonstration in major cities and the regions like Razgrad, Shumen, Kardzhali and Silistra continued systematically all through May 1989. According to the Turkish government, 50 people were killed during the clashes with Bulgarian security forces. The Bulgarian government has put the death toll at only 7. On 10 May 1989, travel restrictions to foreign countries were partly lifted (only for the members of the Turkish minority). Todor Zhivkov gave a speech on 29 May 1989, in which he stated that those who didn't want to live in Bulgaria could emigrate to Turkey and demanded that Turkey open its borders in order to receive all "Bulgarian

Muslims". There followed an exodus of over 300,000 Turks to Turkey, which became known as "The Big Excursion". The first wave of refugees was forcefully extradited from Bulgaria. These first deportees consisted of the prisoners of theBelene labour camp, their families and other Turkish activists. People were given 24 hours to gather their luggage before being driven to the border with Turkey in special convoys. Under psychological pressures and fear these were followed by hundreds of thousands. There were also cases were activists of Turkish movements pressured Turks to leave. During the protests in May, the Turkish population effectively abandoned their workplaces in the industrial and agricultural sector. The loss of hundreds of thousands of workers had severe consequences on the production cycle and the whole Bulgarian economy. In 1998, the Bulgarian president condemned the Revival process and The Big Excursion, nine years after it took place. Migration and Expulsion of Turks from Bulgaria to Turkey Migration and Expulsion to Turkey, 18781989 Years Total 130,000(of which half returned) or 500,000 240,000 100,000 150,000 24 52,000

187778

19121930 19311939 19501951 19521968 19691974

1979 19791988

50,000 10 320,000 (to 1990 150,000 of them returned in Bulgaria)

1989

Turkish refugees from the Tirnova district coming into Shumla. The Illustrated London News 1st Sep 1877.

War Distribution Clothing Turkish Refugees Shumla. The Illustrated London News 17th Nov 1877.

Turkish refugees from Eastern Rumelia in 1885. The Illustrated London News, author: Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. Official Recognition of Ethnic Cleansing The Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Religious Freedom approved in February 2010 a declaration, condemning the Communist regime's attempt to forcefully assimilate the country's ethnic Turkish population. The Committee declared the forceful expulsion of 360 000 Turks in 1989 as a form of ethnic cleansing. The committee requested the Bulgarian judiciary and the Chief Prosecutor to renew the case against the architects of the Revival Process.

Turks in Post-Communist Bulgaria Collapse of Zhivkov regime and civil liberties given to Turks On November 10, 1989 Bulgaria's Communist regime was overthrown. On December 29 a governmental decision was made allowing the Turks of Bulgaria to re-adopt their Turkish names. This was ratified as a law in March 1990. Within one year some 600 thousand applications were received for the reinstatement of Turkish birth given names. In the same year the Institutition of the Spiritual leader of the Muslims in Bulgaria, the Grand Muftis Office was founded. In 1991 a new Constitution was adopted granting citizens of non-Bulgarian origin a wide range of rights and lifting the legislative ban on teaching in Turkish. In January of the same year another law was adopted allowing the Turks to change their names or strike out their Slavonic endings like ov, ova, ev, eva within three years . As in other parts of Eastern Europe, the repeal of single-party rule in Bulgaria exposed the long-standing grievances of an ethnic minority. The urban intelligentsia that participated in the 1990 reform movement pushed the post-Zhivkov governments toward restoring constitutionally guaranteed human rights to the Turks. But abrogation of Zhivkov's assimilation program soon after his fall brought massive protests by ethnic Bulgarians. In January 1990, the Social Council of Citizens, a national body representing all political and ethnic groups, reached a compromise that guaranteed the Turks freedom of religion, choice of names, and unimpeded practice of cultural traditions and use of Turkish within the community. In turn the Bulgarians were promised that Bulgarian would remain the official language and that no movement for autonomy or separatism would be tolerated. Especially in areas where Turks outnumbered Bulgarians, the latter feared progressive "Islamification" or even invasion and annexation by Turkeya fear that was based on the traditional enmity after the Ottoman rule and had been stirred up after the 1974 invasion of Cyprus. This had been part of the propaganda during by the Zhivkov assimilation campaign and was revived by politicians in post-Communist Bulgaria. Because radical elements of the Turkish population did advocate separatism, however, the non-annexation provision of the compromise was vital. The Bulgarian governments that followed Zhivkov tried to realize the conditions of the compromise as quickly as possible. In the multiparty election of 1990, the Turks won representation in the National Assembly by twenty-three candidates of the predominantly Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). At that point,

ethnic Bulgarians, many remaining from the Zhivkov regime, still held nearly all top jobs in government and industry, even in the predominantly Turkish Kurdzhali Province. Parts of Bulgarian society felt threatened by the rise of the MRF. The Bulgarian National Radical Party (BNRP) threatened to surround the Bulgarian Parliament building on the day of the newly elected legislature was scheduled to convene. The BNRP protested the participation of ethnic Turks in the National Assembly and the teaching of Turkish language as a standard curriculum in secondary school with large numbers of Turkish students. The Patriotic Party of Labour (OPT) was established as the political wing of the National Committee for Defense of National Interests (CDNI). According to its own historiography the OPT emerged due to pressure from ordinary Bulgarian citizens who were outraged by the fact that the MRF was allowed to participate in the 1990 elections. CDNI members were mainly small-shop owners, artisans, farmers and elements of the local communist nomenklatura. The CDNI did not limit itself to rhetoric but also arranged protests against ethnic Turks returning to Bulgaria to claim back their names and property. In October 1991 violent outbreaks occurred between Bulgarian nationalists and Turkish activists in Razgrad. Bulgarian nationalist forces tried to take advantage of the countrys hard economic and uncertain political conditions. In November 1990 massive protests were staged by Bulgarian nationalists in Razgrad area inhabited by a large number of Turks. The nationalists declared an independent Bulgarian republic and refused to recognize Sofias authority over the region. In late November the Razgrad Republic was renamed the Association of Free Bulgarian Cities, linking several towns with large Turkish population. The CDNI and other groups opposed restoration of Turkish names, Turkish language lessons in Bulgarian schools and the recognition of ethnic Turks as a national minority in Bulgaria. These conditions forced the government to find a balance between Turkish demands and demonstrations for full recognition of their culture and language, and some Bulgarians' concerns about preferential treatment for the ethnic minority. In 1991 the most important issue of the controversy was restoring Turkish language teaching in the schools of Turkish ethnic districts. In 1991 the Popov government took initial steps in this direction, but long delays brought massive Turkish protests, especially in Kurdzhali. In mid-1991 continuing strikes and protests on both sides of the issue had brought no new discussions of compromise. Frustration with unmet promises encouraged Turkish separatists in both Bulgaria and Turkey, which in turn fueled the

ethnocentric fears of the Bulgarian majorityand the entire issue diverted valuable energy from the national reform effort. The problem was mostly solved in 1991. In the same year a new constitution was adopted which guaranteed citizen with a native language other than Bulgarian the right to study and use their language. Some developments noted by the US Department of State 2000 report include the fact that Turkish-language classes funded by the government continued, and that on 2 October 2000 Bulgarian national television launched Turkish-language newscasts. Since 1992, the Turkish language teachers of Bulgaria have been trained in Turkey. At the initial stage only textbooks published in Turkey were used for teaching Turkish, later on, in 1996, Bulgaria's Ministry of Education and Science began publishing the manuals of the Turkish language. A number of newspapers and magazines are published: the Mslmanlar (Muslims), Hak ve zgrlk (Right and freedom), Gven (Trust), Jr-Jr (Cricket, a magazine for children), Islam kltr (Islamic culture), Balon, Filiz. In Turkey summer holidays for the Turkish children living in Bulgaria are organized. During the holidays the children are taught the Koran, Turkish literature, Turkish history and language . The Movement for Rights and Freedoms At the end of 1984 an underground organization called the National Liberation Movement of the Turks in Bulgaria was formed in Bulgaria which headed the Turkish community's opposition movement. On January 4, 1990 the activists of the movement registered an organization with the legal name Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF) (in Bulgarian: : in Turkish: Hak ve zgrlkler Hareketi) in Varna. At the moment of registration it had 33 members, at present, according to the organization's website, 68000 members plus 24000 in the organization's youth wing.[35] With 120,000 members, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) was the fourth largest political organization in Bulgaria in 1991, but it occupied a special place in the political process. The leader of the movement, Ahmed Dogan, was imprisoned in 1986. Founded in 1990 to represent the interests of the Turkish ethnic minority, the MRF gained twenty three seats in the first parliamentary election that year, giving it the fourth-largest parliamentary voting bloc. Its agenda precluded mass media coverage or building coalitions with other parties, because of the strong anti-Turkish element in Bulgaria's political culture. By mid-1991, the UDF had held only one joint demonstration with the MRF; their failure to reconcile differences was considered a major weakness in the opposition to the majority BSP. In early 1990,

the MRF protested vigorously but unsuccessfully its exclusion from national round table discussions among the major Bulgarian parties. In 1991 the MRF broadened its platform to embrace all issues of civil rights in Bulgaria, aiming "to contribute to the unity of the Bulgarian people and to the full and unequivocal compliance with the rights and freedoms of mankind and of all ethnic, religious, and cultural communities in Bulgaria." The MRF took this step partly to avoid the constitutional prohibition of political parties based on ethnic or religious groups. The group's specific goals were ensuring that the new constitution protect ethnic minorities adequately; introducing Turkish as an optional school subject; and bringing to trial the leaders of the assimilation campaign in the 1980s. To calm Bulgarian concerns, the MRF categorically renounced Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, and ambitions for autonomy within Bulgaria.

2013 Parliamentary election, distribution of votes by constituency (Movement for Rights and Freedoms in purple)

Distribution of seats by constituency from the election In the first general elections in 1990 after the communist regime which the Muslims boycotted, the party won 6.0% of the popular vote and 24 out of 400 seats and became the fourth largest party in the parliament. In the parliamentary elections in 1991 it won 7.6% of the vote and remained with 24 seats in 240-seat parliament. In the elections in 1994 it won 5.4% of the vote and its seats decreased to 15. In the elections in 1997 it won 7.6% of the vote and 19 out of 240 seats. It won in the elections in 2001 7.5% of the vote and 21 out of 240 seats. Subsequently, for the first time the party joined a coalition government, which was led by the winner of the elections (NDSV). Under the control of the party were 2 out of 17Bulgarian ministries - the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and the Minister without portfolio, the rest 15 remained under the control of NDSV. At the 2005 elections it increased to 12.8% of vote and 34 out of 240 seats and kept in power as a part of the coalition led by the BSP and NDSVparty. The ministries under the control of the Movement of Rights and Freedoms increased to 3 out of 18. In the budget of 2008, MRF directed a large parts of the subsidies for agriculture to tobacco growers (which are predominantly Turks, Pomaks, and Romani) leaving staple crops, like wheat, without subsidies for buying the seed for sowing. This evoked protests by farmers in the regions of Vratsa, Knezha, and Dobrudzha. At

the2009 elections it increased to 14.0% of vote and 37 out of 240 seats. Following the election, the government was totally occupied by the decisive winner GERB party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms returned to opposition after being part of coalition governments two consecutive terms between 2001 and 2009. At the 2009 European Parliament elections the party won 14.1% of the vote and 3 MEPs out of 18. Two of the MEPs are ethnic Turks (Filiz Husmenova and Metin Kazak) and one (Vladko Panayotov) is ethnic Bulgarian. According to exit polls of theBulgarian parliamentary election in 2013, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms gained 11.3% of the vote, it keeps 36 seats and remains the third largest voting bloc. The party won the elections in five regions where the Muslim population resides - Kardzhali, Razgrad, Silistra, Targovishte and Shumen provinces; the party also wins abroad with 49% of the vote, in general the most polling stations and voters in a foreign country wherever were in Turkey, from where the party included 50,000 votes more to its result of 350,000 votes. One more Turkish party, founded in 2011 and headed by Korman Ismailov - People's Party Freedom and Dignity (PPFD) in a coalition with NDSV won 1.531% of the vote and therefore did not cross the 4% threshold to enter the parliament. Another political party founded in 1998 and representing a smaller fraction of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria is the National Movement for Rights and Freedoms (NMRF), which do not participate in the parliamentary elections. The party is headed by Gner Tahir and has on several occasions formed an alliance with the MRF during nationwide local elections. During the 1999 local elections the NMRF gained some 80 000 votes.

Turkish names of cities, towns, villages and geographical locations

Etymological list of provinces of Bulgaria Over 3200 locations in Bulgaria are also known by some Turks in their Turkish names. Bulgarian Name Aksakovo Ardino Aitos Beloslav Blagoevgrad Botevgrad Burgas Turkish Name Acemler Eridere Aydos Gebece Yukar Cuma Orhaniye Burgaz Comments

Bulgarian Name Dalgopol Devin Devnya Dobrich Dolni Chiflik Dulovo Dzhebel

Turkish Name Yeni-Ky Devlen Devne Hacolu Pazarck Aa iftlik Akkadnlar Cebel

Comments

Kk means small translated interestingly as Golyamo which means large. Golyamo Tsarkvishte (village) Kk Tekeler Tekeler was evolved from Tekkeler which means Dervish convent to Tsarkvishte which means church . Nevrekop was old name of Gotse Delchev

Gotse Delchev (town) Haskovo Harmanli Hitrino Isperih Iglika Ivaylovgrad Kadievo Kameno Kalimantsi Kaolinovo Kardzhali Kaspichan Kaynardzha Kazanlak

Nevrekop Hasky Harmanl eytanck Kemallar Kalayc Ortaky Kadky Kayal Gevrekler Bohalar Krcaali Kaspian Kk Kaynarca Kzanlk

Bulgarian Name Krumovgrad Kubrat (town) Loznitsa Lovech Mihailovski Momchilgrad Nikola Kozlevo Novi Pazar, Bulgaria Omurtag (town) Pazardzhik Pleven

Turkish Name Koukavak Kurtbunar Kubadn Lofa Kayk Mestanl Civel, Tavankozlucas Yeni Pazar Osman Pazar Tatar Pazarck Plevne

Comments The name derives from "kou": running, and "kavak": poplar, horse races on a poplar-grown course

Plovdiv

Filibe

Named after Alexander the Great's father Philip II of Macedon in ancient times this city was also known as Phillipopolis.

Popovo Provadiya Razgrad Rousse Ruen Samuil (village) Shumen Silistra Sliven Slivo Pole Sokolartsi, Kotel Province Stara Zagora

Pop Ky Prevadi Hezargrad Rusuk Ulanl Iklar umnu Silistre slimye Kaklar Duvancilar Eski Zara

Bulgarian Name Svilengrad Suvorovo Targovishte Tervel (town) Topolovgrad Topuzovo, Kotel Province Tsar Kaloyan, Razgrad Province Tsenovo, Rousse Province Valchi Dol Veliki Preslav Venets, Shumen Province Vetovo Vetrino Zavet (town) Zlatograd Zhivkovo Buzludzha Bulgaranovo Veselets

Turkish Name Cisri Mustafa Paa Kozluca Eski Cuma Kurt Bunar Kavakl Topuzlar Torlak auky Kurt-Dere Eski stanbulluk Kklce Vetova, Vet-Ova Yasa-Tepe Zavut Dardere Kzlkaya Buzluca Kademler Yagcilar

Comments

Borimechkovo

Yrkler

Dobrudja

Babadag

Peak in the Central Stara Planina Village in Omurtag region Village in Omurtag region Village in Pazardzhik region. In the aftermath of the RussoTurkish War of 187778 returning refugees from four burned villages (Cafarli, Duvanli, Okullu, and Orulu) settled in Okullu which became known as Yrkler. Deriving from Baba Sari Saltik

Bulgarian Name Hainboaz

Turkish Name Hain-Boaz

Stara Planina

Koca Balkan

Sredna Gora

Orta Balkan

Comments Hainboaz mountain pass, known in Bulgaria as the Pass of the Republic Literally meaning "Great Mountain" this is the mountain that gives its name to the entire region and the Balkan Peninsula. Its Bulgarian name means "Old Mountain". Literally means "Middle Mountain".

Demographics

Distribution of the Turkish population in Bulgaria by provinces according to the 2001 census Distribution of the Turks in Bulgaria by provincess according to the 2011 census: Provinces Kurdzhali Razgrad Turkish population (2011 census) 86,527 57,261 Percentage of Turkish population 66.2% 50.02% Province's population 152,808 125,190

Provinces Shumen Burgas Silistra Plovdiv Targovishte Varna Ruse Haskovo Dobrich Blagoevgrad Sliven

Turkish population (2011 census) 50,878 49,354 40,272 40,255 38,231 30,469 28,658 28,444 23,484 17,027 16,784

Percentage of Turkish population 30.29% 13.32% 36.09% 6.49% 35.80% 7.17% 13.23% 12.51% 13.50% 6.00% 9.69% 6.71% 4.88% 5.72% 3.61% 0.55% 5.60% 4.93% 3.33% 2.93% 0.35% 0.18%

Province's population 180,528 415,817 119,474 683,027 120,818 475,074 235,252 246,238 189,677 323,552 197,473 258,494 333,265 275,548 269,752 1,291,591 122,702 121,752 141,422 131,447 186,848 247,489

Veliko Tarnovo 15,709 Stara Zagora Pazardzhik Pleven Sofia City Gabrovo Smolyan Lovech Yambol Vratsa Sofia Province 15,035 14,062 8,666 6,526 6,464 4,696 4,337 3,600 565 422

Provinces Pernik Montana Kyustendil Vidin Total

Turkish population (2011 census) 231 171 105 85 588,318

Percentage of Turkish population 0.18% 0.12% 0.08% 0.09% 8.81%

Province's population 133,530 148,098 136,686 101,018 7,364,570

Source: 2011 census

Religion

Islamic identity remain strong and over 95% of the Turkish ethnic group identify as Muslim on the census, this is considered a main difference between the Turkish and the rest of the population in Bulgaria, especially the dominant Bulgarian ethnic group from which 95% declare Orthodox Christian identity on census. The Turks make up the basis or 74% of the Muslim community in Bulgaria. A table showing the results of the 2001 census in Bulgaria regarding religious selfidentification: The Turkish population in Bulgaria by confession Adherents from the Turkish population Professing group Number Muslims Irreligious 713,024 23,146 % 95.5 3.1 Number 966,978 308,116 % 12.2 3.9 Adherents from the total population

Orthodox Christians Roman Catholic Christians Protestant Christians Others Total population Source: 2001 census:

5,425

0.7

6,552,751

82.6

2,561

0.3

43,811

0.6

2,066 442 746,664

0.3 0.1 100.0

42,308 14,937 7,928,901

0.5 0.2 100.0

Language A table showing the results of the 2001 census in Bulgaria regarding linguistic selfidentification: The Turkish population in Bulgaria by mother tongue Speakers from the Turkish population Number Turkish Bulgarian 720,136 26,147 % 96.4 3.5 Speakers from the total population Number 762,516 6,697,158 % 9.6 84.5

Mother tongue

Others and unspecified Total population Source: 2001 census:

381

0.1

469,227

5.9

746,664

100.0

7,928,901

100.0

Literature by Turks in Bulgaria

The Turks in Bulgaria have produced perhaps the most substantial amount of literature in Turkish language outside Turkey. The list of noted writers includes: Ak Hfzi, Hseyin Raci Efendi, Ali Osman Ayrantok, Mehmet Mzekka Con, zzet Din, Mustafa Serit Alyanak, Muharrem Yumuk Mehmet, Behet Perim, Ali Kemal Balkanl, Ltfi Erin, Osman Kesikolu, Mehmet Fikri, Ouz Peltek, Mehmet Muradov, Selim Bilalov, Osman Kl, Riza Mollov, Mustafa Kahveciev, Nuri Turgut Adal, Yusuf Kerimov, Kemal Bunarciev, Salih Baklacev, Sleyman Gavazov, Hasan Karahseyinov, Sabri Tatov, Ahmet Timisev, Hseyin Ouz, Ahmet erifov, Mlazi m avuev, Mefkure Mollova, Niyazi Hseyinov, Ltfi Demirov, Muharrem Tahsinov, Mehmet Bekirov, shak Raidov, Nadiye Ahmedova, Sabahattin Bayramov, Halit Aliosmanov, Mehmet Sansarov, slam Beytullov, Ismail avusev, Turhan Rasiev, Ismail Yakubov, Naci Ferhadov, Mukaddes Akmonova Saidova, Yasar Gafur, Ali Boncuk, Ahmet Mehmedov, Isa Cebeciev, Mustafa Aladag, Ahmet Eminov, Ibrahim Kamberoglu, smail Bekirov, Mehmet Davudov, Hsmen smailov, Kazm Memiev, smail biev, Mehmet avuev, Muhammet Yusufov, Yu suf Ahmedov, Recep Kpev, Nevzat Mehmedov, mer Osmanov, Ali Bayramov, Latif Aliev, Mustafa Mutkov, Ali Kadirov, Halim Halilibrahimov, Faik smailov, Ali Pirov, Mustafa etev, Sleyman Yusufov, Durhan Hasanov, Mehmet Memov, Nazmi Nuriev, Osman Azizov, Sabri brahimov, Ali Durmuev, Alis Saidov, Fehim entrk, Fevzi Kadirov, Saban Mahmudov, Sahin Mustafaov, Latif Karagz, Kadir Osmanov, Mustafa mer Asi, Ahmet Aptiev, Necmiye Mehmedova, Lamia Varnal, Ahmet Aliev, Nevzat Yakubov, smet Bayramov, Nebiye brahimova, Ahmet Kadirov, Avni Veliev, Arzu Tahirova, Durhan Aliev, Saffet Eren, Emine Hocova, Aysel smailova Sleymanova, Kadriye Cesur, Nafize Habip, Naim Bakolu, Beyhan Nalbantov, Ali Tiryaki, Fatma Hseyin[147]

Distribution of Turkish dialects in Bulgaria

There are two main dialects; the first one is spoken in every area in south-east Bulgaria and is also used in the neighbouring countries (Greece and Turkey). It can be identified from the second one by looking at the "present continuous time"; it has the suffix forms -yirin, -yisin, -yiri. In formal Turkish they are -yorum, -yorsun, -yor. In the second dialect, used near Kurdzhali, the forms are;-vrin, -vsin, -vri.