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Bulgaria's Forgotten Campaign To Wipe Out Turkish Names


In 1989, five years after the Revival Process began, around 320,000 ethnic Turks were deported from Bulgaria.
In 1989, five years after the Revival Process began, around 320,000 ethnic Turks were deported from Bulgaria.

MOMCHILGRAD, Bulgaria -- Sevginar Mahmud remembers December 26, 1984, as if it were yesterday. She remembers her friend being hit by a bullet, the agonized cries of her neighbors dying in a roadside ditch. And she remembers the soldiers who stormed into her village to take her name.

Around 40 years ago, in December 1984, the communist authorities in Bulgaria launched a violent and systematic campaign to force ethnic Turks to change their names to Bulgarian ones. It was part of the regime's Revival Process, which sought to establish a unified Bulgarian identity and also placed restrictions on the Turkish language and prohibited religious and cultural traditions.

The crackdown, which killed up to 2,500 Turks and resulted in the deportation of 320,000 people to Turkey five years later, is widely regarded as one of Europe's largest forced assimilation campaigns against a Muslim community in the 20th century. To this day, however, Bulgarian Turks claim justice has never been served, with no single person or institution ever held accountable.

Then just 18 years old, Mahmud lived in Gruevo, a village in the Kardzhali district of southern Bulgaria, which is home to a large number of ethnic Turks. As rumors of the forced name changes spread, worried citizens took to the streets, gathering in Momchilgrad, one of the region's largest urban centers, on December 26, 1984.

There was shooting, Mahmud says, but she still decided to join the protests in Momchilgrad. "I wasn't afraid because we were innocent. We had nothing, not even sticks. We were just ordinary villagers," she tells RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.

Live Rounds

The protests were initially peaceful, with confused and panicked citizens trying to get answers from the authorities about the name-change rumors. But they soon turned violent, with soldiers and police using water cannons, baton charges, and then live rounds against the crowd.

Sevginar Mahmud
Sevginar Mahmud

As the protesters fled, Mahmud's friend, Ferishte, was shot in the back. She was bleeding profusely so Mahmud took her to the hospital. It was there, she says, that she witnessed something she will never forget: a 17-month-old girl named Turkyan was brought in, dead on arrival.

Carrying a bag with Ferishte's bloodstained clothes, Mahmud returned home to Gruevo to warn people. "I showed them the clothes," she said, "and told them, 'Look, they're shooting people. They're not sparing anyone.'"

When the troops arrived later that evening, the villagers were prepared. "They started shooting, but we did not run away. The whole village -- children, young people, adults -- were all outside," Mahmud says. They formed a human chain and set tires alight.

The protesters were no match for the security forces, and the shooting intensified. Mahmud remembers three villagers -- Abdulaziz Bekir, Mustafa Ali, and Mustafa Ibrahim -- falling into a ditch after being shot. Even though they were crying out in pain, the soldiers didn't let anyone help them.

Eventually subdued, the Kardzhali district was placed under curfew and there was a heavy police presence on the streets. All communication with the outside world was cut off. The communist authorities seized identity documents and forcibly changed people's names. Sevginar became "Snezhana." They even chiseled off Turkish names from gravestones.

In just three months, the hard-line communist regime forcibly changed the names of over 800,000 people. They were forbidden from speaking Turkish in public or observing their religious and cultural traditions -- restrictions that lasted until the fall of communism in 1989. Ethnic Turks seen by the authorities as ringleaders were imprisoned without trial in concentration camps.

Mahmud, pictured in December 2024, stands at the site of the 1984 clashes in the village of Gruevo.
Mahmud, pictured in December 2024, stands at the site of the 1984 clashes in the village of Gruevo.

In that final year of communist rule, the authorities, under dictator Todor Zhivkov, deported 320,000 Bulgarian Turks to Turkey, in what the regime euphemistically called "The Big Excursion." An estimated third of the country's Turkish population were deported, the largest mass migration of people in Europe since the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia in 1946.

Mahmud's family were not deported, however, and when asked why by RFE/RL, she declined to answer. Some Turks escaped deportation, because they were seen as vital to the economy or had personal connections with the authorities. Other ethnic Turks were seen by the communist authorities as having already assimilated.

After Zhivkov was overthrown in November 1989 and with ethnic Turks taking to the streets to protest once again, the Communist Party restored the rights of Bulgarian Turks and Muslims, decided to return their birth names (a process that continues to this day), and allowed them to speak Turkish once again. By the end of 1991, up to 200,000 ethnic Turks returned to Bulgaria.

No Justice

In the early 1990s, Zhivkov and other high-ranking communists were charged with crimes related to the repression of ethnic Turks, including "advocating or inciting national enmity or hatred." However, the cases dragged on and the charges were reduced or eventually dropped. No one was ever convicted and all those implicated are now dead.

Mahmud says that she never expected to see justice. "We knew that no one would be punished. We are a minority here," she says. While estimates vary, there are now thought to be at least 500,000 ethnic Turks in Bulgaria, which has a population of around 6.8 million.

A memorial fountain bears the name of Turkyan, a 17-month-old girl who died amid police violence in 1984.
A memorial fountain bears the name of Turkyan, a 17-month-old girl who died amid police violence in 1984.

This year, commemorative ceremonies were held in various towns and cities to mark the 40th anniversary of the Revival Process, including in Momchilgrad, where a memorial fountain bears the name of Turkyan, the little girl who died. While members of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish community and dignitaries from Turkey marked the anniversary on December 29, 2024, there were no representatives from the Bulgarian government or official statements to honor the dead.

Now 58 years old, Mahmud still lives in the area where the violence took place. While ethnic Turks in Bulgaria still face obstacles like socioeconomic inequality and discrimination, particularly in public sector employment and higher education, Mahmud's life has largely returned to normal. She has a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren. She works for a cosmetics company and sometimes visits family in England.

But the events of 1984 still make her shudder. "I will never forget my friend. Or Turkyan," she says.

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    Katerina Vasileva

    Katerina Vasileva is an intern for RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service. She is currently studying political science at St. Kliment Ohridski University and is interested in social and political topics, culture, media literacy, and women's rights.

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