The Turks of Bulgaria: The Struggle for National-Religious Survival of a Muslim Minority

In: Nationalities papers: the journal of nationalism and ethnicity, Band 23, Heft 4, S. 725-749

Abstract

Examines efforts of the Bulgarian government to expel Turkish minority populations. It is argued that the decision to expel the Turks was a reaction to Turkish resistance to Bulgarian nationalist government policies in the 1970s & 1980s, but also a departure from previous government strategies. Secondary historical research suggests a pattern of efforts in recent decades to marginalize Turks, culminating most recently in programs to encourage Turks to adopt Christian-sounding names. Within the academy, historiographies by ethnic Bulgars, refuted here, argued that Turks in Bulgaria were forced to convert to Islam. The Bulgarian government's attempt to homogenize Bulgaria, however, were coupled with a refusal to permit Turkish emigration. Demographic economic factors drawn from secondary empirical research suggest that Bulgaria's Turkish population was essential to its economy, but the high birthrate of the Turkish population threatened to make ethnic Bulgarians a minority within two decades. 4 Tables, 47 References. C. McSherry