site.btaDemocracy, Rights and Freedoms Parliamentary Group Issues Declaration on May 1989 Events

The Democracy, Rights and Freedoms (DRF) Parliamentary Group on Wednesday issued a declaration in connection with the May 1989 events that led to the emigration of Bulgarian Turks from their motherland to neighbouring Turkiye. MP Ahmed Vranchev read out the declaration from the National Assembly rostrum.

"Today we will discuss the May 1989 events, which followed the forced mass renaming of about 850,000 people between late December 1984 and late February 1985 involving the entire state, party, administrative and repressive apparatus of the totalitarian state," Vranchev said. "What the people experienced then goes beyond normal notions of insult, anger, humiliation, indignation, disgust, beyond the grief for those killed, wounded, detained and displaced," he said. "Many Bulgarians empathized with what happened and stood by the victims," the DRF MP pointed out.

"These black pages of Bulgaria's history are occasionally talked about in the media and in some print publications, but not in history textbooks," Vranchev said. "Even though the spontaneous protests were suppressed, people kept them locked in their souls and spilled them out again in May 1989. The relay hunger strikes, sit-ins, peaceful demonstrations, marches, rallies and protests with tens of thousands of participants which, according to Interior Ministry information, took place in 71 settlements, were in defence of identity and fundamental human rights," he pointed out.

He also recalled the Bulgarian Turks' first rally against the "Revival Process" in Northeastern Bulgaria on May 20, 1989 in the village of Pristoe, Kaolinovo Municipality, and a major strike for the return of names on May 28, 1989 in the village of Benkovski, Dobrichka Municipality.

"These events forced [Communist Party leader and head of State] Todor Zhivkov to urge Turkiye on May 29, 1989 to open its border to all Muslims in Bulgaria who wished to go to Turkiye temporarily or to stay to live there," Vranchev said. "In the meantime," he said, "many of the protesters had been expelled from the country."

"On June 3, Turkiye opened its borders, and the emigration lasted several years. This ethnic cleansing was officialized as tourist trips, and the expression 'the big excursion' remains as a metaphorical expression of rejection towards those who made it happen," the DRF MP said.

"On December 29, 1989, the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party adopted a decision on the restoration of [Bulgarian Turks'] names," he pointed out. "The events listed here are just part of the struggle for human dignity, for rights and freedom, they are milestone and significant not only for Turks and Muslims in Bulgaria as they  opened the floodgates to democracy in Bulgaria," Vranchev said.

"The principles of equality among people regardless of their ethnicity, faith and political views were forged through suffering during the harrowing name-change period. We therefore do not forget the 'Revival Process' or the May events. We mark them by commemorative rallies, wreath laying and paying respects," the MP said. He voiced his parliamentary group's indignation at their former associates are profaning these events, turning them into "phony festivities, village fairs and stalls".

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The "Revival Process" is an euphemism for an internationally condemned campaign in which Bulgaria's communist regime forced between 850,000 and 1,300,000 Bulgarian Turks (estimates vary) to adopt Slavic names, limit their religious activity, and refrain from speaking Turkish in public. The campaign was named so because it was organized under the pretext that the population concerned was supposedly forced to convert to Islam under Ottoman rule and must be returned to its "Bulgarian roots".

Between May 19 and May 27, 1989, 25,000 to 30,000 demonstrators resisted the assimilation policy by peaceful protests throughout Northeastern Bulgaria. Two hundred people were wounded and at least 30 were killed (including a 17-month-old baby) in clashes with army and police. Immediately after the May events, several hundred active participants in the protests and other Turks suspected of subversive inclinations, mainly intellectuals, were expelled to Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria.

The "Revival Process" triggered the largest single wave of Turks' emigration from Bulgaria, with up to 322,000 fleeing to Turkiye between June 3 and August 21, 1989. This unprecedented exodus, called "the Big Excursion" in the newspeak of the time, was in fact the largest ethnic cleansing in post-WW II Europe.

The policy of forcing Muslim minorities to adopt Slavic names was rescinded in March 1990 and within a year 600,000 people had reverted to their original names. President Petar Stoyanov, Prime Minister Ivan Kostov and Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev apologized for the "Revival Process", and in 2012 the National Assembly strongly condemned the assimilation policy and, in particular, the expulsion of Bulgarian citizens of Turkish descent in 1989. Todor Zhivkov and another four top party functionaries were charged in a criminal case as masterminds of the drive back in 1991, but none were tried and convicted. All five have since died.