1989 expulsion of Turks from Bulgaria
The 1989 expulsion of Turks from Bulgaria, also called the "Big Excursion", was the forced migration of Bulgarian Turks and Muslims by the Communist government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria in 1989. In total, over 300,000 crossed the border into Turkey.
Terminology
The "Big Excursion"
The terminology used to refer to and describe the "Big Excursion" is controversial. While the Bulgarian forced migrations of 1989 are often viewed as amounting to ethnic cleansing, that term is not always used to describe them.Though modern use of the term ethnic cleansing dates back to the early 19th century, it is usually understood to have come into common usage with the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in earnest in 1991, two years after the start of the "Big Excursion". In the years since Yugoslavia's dissolution, the term "ethnic cleansing" has gained scholarly acceptance in spite of its own originally euphemistic origin. The term "ethnic cleansing" is consequently not always associated with the 1989 forced migration in Bulgaria of two years prior. Instead, the event is usually referred to by the official terms employed by the regime of Todor Zhivkov to describe the events.
The Bulgarian government described the forced migrations as the "Big Excursion" because officially the border with Turkey was allegedly opened "to allow tourists to visit the neighboring country," and the regime in Sofia claimed that victims had only left temporarily to visit relatives abroad.
Some, however, have criticized the use of that official and highly ambiguous term. Polish academic Tomasz Kamusella describes continued use of the term "Big Excursion" as tantamount to acceptance of General Secretary Zhivkov's propaganda, and some Turks and Bulgarian Muslims take offense to use of the term "Big Excursion". Conversely, those who wish to belittle the memory of the forced migration of 1989 often do not capitalize the term "Big Excursion".
Bulgarian Muslims and Bulgarian Turks
constitute a substantial portion of both Bulgaria's Muslim population and the victims of the "Big Excursion". While Muslims of non-Turkish ethnicities were also affected by the "Big Excursion", Pomaks were often referred to as "Turks" and vicе versa. As a result, the precise identity of victims can be difficult to determine. Estimates of the ethnic composition of victims of the "Big Excursion" thus vary. For example, by one estimate around 90% of victims were Bulgarian Turks, but by another up to 111,000, approximately one third, of the victims of the "Big Excursion" were Pomaks despite official exclusion of Pomaks from the events. Since Pomaks and Turks traditionally lived in different parts of Bulgaria, authorities used individuals' place of origin to "impose a preferred ethnic category on a person."Background
The "Revival Process"
In 1984, the authoritarian communist regime in Sofia embarked on an assimilationist campaign known officially as the Revival Process. The regime eventually resolved towards ethnic cleansing. For example, on June 7, 1989, General Secretary Todor Zhivkov said the following:Legal reforms
Passports were restricted in all Soviet bloc nations. Typically, passports were only issued to a select group and had to be relinquished to government authorities. Passports were also usually not issued to entire families for travel to capitalist countries to reduce defection. On May 19, however, Bulgaria substantially loosened its passport regime and allowed Bulgarian citizens to keep their travel documents at home. During May 1989, Communist Bulgaria issued passports to all those it considered to be Turks.History
Start of the Excursion
Within days of the relevant legal reforms coming into effect, 170 of the most "'problematic'" dissidents were expelled, followed by another 4,000–10,000. 1,000 "ringleaders" of anti-regime protests were additionally removed to Austria, Yugoslavia, and Sweden.The state also threatened individuals. For instance, one Bulgarian Turk, Rasim Ozgur, recalled that in early May 1989, communist state militiamen told him that they would kill him if he was seen conversing with "reported people," and they also told him that he "was about to emigrate." He thus prepared to leave Bulgaria and did so once the border with Turkey was opened later that month.
Other targeted individuals who did not leave expediently enough were intimidated by agents of the Communist State Security organ known as the DS. Some DS officers directly commanded some Bulgarian Muslims to leave the country in fewer than two hours. The DS also ensured that expellees were allowed to take no more than 300 Bulgarian levs per person with them.
On May 29, 1989, General Secretary Todor Zhivkov announced the opening of the border with Turkey, ostensibly "to allow tourists to visit the neighboring country," for three months at most. Large numbers of Muslims, many of whom, like Rasim Ozgur, had already prepared to leave the country in the face of state intimidation, surged to the Turkish border. Turkey in-turn issued 90-day visas on request to any holder of a Bulgarian passport. Turkey fully opened the Kapıkule border crossing near the Bulgarian town of Kapitan Andreevo on June 3 even to those without a visa. All expellees had to cross into Turkey via this single border crossing. This checkpoint is sometimes referred to as "Checkpoint Ali".
In response to international backlash, particularly from Turkey with the support of the United States, the Communist Bulgarian regime insisted that the victims of the "Big Excursion" had left voluntarily on tourist visas and thus could not be properly referred to as deportees. It further insisted that the flow of such people was the result of the relaxation of Bulgarian passport laws – the very same laws that Turkey had often wished for Bulgaria to relax – and that Bulgarian actions were simply in keeping with the Helsinki Accords.
Turkish Response
Though it sought an agreement with Bulgaria regarding the migration of Bulgarian Turks from the start, towards the beginning of the "Big Excursion" Turkey vowed to accept the entire estimated population of Bulgarian Turks if necessary and suggested it would be able to integrate the expellees. However, Turkey soon experienced difficulties coping with the inflow of expellees from Bulgaria. For instance, this inflow caused an up-to 100% increase in rental prices in European Turkey.Turkey directly addressed Bulgarian rhetoric around the Cyprus problem, attempting to allay concerns that Turkey posed a threat to Bulgaria. Soon thereafter, however, a crowd of over 100,000 fueled by false rumors of Soviet military actions against Bulgarian Turks and Muslims gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square shouting anti-Bulgarian slogans. The Turkish ultranationalist organization known as the "Grey Wolves" openly called for an invasion of Bulgaria. These demonstrations and statements served to fuel the Bulgarian regime's anti-Turkish propaganda.
End of the Excursion
By late August, over 300,000 Muslims had crossed the Bulgarian-Turkish border, leading to a refugee crisis in Turkey. The Turkish and Bulgarian foreign ministers repeatedly planned to meet in Kuwait for talks regarding the crisis, but they failed to do so.With no meeting set to materialize, on August 21, Turkey reinstated the visa requirement for Bulgarian passport holders, and a mere day later Turkey officially closed its border with Bulgaria to stop the flow of "Bulgarian citizens without a Turkish visa". As a result, the number of Muslims crossing into Turkey dropped dramatically, though some Bulgarian expellees did obtain Turkish visas thereafter and subsequently cross the border. Indeed, some Bulgarian Muslims who had already packed to leave the country were unable to do so because of the closure. Around 25,000 were unable to cross into Turkey as a result of the closure.
Bulgaria did not attempt to more directly expel its Muslim population in large numbers following the closure, even after Turkey re-opened its border with Bulgaria for Turks and Muslims with a valid Turkish visa a mere two weeks later on September 3. However, the repression of Muslims by Communist Bulgaria continued until on December 29, 1989, exactly seven months since Zhivkov announced the opening of the Turkish border and just over one month after Zhivkov's resignation, when the government of Petar Mladenov announced that the rights of Muslims would be restored, though it would take two years for that promise to be fully fulfilled.
Even after closing its shared border with Bulgaria, Turkey continued to reiterate its desire for a diplomatic agreement to address the refugee crisis caused by the "Big Excursion". A diplomatic summit between Bulgaria and Turkey in Kuwait was eventually held in October 1989 and a follow-up meeting was held months after the fall of Zhivkov in January 1990.