site.btaUPDATED May 20, 1989: Ethnic Turks in Bulgaria Demand Their Muslim Names, Religious Freedom

At a peaceful demonstration in the northeastern village of Pristoe on May 20, 1989, Bulgarian ethnic Turks demanded back their Muslim names. They had been renamed several years earlier as part of the "Regeneration Process", an euphemism for an internationally condemned campaign of Bulgaria's Communist regime to force the local Muslim minority to adopt Slavic names, limit their religious activity, and refrain from speaking Turkish in public.

Around 50 people gathered in Pristoe and headed for the nearby villages of Kliment and Kaolinovo with placards reading "We Want Our Names" and "Rights for All Bulgarian People". By the time they reached Kaolinovo, their number swelled to 3,000.

This demonstration was followed by others in Northeastern Bulgaria, which is home to a large community of ethnic Turks.

A day earlier, in Djebel (Southeastern Bulgaria), Muslims rallied in the town square with identical demands.

Between May 19 and 27, 1989, between 25,000 and 30,000 people protested in the Northeast. Seven were killed and 28 were injured in the ensuing clashes. Forty people were arrested as "instigators" and exiled.

The protests went down in history as "the May events". The restricted news bulletins (C-2 and C-3), which BTA produced exclusively for this country's communist leadership, showed that the events received extensive coverage in the international press. The reports said that protestors had disappeared, hundreds of people had been arrested, and people arrested for protesting had gone on hunger strike. Sofia was criticized by the international community for its handling of the Muslim minority, and ethnic Turks hiding or fleeing abroad from the Bulgarian authorities' terror and violence.

A BTA dispatch from a rally in Kaolinovo on May 20, 1989 said that some 3,000 gathered with placards and posters demanding back their Muslim names and religious freedom.

Here is a brief excerpt: "People rally with their hands raised, passports in hand. The crowd was controlled by Interior Ministry units. The protest leaders were warned multiple times that what they are doing was illegal and they must disperse and go home. They refused to obey the orders. The enraged crowd started throwing stones, pieces of wood and other hard objects. A policeman was hit in the head. Another one had his assault rifle wrenched by the protestors and was severely beaten. In the ensuing havoc, a demonstrator was crushed in a stampede and died. It was established that he had suffered a stroke and medical care was unavailable on site."

The international press quoted diplomatic sources as reporting that curfews had been imposed in several Bulgarian towns in the Northeast and South after the violent clashes.

On May 29, 1989, Bulgaria's communist leader Todor Zhivkov went on national radio and television to urge Turkiye to open its border for Bulgarian Muslims who wished to visit or settle permanently. Zhivkov's words triggered an unprecedented exodus of Bulgarian Turks, referred to as "the Great Excursion" in the newspeak of the time. From June 3 to August 21, 1989, while the border between Bulgaria and Turkiye was opened, over 360,000 Bulgarian Turks emigrated to Turkiye.

After the advent of democracy in Bulgaria, the movement has continued in both directions: more than 125,000 returned between 1989 and 1997, and tens of thousands moved to Turkey - this time in search of jobs, higher living standards, and reunion with families.

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. In 1993 the government put five former state security officials on trial for using unnecessary force and for detaining ethnic Turks in a makeshift labour camp in Ruse (on the Danube) in 1989. This marked the first time civil servants were held accountable for their actions during the assimilation programme of the 1980s. In July 1997, Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov apologized to the Turkish and Muslim community for this Communist-era "Regeneration Process".