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|  |
| "Revival Process" | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bulgaria |
| Date | 1964 and 1970-1974 |
| Target | Pomaks and some Turkish villages in Central Rhodopes |
Attack type | Renaming, assimilation, Islamic discrimantion |
| Victims | 400-500 Pomaks sent to Belene labour camp in 1970-1974
unknown number of killed and interned hundreds of thousands of Pomaks have been renamed |
| Perpetrators | People's Republic of Bulgaria |
| Motive | Bulgarian nationalism, Islamophobia, Anti-Turkish sentiment |
During the communist regime in Bulgaria, the Pomaks underwent several assimilation campaigns, which involved changing their Muslim names to Christian ones and banning Muslim customs. The first attempt was made in 1964, but due to its failure it was stopped. The second attempt (1971-1975), which was successful, started from the Eastern Rhodopes, and moved to the Western Rhodopes and ended with the renaming of the Pomaks from the rest of Bulgaria. In 1975, the campaign also covered the Turkish villages (Borino, Gyovren, Grohotno, etc.) in the Central Rhodopes. A few years later, the communist regime imposed the same assimilationist policy on the Turkish population in Bulgaria.[1]
Pomaks edit
The Pomaks are mountain people living in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. They are estimated to number around 500,000. Their language is Bulgarian and their religion is Sunni Islam. In Bulgaria, they are officially viewed as Bulgarian Muslims.[2]
Greece claims that the Pomaks are Islamized and Slavicized Greeks, and Turkey claims that they are Turks using the Bulgarian language. Another theory of their origin is that they are descendants of Thracians who were Hellenized.
In Bulgaria, the Pomaks live mainly in the Rhodopes, but they also partially inhabit the Teteven and Lovech areas.[3]
First attempt: 1964 edit
The first attempt to assimilate the Pomaks was made in 1964, when the communist regime tried to replace their Turkish-Muslim names of with Bulgarian-Christian ones. The decision was made on March 6, 1964.
While the renaming events were going smoothly in Smolyan, the case wasn't same in Blagoevgrad. The opposition in the village of Ribnovo was particularly strong; the local Pomaks refused to change their names, chased away the Christian teachers and their families, the Turkish flag was placed on the minaret of the local mosque, and all ties with the country were cut off.[4] About 2,000 people guarded the village to prevent outsiders from entering and patroled for 3 days. The villagers were talking about secession from Bulgaria to create the Republic of Ribnovo.[5]
Due to the strong and unexpected resistance that the campaign received, it was stopped on March 30 with the intervention of Todor Zhivkov. The regional government has been heavily criticized for its failure to deal with the rebellion. Permission was given to Pomaks who did not wish to be with their new names and return to their old ones.[4] After these events, nearly 100 people from Ribnovo were investigated, convicted or interned because of the case. The number of people attending mosques increased sharply after the failed renaming.[5]
Prelude to the Second attempt in 1970s edit
With the decision of the authorities already in 1969, Bulgarian historians began to write about the Bulgarian ethnic roots of the Pomak population, as well as about forced Islamization during the Ottoman rule, the appearance of the Turks and the Pomaks on the Balkan Peninsula. Hristo Gandev, who published his book "Bulgarian nationality in the 15th century" in 1972, when the second attempt to assimilate the Pomaks was underway, claimed that 3/4 of the Turks in the cities and 1/4 of the Turks in the villages have Bulgarian origin. The famous Bulgarian historian Petar Petrov lectured at Sofia University "The assimilation policy of the Turkish conquerors XV-XVIII centuries." One year later, he published a book to prove the presence of Islamization and Turkification in Bulgaria, giving examples of the annals of Pop Metodiy, which is considered a historical falsification, the song Balkanzhi Yovo, Ottoman registers and, European stereotypes about the Ottoman Empire.[6]
Second attempt: 1970s edit
Renaming edit
The early 1970s regime understood the reasons for the failure of the first renaming campaign. On July 17, 1970, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party voted a decision on the "national awareness of Bulgarians of the Mohammedan faith". The aim of the party was to stop the "Turkification". The campaign started in 1971 in Smolyan, and at first only personal names were changed, but soon this included the change of patronymic and surname. The names of deceased relatives were also changed. A list was to Pomaks with samples Bulgarian names from which they could choose their new names; in case the person did not choose a name, a random Bulgarian name was given to him. There were protests in various Smolyan towns such as Madan and Rudozem.[4]
However the strongest resistance was in Barutin, which began in March 1972 - the miners stopped going to work, the police and the army blocked the village and after a three-day siege entered Barutin with shooting. There were people beaten, a total of two women were killed, six were injured and another six were sentenced to prison.[7] Most were taken to Devin and renamed there. The administration saw the renaming of Barutin Pomaks as revenge for their participation in the Batak massacre. The population itself was massacred or expelled, and the village burned down during the Russo-Turkish War and the Balkan Wars.
In April 1972 in the village of Sarnitsa, a 25-year-old policeman was killed after a domestic dispute with five villagers. The local administration used this to rename the locals. Two days later, the men were renamed. The dead policeman's body was placed in one of the school's classrooms for the children to see, and a student readed a penitential confession in front of the dead body. The policeman was then buried in the village center. This approach aimed to instill collective guilt and confront the desire for resistance.[8]
When the assimilation process was transferred to Blagoevgrad, the police were again met with resistance, but this time stronger. In May 1972, about 400 men from Babek left for Sofia to protest in front of the American and Turkish embassies. They were met by the militia, and one Pomak was killed. His death caused more demonstrations in Yakoruda, and in the village of Buntsevo there was a riot, where the secretary of the city committee was killed by the protesters. Two people were sentenced to death, which was later cancelled. This caused a sharp jump in the number of detainees and interned in other parts of Bulgaria.
In the village of Kornitsa, a militiaman tried to arrest one of the foremen of field breeding, who did not report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but the residents of the village managed to cancel the arrest. Then the villagers find out that their names would be changed; protests appeared in the Pirin villages of Kornitsa, Breznitsa and Lazhnitsa. The protest was round the clock around bonfires in the village square, workers refused togo to work and children go to school. They want to be registered as Turks and their children to learn Turkish at school. The three villages agreed that if one village is attacked, a red signal would light up on its minaret to warn the others.
March 28, 1973 between 500-2000 men;[7] the First Bulgarian Army was mobilized for the occasion, the only mounted police from Sofia, volunteer detachments with wooden sleds and border police with dogs were sent.[8] In the aftermath, three people died and men, women and children were beaten. Villagers from Lazhnitsa and Breznitsa tried to help. One person was killed and 20 people were injured from Lazhnitsa, several women were thrown into the agricultural reservoir. An old man was killed in Breznitsa. A total of nine people were convicted and 20 families were interned in different parts of Bulgaria. The bodies of the villagers killed by the authorities have not been given to their relatives and their graves remain unknown.
In isolated cases, people who managed to escape the new rules remain with unchanged names. The authorities are looking for them in order to apply the new changes to them as well. In Devin in 1973, militiamen broke into the homes of three families to change their names. Local chiefs described them as "religious fanatics, Turkophiles."[4][7]
From 1973 to 1975, the renaming of the Pomaks in Teteven and the rest of the country took place.[7]
Religious discrimination edit
The name change was not the only example of the assimilation policy of the communist regime in Bulgaria. The Communist Party imposed a discriminatory policy against Islam by forbidding visiting mosques, prohibiting the observance of Muslim holidays and rituals, the typical circumcision of Muslim boys.[4] In the village of Madan, where the market day was Friday, was changed by the authorities to another day in order to limit participation in the Friday prayer.[9]
Renaming place names edit
The village of Korovo was renamed to Draginovo in 1971 , as a reference to the chronicle of Pope Metodi Draginov, who was born in the village of Korovo. In his chronicle, Pope Metodi Draginov wrote about the forcible assimilation of the Bulgarian Christian population from Chepin area in the 16th century. The chronicle was published for the first time in 1870 in Vienna during the Bulgarian Revival and today it is considered a pseudohistroy.[6]
Smolyan Turks edit
Although the assimilation policy in 1965 and 1971-1975 was not aimed at the Turks, it also covered the Turks living in the villages of Smolyan. This model - an assimilated minority in an enclave - was called by the communist authorities the Smolyan model and would serve as an example of the assimilation of Turks in the 1980s. The Turkish villagers in the Pomak hinterland were given Bulgarian names in November-December 1975. The number of renamed Turks was about 5,000, which included Turks in mixed marriages and children of mixed marriages.[10]
Results edit
200,000 Pomaks were renamed between 1971-1975.[11] In Barutin two women were killed, in Kornitsa tree people, in Lazhnitsa and Breznitsa one. However the exact death toll is unknown, since many people died after their arrest due to physical injuries.[4]
Legacy edit
In 2014, the village of Ribnovo marked 50 years since the assimilation attempts and the villagers' resistance. [5]
Notable victims edit
References edit
- ^ "Repressions against Bulgarian Muslims". decommunization.org. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
- ^ Hugh Poulton; Suha Taji-Farouki (January 1997). Muslim Identity and the Balkan State. Hurst. pp. 33–. ISBN 978-1-85065-276-2.
The Pomaks, known officially in Bulgaria as Bulgarian Muhammadans or Bulgarian Muslims, are an ethno-confessional minority at present numbering about 220,000 people.
- ^ Georgieva, Tsvetana (2001). "Pomaks: Muslim Bulgarians". Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. 12 (3): 303–316. doi:10.1080/09596410120065868. S2CID 145158136.
- ^ a b c d e f "Съпротивата на помаците срещу режима – от 1964 та до 1989 г." Българската 1989 (in Bulgarian). 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2024-01-07.
- ^ a b c "Преди 50 г. Рибново изгони властта с камъни и брадви". www.24chasa.bg. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
- ^ a b "За фалшификатите, историографията, насилието и "разделните" времена в науката (1)". Портал за култура, изкуство и общество. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
- ^ a b c d "Decommunization". decommunization.org. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
- ^ a b Христов, Христо. "Изповедта на една жертва на "възродителния процес": Раната стана много голяма". Държавна сигурност.com (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2024-01-09.
- ^ Кальонски, Алексей (2009-06-05). "Кампанията по смяна на имената (1970–1974)". www.librev.com (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2024-01-09.
- ^ Avramov, Rumen (2016). Икономика на "Възродителния процес" [The Economics of the "Revival Process"]. Centre for Advanced Study Sofia. p. 93. ISBN 978-954-320-582-0.
- ^ Балкански, Тодор. Възродителни движения и възродителни процеси.
- ^ "Dialog". dialog-bg.info. Retrieved 2024-01-09.