Rafet Ulutürk, President of the Bulgarian Turks Culture and Service Association, stated that the Bulgarian Turks, who were forced to migrate from their ancestral lands 32 years ago, yearned for their ancestral lands despite living in peace in Turkey.
"Bulgarian President Jivkov set a brutal example of racism by saying, 'Our strategic task is to convince these people that they are Bulgarians, not Turks.'" he said.
It has been 32 years since the forced migration caused by the assimilation campaign of the communist regime in Bulgaria against the Turks and Muslim communities in the country. The pain of the "Great Migration", one of the most painful dramas experienced by the Balkan geography, is renewed every June. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Bulgarian Turks expelled from their ancestral homeland yearn for their ancestral lands, despite living peacefully in Turkey. Rafet Ulutürk, Chairman of the BULTÜRK Association, told Milli Gazete the tragedy of the Muslim Turks who were exposed to racism and forced to migrate by the communist Bulgarian administration in 1989.
BY JIVKOV'S ORDER, 300,000 MUSLIM TURKS FORCED TO IMMIGRATE
Rafet Ulutürk said that they rebelled against the forced separation of Bulgarian Turks from their national and moral values.
"On 29 May, Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov made an official statement regarding the popular uprising against the persecution in certain parts of the country. Jivkov stated that their new strategic task is to force 300,000 Turks in the country to migrate. 'Our strategic task is to convince these people that they are not Turks but pure Bulgarians. It is extremely necessary for the People's Republic of Bulgaria that at least 200 thousand people, and if possible, 300 thousand people from this population emigrate,' said Jivkov, setting a brutal example of racism," he added.
Ulutürk drew attention to the fact that despite the wide-ranging reaction against racism in Bulgaria, the communist administration did not back down from its cruelty.
"The 1989 May protests of the Bulgarian Turks were in the nature of an uprising and accelerated the activities of the Bulgarians who defended human rights and had different ideas. Representatives of many conscientious communities living in Bulgaria strongly criticized the armed attack against the Bulgarian Turks and the implementation of martial law in the Turkish regions. For example, scientist Ms. Antonina Jelyaskova published an open letter calling for an end to the forced 'Bulgarianization' campaign and the policy of forcing citizens to migrate," he said.
350,000 BECAME IMMIGRANTS
"This is how the immigrant tragedy of 350 thousand people began. They were given a few hours to sell their possessions at no cost. They set out with whatever they could take with them. The queue at the Bulgarian-Turkish border exceeded 40 kilometers. Many villages in Bulgaria have been emptied, houses and schools have been left uninhabited, the country has been deprived of hundreds of thousands of loyal and hardworking citizens. The number of those who could not stand this tension and lost their lives was also considerable," he added.