Revival Process

Emboldened by instability in the communist Eastern Bloc, in early 1989, Turks and Muslims took to the streets of Bulgaria in a wave of protests that ultimately totaled around 60,000 participants.[5] The regime responded by arresting many, ultimately deporting more than 1,000 "'ringleaders'" to Austria and Yugoslavia.[5]

In response to the protests of early 1989, Chairman of the Bulgarian state council, Todor Zhivkov, addressed the people of Bulgaria. In his address, he encouraged Bulgarian Turks to resettle in Turkey.[1] Shortly thereafter, on 29 May 1989, the border with Turkey was opened exclusively for the country's Turks and Muslims. Over 360,000 left Communist Bulgaria for Turkey between 30 May 1989 and 22 August 1989 in a process referred to by the communist Bulgarian government as the “Big Excursion” (Bulgarian: Голямата екскурзия, romanized: Goliamata Ekskurziya).[6][7]

While the government of Bulgaria maintained that the migration of Muslims to Turkey was voluntary (thousands from the Eastern Bloc had risked their lives to seek refuge abroad, particularly in the late 1980s), many Bulgarian Turks had been coerced into leaving the country.[8] By the time the border with Turkey was opened, state security services had already identified and earmarked individuals for expulsion.[5] 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 that he "was about to emigrate." He thus prepared to leave Bulgaria, doing so once the border with Turkey was opened later that month.[8]

Turkey eventually closed the border with Bulgaria to prevent the further immigration of Bulgarian Turks,[1] and faced with difficulties settling in Turkey, within the first three months of their arrival in Turkey, 40,000 émigrés returned to Bulgaria. This process of return continued, and by the end of 1990, about 150,000 people had gone back to Bulgaria, which some allege suggests voluntary migration rather than ethnic cleansing.[9]

The 1989 expulsion of the Bulgarian Turks to Turkey was the largest case of ethnic cleansing[10] in Europe since the expulsion of Germans living east of the Oder-Neisse line between 1944 and 1950, as agreed to at the Potsdam Conference. On 11 January 2012, the Bulgarian Parliament officially recognized the 1989 expulsion as ethnic cleansing.[11] However, some Bulgarian mainstream parties have been rebuked for their continued neglect and disregard for the events of 1989.[12]

In addition to the mass migration waves to Turkey, many Bulgarian Turks also sought refuge in Western Europe, especially in Austria,[13] Germany,[13] and Sweden.[13] Many also found refuge in Australia,[13] Canada,[14] England,[14] and the United States.[14]