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Isn’t the following sentence of Aliya Izzetbegovic regarding the genocide of Serbians for Muslim Bosnians, made by words from Polat, so noteworthy? “Forgotten genocide is repeated”. It’s a short sentence but a book can be written for its meaning. Yes, do not forget the genocide you had lived, and don’t make people forget the same, so it won’t be repeated. That could be a moral of a fable for young generations …
It’s in our power not to give chance to the repetition of history; with the words of Mehmet Akif,
They define history as “repetition”;
If a lesson had been drawn from that, would it have been repeated?
The events of the history which are repeated at certain intervals, that means that no lesson was drawn from that event. That’s to say, no precaution was taken in order for the said undesired event not to be relived; that the said event was forgotten, or people was made forget the same.
I would like to express the following upon the said manner: Muslim Turkish minority living in Bulgaria was left as motherless and fatherless since Ottomans had left those places. The only place it gazed upon was Turkey… While our ancestors were leaving Balkans and, of course, Bulgaria, it guaranteed rights and law of the surviving Conquerors, with binary and international agreements. However, those still continue to be left on papers and even the thing written on the paper was eroded in time.
Rights of Turkish minority had always been ignored, restricted in the kingdom and communism period of Bulgaria and especially in the period of the communist regime, that reached the denial of Turkish identity. When it was August 27th of the year 1984, they said “There is no Turkish people in Bulgaria”. They said “The people supposing themselves as Turkish are Bulgarian people who were Islamized, Turkified by Ottomans by force, we will turn you to your origins. You will return to yourselves. You are Bulgarian, so that we will change your names”.
When it was June of the year 1985, totally 1 million 336 thousand Turkish people had changed their names according to the official reports of Bulgaria. Speaking Turkish was forbidden, all religious obligations, circumcision at the first place, were forbidden.
The Conqueror has never given up, time had eroded their identity value and themselves. Maybe, communist regime covered so many distance in the way of assimilation. However, they came to an intolerable point, this process… And there, the Conqueror started to shout out at different regions of Bulgaria and said: “I’m Ahmet; I’m Ayse; no matter what you say! We want our names, rights. You can’t ignore us” . They took to the street in order to make the world hear their voice, the communist dictator of the said time, Todor Jivkov, could not stay silent against that rumble made shoulder to shoulder. It opened doors in Turkey and more than 300 thousand Turkish people migrated to Turkey in a short period of time.
Actually, that was not an ordinary migration; that was a growth. That was the result of a preference in between disappearance and existence, it was an emigration made for the continuance of presence. It was like the emigration of first Muslims, who had not been entitled even themselves to live, to Ethiopia; it was an emigration like an emigration to Medina. 55 million people in Medina embraced 300 thousand refugees.
30 years passed since we saw the entrance of trains of people from Kapıkule;
30 years passed since we left fatherland of our ancestors and since we kissed the land of the mother country;
It has been completely 30 years since this black table of 20th century was drawn.
No matter it has been 30 years or 300 years; this oppression, and the ones who had made that, had never been forgotten!
Like the words of the deceased, Aliya İzzetbegoviç, that we made mention of; “forgotten genocide is repeated”; forgotten darkness is repeated. And for that reason, as Balkanian Turks Culture and Solidarity Association, as voluntary soldiers of Balkanian Turks, we will never make anybody forget 1989 Bulgaria Migration, so that no one can attempt its repetition once more.
Dr. Bayram ÇOLAKOĞLU