There are Pechenegs, Tatars, Gagauzes and Turkish people who live in Bulgaria. This writing is going to be about Turkish people. Turkish people of Bulgaria are the Turks who have been living in Bulgaria for more than 6 centuries. Turkmens of Anatolian Beyliks have been settled by the Ottoman Empire due to ‘’iskan politicy’’. Most of these Turkmens were Karamanid Turkmens. Ottomans were immrating Karamanid Turkmens towards the Balkans to Islamize and Turkify these lands. They were also reducing the number of Karamanids, so that they were hitting two birds with a stone. This situation was decreasing the probability of a Karamanid rebel. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turks had to face numerous problems because they became a minority on their lands. Some of the Bulgarian Turkish community re-emigrated to Anatolia after 500 years. Probably they were scared of ethnic cleaning and they wanted to live with their traditions, language and religion. Communist Bulgaria executed assimilation over Turks during the communist regime. They forced Turks to change their Turkish or Muslim names to Bulgarian or Christian names. They forced people to even change names on grave stones. The Bulgarian communist government denied Turkish identity and declared Turks as Muslim Slavs. Because of this pressure, about 360.000 Turkish people left the lands where they were born and their ancestors have lived for centuries. Turkey accepted any Turks who wanted to escape from Bulgarian Assimilation. These people consisted today’s Macırs in Turkey. Today, Turks make up about 10% of Bulgaria. Still, they are the biggest minority of Bulgaria. They mostly live in North-East and South parts of Bulgaria. They are majority at Kardzhali (Kırcaali) and Razgrad (Hezargrad) provinces and they also have significant minority at Targovisthe (Eski Cuma), Shumen (Şumnu) and Silistra (Silistire) provinces. Bulgaria born Turks who live in Turkey are about 372.000. To me, most of these people should return their motherlands and take their heritage back. Those lands are the lands where their ancestors born, grown-up, lived and died. They should show the Turkish reality of the Bulgaria. They will always be under the protectorate of Turkey. No one can kick our people out of their own lands.
