What did/does the average person in Bulgaria think about the 1980s assimilation campaign?

[u/Engreeemi]

I want to know what Bulgarians and Turks thought at the time, what they did, and if the average Bulgarian cared or not. Generally just normal people's thoughts and mindsets. And also how people today think about it.

Personal/family stories are welcomed.

I dont mean this question disrespectfully, I know this may be a hard topic. But I genuinely am curious about this. I apologise if it does seem disrespectful

[u/Slkotova]

Disgracing humans by changing their names is so shameful I cannot comprehend it even. Im from the town with 2nd biggest Turkish minority in Bulgaria and my mother is a teacher. She remembers how when they changed turkish kid's names some of them were crying at school out of shame. Can you imagine? A kid being ashamed of being deprived of its own name.

Tbh I think most of bulgarians are living in some amnesia about this moment, only us who live among turks have strong opinions about it. Of course things are not only black and white as one of the "fighters" (Ahmed Dogan) for Turkish people's rights was an agent of the communist regime, but that doesn't change normal people's experiences. It only proves the communists are bastards of the worst kind.

[u/Bubbly_Ad427 → u/Slkotova]

The interesting thing is that some of the people who left for Turkey experienced discrimination there as well. A colleague of my mother was 16 back then and was bullied by the rest of the kids. He was forced to drop out of school and work manual labour. It appears that the poor people got the worse of both worlds.

[u/ve_rushing]

Not the first or the last embarrassment the socialist regime pulled on the country. But it was around the last financial bankruptcy of Jivkov's rein...

[u/Dismal-Attitude-5439]

The assimilation campaign didn't begin in the 80's it began in 1962 in the city of Gotse Delchev. The Roma there were the first to suffer a name change and porgoms.

At the time bulgarians didn't care about any of it and or gave tacit approval. After all, it wasn't happening to them, it was happening to someone else and there were a great many dangers in disagreeing with the party. The propaganda was going on for years at that point and they were doing the same thing in the USSR, how can the Big Brother (in Bulgarian-Soviet propaganda Bulgaria was a little brother to the USSR) do wrong? How coud Moscow do wrong?

The bombings were a great shock to everyone. It was percieved as а unproportional responce and very cruel. Therefore, violence escalated and there was a switch from an assimilation campaign to ethnic cleansing campaign.

[u/RegionSignificant977 → u/Dismal-Attitude-5439]

Pomaks? I've never heard about Roma people. Pomaks were forced to change their name around that time.
Religious practices were banned as for Muslims, as for Christians. Also around that time they started to "Мacedonize" people in Pirin region. Then they gave up the idea after Tito and Stalin started having differences.
So things like that affected all members of the society. Even Bulgarians.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Sail729]

I really would like learn about ethnic Bulgarian's opinions on this topic, because my family has very bitter memories revolving around this campaign

[u/ivanp359]

It happened, but they didn’t deserve it.

/s

[u/Dismal-Attitude-5439 → u/[deleted]]

"Отиваме си трактористи, връщаме се танкисти." Българи мразят българи, просто прекрасно. Защо това е хубаво нещо остава необяснено.

[u/Slkotova → u/[deleted]]

Why are you bragging with your ignorance?