The Bulgarian Turks in Turkey represent a community of Bulgarian Turks who immigrated over the years from Bulgaria to Turkey. They are notable in Turkey for being descendants of Balkan Turks who had to escape persecution. And moreover, part of them continue to be dual citizens of Bulgaria and Turkey, which makes them a natural bridge between the two countries.
Origins Bulgarian Turks are descendants of Asian settlers who came across the narrows of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, as well as Bulgarian converts to Islam who became Turkified during the centuries of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria.Stein, Jonathan. The Politics of National Minority Participation in Post-communist Europe, p. 238. M.E. Sharpe, 2000. R.J.Crampton. "A concise history of Bulgaria", p. 36. Cambridge University Press, 1997. It has also been suggested that some Turks living today in Bulgaria may be direct ethnic descendants of earlier medieval Pecheneg, Oğuz, and Cuman Turkic tribes.Nicole 1990, pp.45Norris, Islam in the Balkans, pp. 146-47. The Turkish community became an ethnic minority when the Principality of Bulgaria was established after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.
History of resettlement in Turkey
Notable Bulgarian Turks from Turkey Naim Süleymanoğlu Halil Mutlu Ahmet Fikri Tüzer Neriman Özsoy Yıldız İbrahimova Hakan Yıldız Hulusi Kentmen Şaziye Moral Ali Osman Sönmez Gülhan Şen Ciguli Şoray Uzun
See also Turks in Bulgaria Crimean Tatars in Bulgaria Bulgarian Muslims Muslim Roma Roma in Bulgaria Bulgarian diaspora 1989 expulsion of Turks from Bulgaria Bulgaria–Turkey relations
References