MIGRATION OF TURKS OF BULGARIA TO SEYHAN (1950-1951)

Abstract

The Balkans is one of the regions where the Turks lived intensively under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. However, after the Balkans ceased to be under the Ottoman domination as of the second half of the 19th century, the Turkish people began to migrate to Anatolia. As a result of the ongoing migrations for many years, the Turkish presence in the region decreased rapidly.

Bulgaria is one of the countries where migration from the Balkans to Anatolia was intensive. In the period which started with 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War and continued until the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Turks came to Anatolia and many immigrants died on the way during migration. In fact, these migrations turned into a mass from time to time depending on the relationship between the two countries and became a drama of humanity. One of the periods when migration took place was 1950-1951 after the Second World War.

This immigration resulted from the change of administration and regime with the Soviet occupation of Bulgaria during the Second World War. The project of the communist administration established with the occupation to create a single nation integrated with the Bulgarian Socialist State especially affected the Turks, the largest minority. Upon these developments, the Turks, who realized that they could not live in Bulgaria any longer, immigrated to Anatolia. One of the provinces where immigrants were settled is Seyhan. However, it seems that this settlement process has not been studied in detail in the province. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the subject in detail. In this context, first of all, the places where the immigrants were settled were determined from the settlement books of the province, and then a field research was conducted by reviewing the local press of the period. In line with the findings obtained, the settlement processes of the Bulgarian Turks who settled in Seyhan were tried to be revealed.