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The Red House Center for Culture and Debate
presents
"Göç", you know what that means! - What exactly?
It means "violently displaced". That's how we're called!
Deportees are called "göçmen"
and the procedure itself is called "göç."
By the way roots can change the meaning of words quite strangely.
For instance "göçmek" is a verb
meaning to transcend to the other world, to pass away...
something that's not in one's power.
GÖÇ
GÖÇ stepping across the border
THE "REVIVAL" PROCESS In the period 1984-1985 the Bulgarian communist regime
forced more than 850,000 ethnic Turks to change their names.
Even the names of the deceased were changed.
The "Revival" Process had been preceded by forcible name- changing of Bulgarian Muslims in the 1970s.
This was the climax of the long- lasting policy of assimilating Muslims in Bulgaria.
- Kazim, do you want to be called Hristo?
- No, I don't! - How about Georgi?
- No, I don't want that! My name is Kazim!
No, you can no longer be Kazim because, as you know,
Hassan became Hristo and Ömer became Georgi or Ivaylo...
KAZIM TÜRKSÖZ, Bursa, 2009
Look, your friends have become Bulgarians.
We can no longer call you Kazim.
But my name is Kazim! It can't be changed!
Why are you calling me Hristo or Georgi? I don't need such a name.
Times were pretty hard at school.
They asked me: "Where's your father?"
I didn't know where my father was.
Was he alive? - I didn't know. Was he dead? - I didn't know.
I couldn't even understand what was going on.
Why were they changing our names? Why did such a thing happen?
In 1984 we were still children so we understood nothing.
We had no problems with Bulgarians. We had no problems at school!
Within a year I lost my father, I lost my mother
and I lost my name!
In 1985 I was just a little child.
I had Bulgarian friends and we -
Turks and Bulgarians - were inseparable.
SEVNUR ÖZTÜRK, Istanbul, 2009
They even called me Suzi... my father didn't go to work
and stayed home for two days in order to keep his name unchanged.
Yet they forced him to change it.
On the third day they came to our home and told him:
"Police will escort you to your workplace
and there you'll have to sign it".
"Sign what?", he asked, "Well, we gave you a new name..."
It was late spring - St. Atanas Day.
Dad told them, "I can't accept that!",
"You will, whether you like it or not."
They even opened a box of chocolates and told us,
"We give a treat for your new name!"
He smashed the box and told them, "I won't touch these chocolates
because my name is Aleydin, not Atanas!"
But I said childishly, "Well, Dad, do not change your name then,
but let me become Susana!"
We went to the council, quite forcibly, of course,
and one of the officials told me, "You cannot become Susana,
because Susana isn't a Bulgarian name, it's an Italian one!"
That's a cigarette box, a souvenir, made in the prison in Belene.
FERIT TÜRKSÖZ, Bursa, 2009
- What's written on it? - Here it's written in Turkish -
Belene Island, December 29, 1984.
- The day they were sent to prison?
- Yes, when they entered prison. Here it's written in Turkish...
- What's kept in the box?
- Our small photos are kept in this box.
Me as a member of the Primary School Child Union in Kardzhali - that's me.
Here's Kazim, the eldest one and here's Ömer.
I'm not only stubborn, but also a bit cunning -
I entered the Head's office.
"Look," I said, "My husband's in Belene -
that's what Mr. Daskalov, the Prosecutor General, told me.
"Please, wait for me, just for a month or two,
may be for two days only...
When he comes back... you know I have no guns,
no cannons - one can't break the wall with one's head...
MÜNEVVER TÜRKSÖZ, Bursa, 2009
OK, we'll change our names then...
We just need some time to accept that."
"Well," he replied, "It's the Law!"
"Do you want to turn us into enemies
or to unite us,
as friends, as brothers?"
"No, that's not what we meant to do"
"OK then, look, you're a man,
you are married, you're wearing a wedding ring.
If by some mistake, by accident what happened to my husband
happens to you, if they detain you,
and if you believe in that, if you believe in that idea,
and if your wife sticks a knife in your back,
if she betrays you, how would you feel then? You would feel badly.
Well, just imagine how my husband would react!
My family would fall apart, my three kids would have to live through that,
I would become embittered and my children and my husband too.
Is that what you want?" "No," he replied,
"You're right! Yet I'll keep your passport. I'll give you a..."
and they gave us certificates with our previous names.
I thanked him and I went out...
In my view, they just wanted to intimidate
those 1000 people working in our factory.
50-60% of them were Turks.
SÜLEYMAN TÜRKSÖZ (engineer), Bursa, 2009
Because what would people think?
"They sent the engineer to jail, just imagine what might happen to us!"
This was my third lodging
and Biserka and her husband never let me pay the rent.
They just said, "You can stay there.
As far as we understand, you are forcibly displaced by the communists.
You can live there but we won't charge you for accommodation".
Well, I insisted on paying but... they were good-hearted people.
The last time I went there was in 1992.
So I haven't seen her for 17 years and now I'm eager to meet her.
Who's that? - It's me!
Oh, my, what's that camera?! - Just don't worry!
Oh, my!
Please... I'm not ready for a photo shoot!
No problem! No problem at all. - Come in, please!
I've been cleaning the windows and it's a real mess here!
I could hardly find the address! I hardly found it.
You caught me on the wrong foot... come in, please, come in!
No, no, I'll take off my shoes first - that's what I always do!
No, just come in! You don't need to...
He was a very bright person, a very clever man.
TSETSKA IVANOVA, Kameno Pole, 2009
May be, he couldn't accept certain things typical for those times.
I don't know much... But how did he end up in our village?
I know they sent him here!
While living in Kameno Pole, he taught me how to listen
to Radio Free Europe, to the Voice of America and Deutsche Welle!
Every day at 4 pm we turned on a VEF radio set
and we put it on top of a saucepan.
So while digging over the garden, we were listening to Radio Free Europe!
- What about the neighbors?
- They just loved him, cause he helped them a lot.
But when he left... well, that's pretty interesting...
SABRI ISKENDER - Secretary of "Democratic League for Defense of Human Rights", founded in 1988.
He went on a hunger strike! - Yes...
A kind of commotion... those people couldn't control them
and the village of Kliment knew who we were,
because it was in Kliment where we were arrested.
We were deported from this village, that's where we came from.
They never intimidated us.
We became something of a symbol for local people.
At first fear dominated but then they started to...
The village of Kliment still says, "She comes from our village!"
So does the village of Tolbuhin and so does the village of Kornitsa.
Every village that we lived in wants to be our village!
ZEYNEP IBRAHIMOVA ZAFER, Istanbul, 2009 - activist
of the "Independent Association for Defense of Human Rights", founded by Iliya Minev in 1988.
It's because of this feeling of great admiration -
because we never gave up and we made it happen.
We just continued working on what they wanted to accomplish
but couldn't realize for some reason.
Something like that - a kind of symbol...
You've become a hero! - Oh, yes...
Yet I never stopped asking him whether they wanted to establish
a republic over there - in Dobrudzha.
"No, we just want our rights," he said.
It's he who told me there are such things as human rights.
BISERKA ILIEVA, Mezdra, 2009
He taught me many other things! He made me politically literate.
We used to listen to Radio Free Europe from 4 PM to 4 AM.
Deutsche Welle was at noon, right?
Yes, and how bizarre! Those old ladies in Kameno Pole
would listen to Radio Free Europe!
He helped them chop wood, he brought them water,
and in the end they wept over him.
I let him drive the Moskvich. - A lot of running around...
Yes, the Moskvich - we used to drive it all the time
and that's why I always say she was an aide opposed to Zhivkov's regime,
an aide opposed to the communist rule!
That means she really helped us.
Our teacher of History organized a discussion -
he asked everyone in a roundabout way:
METIN SEYIT, Istanbul, 2009
"Please, tell me, do you think you are Bulgarians
whose names were changed, i.e. Bulgarians turned into Turks?"
Some students expressed their opinion but I refrained from stating mine.
However the teacher urged me to
and then I told him, "Yes, it's possible,
I might be a Bulgarian turned into Turk - it's really possible...
But it seems to me that it's more important
how I feel and how I define myself.
Cause if we are to try to find our true origin,
anyone could turn out to be mistaken.
Can one be absolutely sure that he's Bulgarian?
After 200 years of Greek domination, after 500 years of Ottoman rule,
after all those wars in the Balkans,
could one be absolutely sure that his origin is Bulgarian?
Yet you have this right - you define yourself as Bulgarian.
But I need it too." That's what I said.
A week later my parents were summoned to school
where a senior officer
and several other policemen were waiting for them.
"OK, boy, did you say that...
...in your History lesson?"
"Yes, I did."
"Well, how do you define yourself - as a Turk or as a Bulgarian?"
I looked at my mom and dad - tears welled up in their eyes.
They were just scared I could tell something unacceptable.
"I'm Bulgarian!" "OK, no problem then!"
And we left the room. That year I was given a bad review.
But a year later I became Head of the Communist Youth League
and I merely drove them crazy -
so many youth league assemblies - every single week!
I fed them up with Marx and Lenin,
with that type of propaganda, with those kinds of lessons...
Did you have Bulgarian friends?
Yes, most of my friends were Bulgarians!
We got on pretty well but on the third of March
(the Bulgarian national holiday)
we had problems because the film "Time of Parting" drove us apart.
SEVGINAR SHEN, Istanbul, 2009
"Time of Parting" was always broadcasted on the third of March
and that was the time when harmony turned into quarrel.
Because of this film I quarreled with some of my Bulgarian friends.
They literally told me: "Get out of our way,
cause our national feeling is rising!"
After 1984 the Bulgarian state
placed us in a rather peculiar situation.
Being a Turk meant being a barbarian,
a murderer, a bad person.
But why - because the Ottoman Empire caused us trouble.
There were many films - on TV, in cinemas, at school, in textbooks -
all this was imposed on us...
The baby's mother is called Sabiha. - Where's she from?
Sabiha was born in Dzhebel. Sabiha means "beautiful, likeable"!
SABIHA TÜRKSÖZ, Bursa, 2009
Earlier today she was crying.
She recalled policemen entering our home and breaking her toy,
just because it was a Turkish one.
One day at the bus station a policeman approached me,
while I was talking to a friend of mine in Bulgarian.
"Give me 5 leva", he said, "Why?",
"You're talking in Turkish", "No, I don't",
"Yes, you do!", "I don't", "You do!", "I don't".
I burst into laughter. "You're laughing in Turkish" he said.
OK, then, take this money, I don't need it...
Sabiha remembers all that, she has these memories from Dzhebel,
because, you know, major events
happened in Dzhebel in May, after 19 October.
How old was she at that time? - 6 years old.
Does she remember - does she speak Bulgarian?
No, she can't, she has forgotten, she's forgotten everything.
The Communist Lenin Party of Turks in Bulgaria!
AVNI VELIEV Istanbul, 2009
Founder of the illegal "Communist Lenin Party of Turks in Bulgaria" and "Vienna 89" Society (1989)
In June 1989
the Kardzhali police station
presented to the Ministry of Interior Affairs an official report,
which said that...
..."This Communist Lenin Party of Turks in Bulgaria
is nothing but a demagogic name invented by Veliev,
because this is not a real communist party -
this is a party struggling for pluralism."
Well, my dear, a legal organization already existed:
the "Fatherland Front".
But was it really a "Fatherland Front"?
The Agrarian Union! Was it really an Agrarian Union?
They were all spies planted by the Bulgarian Communist Party.
My goal was to make our people ready
for the impending name-changing campaign,
to make them cool-headed,
and on the other hand,
to try to achieve something by illegal means -
to turn Bulgaria into a multiparty system.
These goals were not insignificant!
"To the Minister of the People's Republic of Bulgaria,
the Minister of Interior Affairs.
A Plea by Sabri Üsseinov Iskenderov,
Secretary of "Democratic League for Defense of Human Rights",
forcibly deported to the village of Kameno Pole, Vratsa region"
So I wrote below: "A Plea for issuing a passport
under the above- mentioned name".
- Sabri? - Yes. Sabri Üsseinov Iskenderov.
I wrote below - "This passport was violently imposed on me
under a name given by the Prosecutor's Service
of Todor Zhivkov's regime.
I don't acknowledge it and I can't accept it.
If they give me this passport back,
I'll publicly burn it in front the Town Hall of Kameno Pole.
Best Regards..."
I sent the letter and the enclosed passport by mail to Sofia.
However 15 days later
State Security officials came to Vratsa
and asked me: "Where's your passport?"
"Ask your Minister of Interior Affairs".
"Isn't he your minister too?",
"No, I no longer respect Todor Zhivkov's government.
Neither do I respect the Minister of Interior Affairs.
I'm just a citizen deprived of his rights -
they took away all my rights and I no longer respect ministers!"
That's all, they never asked me that question again.
The court pronounced a sentence of seven years and six months.
"So what do you think about that?" they asked me.
"Well, Your Honor, you accuse me
of saying that Turkish names are to be changed to Bulgarian ones.
Is that correct?
Well, today you yourself changed my name, didn't you?
My name is Avni Aliev Veliev. Why do you call me Ivan Alekov Velev?
Who's to be blamed then, me or the government?
If you really want to pass a sentence on me,
you should better pronounce a death sentence
because these seven years and six months
will pass by like seven days and a half
and then when I go out of prison I'll make your life so miserable
that Moscow won't be able to save you!"
AHMET ALPAY (engineer), Bursa, 2009
They detained us in that concentration camp in Belene...
may be in order to assimilate us, so to say...
However they produced the opposite effect,
a totally negative effect, probably because there were people
who had poor command of Turkish.
They learnt to speak fluent Turkish...
because in Belene there were teachers, journalists,
writers, poets, students, engineers.
Intelligentsia was gathered there. There were few nobodies there!
"Paragraph 3", I said, addressing the State Security, here in Vratsa.
"Todor Zhivkov should be imprisoned under paragraph 3".
"Paragraph 3, what's that?" "Paragraph 3 of the Constitution,
shall I read it? I actually know it.
Paragraph 3 says:
"Creating an organization which tortures the population...
torturing the population and forcibly...
That's exactly the case of Todor Zhivkov! He must be sentenced!"
They burst into laughter: "How can you say that?!"
"I do say it!" And that's why I've always said:
"The real struggle takes place only when the Wolf's baring its teeth
and not when the Wolf's already dead, when Todor Zhivkov's deceased
and when everyone pretends to be a hero! Things shouldn't be that way!"
Now tell them what you said about Mitterrand...
On Mitterrand's coming he said:
"Mitterrand won't enter Bulgaria unless Iliya Minev
gets released from prison. Or it was Petar Manolov?"
It all happened exactly that way - we heard it on foreign radio programs.
At the Lovetch demonstration I introduced myself
to Rumyana Uzunova: "I am the landlady of..."
She kissed me in reply and we got acquainted.
We didn't talk much, cause they were... - I got acquainted with her in Paris.
I heard him say, when he was in Paris: "Terror reigns in Bulgaria..."
Look, I haven't forgotten you!
You were interviewed by Rumyana Uzunova of Radio Free Europe.
"Terror reigns in Bulgaria - not only terror over the Turkish minority
but also terror over the Bulgarian population".
The idea for creating the "Democratic League" was mine.
It occurred to me when I was arrested in Razvigor,
Sofia Central Public Department.
Then it occurred to me:
"In order to introduce democracy to Bulgaria,
we have to make an organized effort.
Not a secret organization, but a legal one,
because those struggling for human rights aren't terrorists!
The struggle should be public,
because we defend human rights - we are not terrorists!
Todor Zhvkov's regime was the real terrorist."
We sent our Program and our Charter to the British Embassy
so that the global community,
the democratic community gets to know that our goals were peaceful
just as it was written in our Program,
that this was not a terrorist organization.
First of all, we had to play safe -
to guarantee they could do nothing - no chance for forgery
because the British Embassy had already been informed.
We used to travel a lot... without a break!
In Sofia I was elected
for Coordinator General of Varna region.
A French journalist came to Sofia
because our meeting couldn't take place in Mihailovgrad.
We gave interviews to two French newspapers
and for the first time we announced how many people were killed.
We told them about the name-changing campaigns
which took place in the 1970s and then in 1984-85.
Dogan... Ahmed Dogan wrote in "Who's Who",
that book co-written with some journalist.
I read it.
Well, we were all born in Bulgaria, we all live in Bulgaria.
He says it all started
in the communist prisons in Pazardzhik.
But could one create any kind of organization in a communist prison?
How could one organize the population?
How could one organize people outside prison
and respectively - the May Events?
That's it.
Let other people judge whether he participated in the May Events.
That's all I'm saying.
But let's try to be a bit more reasonable
and then we'll see who did what.
THE MAY EVENTS The mass relay hunger strikes of ethnic Turks started on 6 May 1989.
Two weeks later the "Independent Association", the "Democratic League" and the "Vienna '89" Society
organized demonstrations of many thousands.
9 protesters were killed and hundreds of people were wounded
in the skirmish with the government forces.
The May Events were organized by those
who stayed in our Society and those who developed its activity.
But how could Ahmed Dogan organize this activity from prison?
May be the head of prison placed his office and his phone at his disposal,
so that he could regulate these things!?
We were 5 people and they regularly arrested us -
it was so hard to establish connections.
Are there any conversations recorded by Rumyana Uzunova -
who did he talk to, who were his associates
and are there any recordings of conversations with Rumyana Uzunuva
and Petar Boyadzhiev on behalf of Ahmed Dogan's organization?
Now that Petar Boyadzhiev has published these recordings,
this can be proved quite easily.
I was in prison and I couldn't communicate
or establish a connection with another unit.
I doubt whether a man in prison could coordinate the May Events.
Moreover, while in prison, I never heard of his organization.
I never heard of it. It's possible but that's what they actually did -
they arrested everyone who tried to rise up against them
so one couldn't do anything. Is all that possible?
Well, that's my point. Of course, a man who loves himself
more than he loves others can always try to rewrite history.
As we know, Stalin also wrote history - the history of some battles...
But I think one should be a bit more humble
and let those who really did it enter history.
All I'm saying is that up to February everything was organized by us,
including my five cousins and my mom who helped us so much.
But I would never take merit for what was done after February,
even though my name is mentioned in many history books.
Look here!
See how I kept it and how I folded it! Here's your stuff, look at it!
Yes, yes, well done!
I don't know why but I hate communists.
My granddad was the first communist of the Romansko settlement system.
But he gave up his activist pension
and he didn't let me become member of the Party.
And I myself didn't want my son to apply to a military school.
The first Program consists of 22 articles.
It was completed before the second one
written by Azin Basharan - prior to that one.
The first Program consists of 22 articles - I wrote it by my own hand.
Look here, I brought it from Kameno Pole.
When State Security came to arrest him,
we hid it behind the cupboard.
Right behind the cupboard - I'll show it to you when we go to Kameno Pole.
Later when I had to renovate the room, I took it out,
I hid it and then I brought it here.
Shall we now go to Kameno Pole? - Of course, we'll go there!
Kameno Pole is the most interesting place!
We'll find the first Program there!
500,000 educated people came here -
absolutely high potential...
...gained potential!
They spent no money on these people's education,
on their upbringing, understand?
A prestigious generation gained without any effort!
Most deportees complained of Bulgaria.
They even demonstrated a rather negative attitude towards Bulgaria,
towards Bulgarians.
Although I had such nice friends,
no one condemned these things, no one supported us!
- You felt abandoned. - Yes - abandoned, may be betrayed.
We wouldn't do the same to our friends. We would support them!
The silence at the time of our deportation was so depressing!
However, I remember some of my Bulgarian friends...
on my leaving for example, some of them...
I remember a guy called Mitko - he put 30 leva in my pocket!
That's what happens when...
Some people are such morons!
He used to place a broken saucepan here in the backyard
and he put the VEF radio on top of it.
Here's the saucepan! He would put it this way and the VEF -
on top of it and we would listen to Rumyana Uzunova!
Easy, easy!
Right here, 20 years ago
I hid the first Program of the "Democratic League
for Defense of Human Rights in Bulgaria" in a small jar of purée.
Actually one can't meet a deportee willing to talk about that past.
We never talk about that.
I'm telling you all these things, cause I know Daniela well
and I know what her expectations are.
But I could hardly imagine a deportee talking about that...
- Why, because it's burdensome - because it's still traumatic?
- Well, that thing ignites hatred, do you understand?
Yet people don't hate Bulgarians.
They don't want to go back to those memories.
Those things were related to the regime and that's all!
I wouldn't like to exaggerate but I would sacrifice my life for Bulgaria
- that's how much I love Bulgaria!
But they just don't let us love it -
that's how it is and that's what offends us!
I've got no double citizenship! - Really?
No double citizenship!
I have no Bulgarian passport and I don't need one.
Do you know what that feeling is?
I believe that's not right -
I came to Turkey, having experienced very bad things in Bulgaria -
so could I become a Bulgarian citizen
just because Bulgaria became a European Union member
and because I would be allowed to go to any country in Europe?
Would that be right? Not at all!
There's a feeling of...
We are angry because they expelled us from Bulgaria for no reason.
There were constant complaints of Bulgarians -
Bulgarians are such- and-such,
they are merciless, that kind of talk...
Turkish people distanced themselves from this type of thinking.
They just couldn't believe an entire nation could be like that.
"Isn't that an isolated instance? It can't be related to everyone".
Initially, for about a year or two, they alienated us,
they did not regard us as people of Turkish culture
and they thought we were some foreigners -
we didn't look like them!
I prefer to live here!
Because I've been here for 13 years
and I've already found my place here.
To go back there I have to tell my whole story again
but I'm already tired of that.
Because until my 20th year I knew something, I believed in something
and then everything was changed and it all turned out to be a lie.
I came here and I started from scratch.
Now I don't feel like starting from scratch again, not any more...
That's what I think but one never knows what may happen to him.
One day I might have to start from scratch, who knows...
"The White Bunny" song...
If a forest catches fire, both the dry and the wet will burn up.
There were people who...
for example, right now there are so many things that I don't like.
Should I be expelled somewhere faraway
just because by telling the truth I turn out to be inconvenient?
What's that? No right of dissenting opinion?
We are supposed to have equal rights, aren't we?
I may say: "I don't like this. I like that!"
This "Revival" Process merely devastated many people,
namely the bright ones - those with sober minds
and those who disagreed with what they saw.
May be that's why some people tried to eliminate him -
to make sure "their layers would get layered", so to say.
That's how I see those things!
THE GRAND "EXCURSION" The mass deportation of 370,000 Bulgarian citizens-ethnic Turks
in the Republic of Turkey in the period June-August 1989.
"The People's Republic of Bulgaria must urgently deport 200,000
and if possible - 300,000 people of that population" Todor Zhivkov, 7 June 1989
"Grand Excursion"! Who called it "Grand Excursion"?
The television... but that's a forcible deportation,
in my opinion that's not a "Grand Excursion".
The forcible expatriation of Turks from Bulgaria...
When they came here to arrest me -
on 16 May 1989,
at 4 PM - I told them:
"Right now I don't want to go to Turkey.
At the moment I want to go to the Conference of Human Rights in Paris.
Later, when I want to, I might go to Turkey.
So you're trying to force me?"
"Yes, we are", he said, "That's it!"
It was wintertime and it was snowing heavily.
They came to our village. They came to my house.
My two children were home alone -
neither their mother, nor their grandmother
and grandfather were home.
I was lying in prison
and my two children were crying and hugging each other.
They were fluent in both Turkish and Bulgarian.
Where's your father? - In prison!
Where's your grandfather? - I don't know!
And where's your mother? - I don't know!
Everyone fled away - everyone ran away somewhere.
Dad spent a whole month in the snowy woods.
But why did he die?
His health was stronger than mine.
Well, he died, struck down by the worst disease.
He would leave home and take to the woods.
One could hear him cry out loud: "Avniii, Avnii, where are you?"
This happened in 1985, 86, 87.
He died on 6 January 1988.
Well, I spent 111 days
on the sixth floor of the State Security headquarters in Sliven.
19 of those were interrogation days.
5 of those were days of extreme torture -
I was beaten black and blue -
from head to foot!
I remember thinking: "I might not go out of here alive!"
"But having committed no crimes, no spying,
I have nothing to confess - even if I am to die!"
Going back to these memories, talking about all that,
I get really angry.
Believe me -
what happened in the prison cells in Sliven was true fascism.
I wouldn't wish that even to my worst enemy.
Those people didn't act like human beings!
This world is full of things in black.
Black is the colour in fashion.
Black is the earth. Black is the night.
Black is the smoke of the factories.
Black are the suits. Black are the gowns.
Black are the parties in fashion.
Black are the rituals. Black are the rites,
when Heaven takes total possession.
And black fate awaits you,
once you call black things black.
Now you are the black one, now you are the wreck
and black is the colour to blame.
Now black's everywhere! Now black's all around!
And black's still the colour in fashion!
So black - the affairs! So black - rulers' deeds!
So black are these days of oppression!
- When did you write it?
- When I was in prison, may be about 1984-1985.
ERDINÇ KÜPÇU, son of the poet RECEP KÜPCU
- Who's sitting over there, right beside you?
- Come and see by yourself! - Oh, my! That's Sabri!
- She recognized us at once!
- Well, we're a bit unclean - that's what we are...
PESHKA IVANOVA
- Oh, my! Sabri... my dear Sabri!
- Now record them so that the Party gets to know she kisses Turks!
- But that's my man!
METIN SEYIT Born in Silistra.
Metin's family was expatriated during the last wave of the "Grand Excursion"
right after his recruitment in the Army. Metin left Bulgaria in 1989.
Currently working as IT expert at Dogus Holding (NTV, National Geographic - Turkey), Istanbul
KAZIM TÜRKSÖZ Born in Plovdiv.
Lived in Kardzhali. Expelled from Bulgaria together with his parents on 22.06.1989.
Currently working as architect in Bursa.
MÜNEVVER TÜRKSÖZ Born in Haskovo.
Expatriated on 22.06.1989 after receiving a State Security order
obliging her family to leave Bulgaria within 24 hours.
Professor of Bulgarian Literature and Aesthetics. Currently living in Bursa.
SÜLEYMAN TÜRKSÖZ Born in Balsha village, Ardino region
Arrested in 1984 and sent to the Belene concentration camp
on the charge of organizing a protest demonstration at his workplace.
Currently working as engineer in Bursa.
FERIT TÜRKSÖZ ÖMER TÜRKSÖZ
Sons of Münevver and Süleyman Türksöz. Currently living in Bursa.
SABIHA TÜRKSÖZ Born in Djebel. Spouse of Ömer Türksöz.
During the "Grand Excursion", at the early age of six,
she left Bulgaria together with her family. Currently living in Bursa.
SEVNUR ÖZTÜRK Born in Shumen.
During the "Grand Excursion" she left Bulgaria together with her family.
Owner of "KUGU" (SWAN) RESTAURANT in Istanbul.
SABRI ISKENDER Born in Zhalti Bryag village, Sliven region.
Secretary of "Democratic League for Defense of Human Rights" since its creation in 1988.
Detained and tortured in the State Security investigatory arrest in Sliven.
Interned twice in the village of Kameno Pole.
Detained for a year in Belene and imprisoned for two more years in Stara Zagora.
Forcibly expelled from Bulgaria in 1989. Currently living in Ankara.
BISERKA ILIEVA Nurse.
Sabri Iskender's landlady in the time of his deportation in the village
of Kameno Pole in 1986 and 1988. Currently living in Mezdra.
TSETSKA IVANOVA Working for Dimitrov's Youth Communist League
in the time of Sabri Iskender’s deportation in her native village of Kameno Pole.
PESHKA IVANOVA Mayoralty Secretary
in the time of Sabri Iskender's second deportation in the village of Kameno Pole.
SEVGINAR SHEN Born in Dulovo.
Left Bulgaria together with her family during the "Grand Excursion" in 1989.
Currently working as nurse in Istanbul.
AVNI VELIEV Born in Zornitsa village, Haskovo region.
Created the illegal "Communist Lenin Party of Turks in Bulgaria" in 1980.
Founded "Vienna 89" Society on 30.01.1989.
Imprisoned in Sofia, Stara Zagora and Lovetch
from 14.09.1984 to 29.12.1988. Currently living in Istanbul.
ZEYNEP IBRAHIMOVA ZAFER Born in the village of Kornitsa, Gotse Delchev region.
Deported in Northern Bulgaria during the resistance against the forcible name-changing
of Bulgarian Muslims in the village of Kornitsa in 1972.
At that time Zeynep was only 15 years old.
In 1988 she spread the organizational network of Iliya Minev's
"Independent Association for Defense of Human Rights" over Northeastern Bulgaria.
In January 1989 State Security detained her in order to prevent her
from meeting the French president Francois Mitterrand.
Expelled from Bulgaria on 03.02.1989. PhD at Gazi University, Ankara.
AHMET ALPAY Born in the village of Chaika, Kardzhali region.
While still a student, he was arrested in Sofia in January 1985 and then sent to Belene.
Currently working as engineer in Bursa.
ERDINÇ KÜPÇU Born in Bourgas in the family of Recep Küpçu,
the great poet who died under unexplained circumstances on 26.04.1976.
Imprisoned in Bourgas in April 1980 on a fabricated charge.
Served his sentence in Stara Zagora prison where he was forcibly renamed.
Went out of prison in 1986. Left Bulgaria in the summer of 1989
together with his mother and his elder brother.
Owner of a travel agency in Istanbul.
a film by IRINA NEDEVA ANDREY GETOV
script DANIELA GORCHEVA
camera LYUBEN BARZAKOV
music ÖZGÜR YALÇIN KARA GÜNEŞ BAND, ISTANBUL
sound MARIANA VALKANOVA
post-production SIMEON TSONCHEV
still photos:
ZEYNEP IBRAHIMOVA ZAFER's archive, blog "The Big Excursion"
supported by:
Mono Collective
Vreme Film Studio
kindly supported by:
America for Bulgaria Foundation
© 2010 The Red House Center for Culture and Debates