“If you deprive him from his birth name…”: 30 years after the reclaim of the Turkish-Muslim names

“Name is the most enduring epitome of personality. With it the Muslim appears to the people and to his God. If you deprive him from his birth name, you rob his sacred unity with God and people. And does not this apply for every person who respects himself? There is no anonymous gilt. The guilty people, a handful of irresponsible functionaries, must be uncovered and chastised in front of the entire nation. But our bureaucratic machine would not work with such a blind brutality is we all kept silent. There were some brave individual protests – of Iskra Panova, Grudi Atanasov, and others, but they were voices in the desert. On the name of each of us lies the personal responsibility for the fate of our deprived brothers. We are guilty, each one of us is guilty!”

From “The Name” – essay of Blaga Dimitrova

This year marks exactly 30 years since the reclaim of the Turkish-Muslim names in our country. On this occasion the Muslim Denomination organized and held a number of commemorative events in different parts of our country. The anniversary was marked in the capital with a discussion on the topic “30 years after the reclaim of the names”, which took place on December 5 (Thursday) from 18:00 o’clock in “Sveta Sofia” Hotel in the capital.

The program was officially opened with the premiere screening of the documentary of Studio Media Grandmufti, dedicated to the change of the names and their reclaim 30 years ago. The movie tells about the memories of Muslims from the Western Rhodopes and the traumas that all those processes caused them, and that they still feel in themselves.

The historical chronology of the processes, related to the deprival and the fight for reclaiming the Turkish-Muslim names; the assimilatory state policy towards the different ethnicities of the Muslim population in the country; is there a link between the assimilation and the integration of the population and what is dependence between these processes, what do people remember from history, what is their historical memory related to the processes of the reclaim of the names and the change as one of the most traumatic moments in the memory of the Muslim population; what is the significance of the name for the identity of the person… These and many other issues were addressed during the discussion by the participants in it – Prof. Dr. Evgenia Ivanova, Assoc. Prof. Mihail Ivanov and Prof. Myumyun Tahir. Moderator during the discussion event was Dr. Ahmed Lyutov from the Muslim Denomination.

After the event also a discussion took place with the participation of the people from the audience, numbering nearly 100 people. Many of them, along with the Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi, took the opportunity to express their deepest gratitude to the participants in the discussion not only for their participation in the event but also for their active fight in defending the interests of the Muslim community over the years. Prof. Myumyun Tahir himself thanked his interlocutors in the discussion Assoc. Prof. Mihail Ivanov and Prof. Evgenia Ivanova, calling them “very brave people – emblematic people in the fight for reclaiming the names of the Turks and the Muslims in Bulgaria”.

The organized event ended with a treat for all guests where the topic on changing and reclaiming the names 30 years ago continued to be discussed in informal talks.

Author: L. Chausheva