Population
In the period between 1984 and 1989, the Communist government of Bulgaria, led by Todor Zhivkov, attempted the forced Bulgarisation of the country's Turkish minority. After the introduction in 1985 of new laws to forcefully assimilate the minority, the Bulgarian government banned education in Turkish and sought to erase Turkish culture and identity. Turkish names were forcibly changed to Slavic ones.
In May 1989 there were disturbances in regions inhabited by members of the Turkish minority. On 10 May 1989 travel restrictions to foreign countries were partly lifted. Todor Zhivkov gave a speech on 29 May 1989, in which he demanded that Turkey open its borders in order to receive all "Bulgarian Muslims", who wanted to live there. There followed an exodus of over 300.000 Turks to Turkey. On 10 November 1989 Zhivkov was replaced by Petar Mladenov and by the end of that year communism fell.
These laws were removed after the change to democracy in the early months of 1990. Many have now reverted to their old names and Bulgarian governments have apologised to the Turkish minority for the policies.

Attempted Bulgarization
chronological order of birthdates

Mithat Pasha - Outstanding 19th century Ottoman grand vizier, founder of Ziraat Bank.
Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı - Poet, academician, politician, community leader.
Mehmet Fikri - Poet
Tahsin Özgüç - Archaeologist, excavator of the great site of Kültepe.
Recep Küpçü - Poet
Mehmet Behçet Perim - Poet
Ertuğrul Özkök - Journalist, editorial writer for Hürriyet.
Ali Dinçer - Former mayor of Ankara, Turkish National Assembly Deputy Chairman, OICC founding chairman
Tuna Ötenel - Jazz musician
Ahmed Doğan - Human rights activist and politician, leader of Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
Emel Etem Toşkova - Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Nihat Kabil - Minister
Cevdet Çakarov - Minister
Yıldız İbrahimova - Singer
Bedri Şefik - Party leader
Naim Süleymanoğlu - World and Olympic champion in weightlifting.
Zekeriya Güçlü - World champion in wrestling
Halil Mutlu - World and Olympic champion in weightlifting.
Sibel Gürsoy - Pop musician
Taner Sağır - World and Olympic champion in weightlifting.
Esil Duran - Pop-folk ("Chalga") musician
Gürhan Gürsoy - Fenerbahçe SK football player
Nevriye Yılmaz - Fenerbahçe Istanbul basketball player
Neri Karra - Academic and Entrepreneur
Leman Ergenc- Slavic Languages Professor, founder of Bulgarian Language Department in Ankara University See also