During the Cold War in 1950–1951, hundreds of thousands of Turks left the territory of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
The expulsion was planned by the Bulgarian government before it began, and the reason was to secure its national borders and expel the Turkish population.
An unknown number of Muslim Roma also wanted to leave Bulgaria, but Turkey did not allow them to cross the border.
[1] American historian Mary C. Neuburger described the exodus as "hurried, unorganized, and destructive both for the Turkish community and the Bulgarian economy.
For example, education in Turkish was tolerated, but these schools did not receive any support from the government, unlike their Bulgarian counterparts.
Georgi Dimitrov wanted to give rights to all the minorities in the country, but he was of the opinion that one must be careful with the Turks, in order not to create a Turkish influence on communist Bulgaria.
A commission created in 1947 toured various Turkish settlements and concluded that the Turks would never be loyal and that there was no point in stopping them if they wanted to emigrate.
According to Georgi Dimitrov:"I have to tell you, let it remain between us, that there is one big issue that has not existed since yesterday, it is that on our southern border we have, in fact, a non-Bulgarian population, which represents a permanent ulcer for our country.
The reason given was that the Turks would never be integrated as they had no faith in the government, also they were a hostile group, and had direct ties to capitalist Turkey.
Also, Turkey experienced severe unemployment and financial crisis at that time, and was not as economically strong as most other countries of the West.
[8] At the beginning of 1950, the Bulgarian government began to forcibly seize the lands of the Turks, especially in the North-Eastern part of the country - Dobruja and Deliorman.
[10] Such a large displacement of population was considered to be a violation of the Ankara Agreement 1925, according to which all migrants had the right to take with them all their moveable property and savings.
Houses in Tekirdağ, Sirkeci and Tuzla were repaired, in Mudanya refugees were settled in the station buildings, farms belonging to the state in Dalaman and Koçarteke were given to the immigrant Turks from Bulgaria.
The Council of Ministers sent an instruction to governors, and an aid committee was requested to act in a planned manner in the care and accommodation of Turks migrating from Bulgaria.
As thousands of refugees were waiting at the border, the Bulgarian Red Cross was forced to send aid and provide shelter.
[7] Turkey was comparatively better prepared for the second wave, although it also had to deal with the emigration of Turks from other countries: Yemen, Pakistan, Jordan, India, Turkestan, Yugoslavia, etc.
On the other hand, Bulgaria's economy began to focus even more on agriculture, which made the Turks an important economic factor, in fact 83% of refugees were farmers, foresters, fishermans, and hunters.
Turkey chose their residence and gave preference to the East and South-East regions as they did not have much population and ethnic Turks were a minority there.
The Turks who were engaged in tobacco production in Bulgaria were directed to Konya and Eskişehir, and those who knew how to cultivate the land were placed in regions where cotton is produced.
Farmers' farm animals up to 6,000 liras, cars and all kinds of agricultural vehicles were excluded from the tax, and tradesmen and self-employed people also benefited from the same practice.
While the settlers did not pay building and land tax for 5 years, male immigrants over the age of 22 were also exempted from military service.
[8] The process of de-Stalinisation gave more freedom to Bulgarian politicians who for the next 25 years tried to integrate and finally assimilate the Turkish minority.