THE CLASH BETWEEN LATIN AND ARABIC ALPHABETS AMONG THE TURKISH COMMUNITY IN BULGARIA IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Abstract

In this article, I will address the topic of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria in the interwar period through the interpretive lens of the “linguistic” or better “alphabetic” rights,[1] placed in the context of the “Latinization” processes taking place in the wide Eurasian space, as well of the post-imperial sociopolitical dynamics.[2]

To this aim, I describe the interesting and little known case of the writing practices of the Turkish community in Bulgaria in the period between the two world wars. In particular, I take into account the repercussions of Atatürk’s alphabetical reform in Bulgaria, demonstrating how the adoption of the Latin alphabet in Turkey represented a significant challenge for the country, triggering the fears of both the Bulgarian authorities and of the more conservative factions of the local Turkish community. In this context, I analyze the attitudes towards the Arabic and the Latin alphabet employed to write the Turkish language in the Balkan country, illustrating the reasons for the prohibition of the Turkish Latin alphabet, in an unprecedented combination of interests between Bulgarian authorities and Islamic religious leaders. I will try to show how in that specific historical moment, writing systems, far from being “neutral” communication elements, lent themselves to various manipulations of an ideological and political nature.

My paper does not intend to represent a comprehensive contribution to the analysis of the complex subject of this community’s religious or political identity, but it rather aims to shed light on the limitations faced by the Turks of Bulgaria in terms of their linguistic rights in a period when other communities in Southeast Europe were encountering similar difficulties.[3]

---

^[1] See on the topic Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination, (ed.) Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 1994.

^[2] See Valeri Stoyanov, “Die Türkische Minderheit Bulgariens bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges”, ВАЛЕРИСТИКА ПОЛИХИСТОРИКА-2. Избрани приноси към гранични области на историята, Институт за исторически изследвания при БАН, Sofia 2011, pp. 349-373.

^[3] As in the case that I will later discuss of the education policies for the Slavophone minority in Aegean Macedonia, Greece in the 1920s.

Keywords

• Turkish Latin Alphabet,Turks of Bulgaria,Turkish Literacy in Bulgaria,Turkish Newspapers in Bulgaria,Arabic Alphabet

İKİ SAVAŞ ARASI DÖNEMDE BULGARİSTAN’DAKİ TÜRK TOPLULUĞUNDA LATİN VE ARAPÇA ALFABELER ARASINDAKİ ÇATIŞMA

Abstract

Bu makalede iki savaş arası dönemde Bulgaristan’daki Türkler konusunu ele alacağım. “Dilsel” ya da daha doğru söylemek gerekirse “alfabetik” hakların yorumlayıcı yaklaşımını kullanacağım ve onları ve “post-emperyal sosyopolitik dinamikleri” ile ilişkilendiren geniş Avrasya alanında yer alan “Latinizasyon” süreçlerine yerleştireceğim.

Bu amaçla, Bulgaristan Türklerine ait yazı pratiklerinin ilginç ve az bilinen durumunu tasvir ediyorum. Özellikle de Atatürk’ün alfabe reformunun Bulgaristan’daki yansımalarını ele alarak Türkiye’nin Latin alfabesine geçişinin bu Balkan ülkesinde gerek Bulgar otoriteleri gerekse yerli Türk topluluğunun en muhafazakar kesimleri tarafından korkuları tetikleyen kabul edilmesi zor bir olay olduğunu göstereceğim. Bu bağlamda bu Balkan ülkesinde Türk dilini yazmak için kullanılan Arap ve Latin alfabelerine yönelik tavırları analiz ederek, Bulgar otoritelerle İslam alimleri arasındaki alışılmadık çıkar kesişmesinde, Latin-Türk alfabesinin yasaklanmasının nedenlerini ortaya koyacağım. Bu dönemde, “nötr” iletişim öğeleri olmaktan çok uzakta olan yazı sistemlerinin, ideolojik ve politik türden manipülasyonlara açık olduklarını göstermek çalışacağım.

Makalem, bu topluluğun dini ya da politik kimliğinin karmaşık konusunun analizine kapsamlı bir katkı sunmayı amaçlamamaktadır. Fakat daha çok, güneydoğu Avrupa’daki diğer toplulukların benzer zorluklarla karşılaştığı bir dönemde, Bulgaristan Türklerinin dil hakları bakımından karşılaştıkları sınırlamalara ışık tutmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Türk Latin Alfabesi,Bulgaristan Türkleri,Bulgaristan’da Türk Okuryazarlığı,Bulgaristan’daki Türk Gazeteleri,Arap Alfabesi

References

1. BALIM, Çiğdem, “Turkish as a Symbol of Survival and Identity in Bulgaria and Turkey”, Language and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa, (ed.) Y. Suleiman, Curzon Press, London 1996, pp. 101-115.
2. Bulgarian Census: Преброяване на населението и жилищния фонд в Република България, Национален статистически институт.
3. CLAYER, Nathalie, “Le premier journal de langue turque en caractéres latins: Esas (Manastır/Bitola, 1911)”, Turcica, 36, 2004, pp. 253-264.
4. COLLIN, Richard Oliver, “Revolutionary scripts”, Culture and Language: Multidisciplinary Case Studies, (ed.) M. Morris, Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2011, pp. 29-67.
5. CRAMPTON, Richard J., A Concise History of Bulgaria, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, London and New York 1997.
6. EMINOV, Ali, Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities of Bulgaria, Hurst & Co., London 1997.
7. ________, “The Nation State and Minority Languages”, Of All the Slavs My Favorites: In Honor of Howard I. Aronson, (eds) V. A. Friedman & D. L. Dyer, Indiana Slavic Studies 12, 2001, pp. 155-169.
8. FOUQUES DUPARC, Jacques, La protection des minorités de race, de langue et de religion. Ètude des droits des gens, Dalloz, Paris 1922.

9. GALANTI, Avram, Arabi Harfler Terakkimize mani değildir, Hüsn-i Tabiat Matbaası, Istanbul 1927, Translit. By Fethi Kale, Bedir Yayınevi, Istanbul 1996.
10. GLENN, Charles L., Educational Freedom in Eastern Europe, Cato Institute, Washington D.C. 1995.
11. GORČEVA, Daniela, “Зейнеп Ибрахимова: помня студа и страха, които бяха сковали всичко - и пътищата, и душите ни”, in: Диалог (Холандия), 2009, N. 50, pp. 7-11. Available online: http://liternet.bg/publish19/d_gorcheva/zeinep.htm (Last Access: 31/05/18).
12. HENZE, Paul B., “Politics and Alphabets in Inner Asia”, Advances in the Creation and Revision of Writing Systems, (ed.) J. Fishman, Mouton, The Hague 1977, pp. 371-420.
13. HÖPKEN, Wolfgang, “From Religious Identity to Ethnic Mobilization: The Turks of Bulgaria Before, Under and Since Communism”, Muslim Identity and the Balkan State, (eds) H. Poulton and S. Taji-Farouki, Hurst & Company, London 1997, pp. 54-81.
14. IBRAHIM, Norhasnira, “Jawi Script in Hadith Literatures in Malaysia: Issues and Challenges”, International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research (IPEDR) Vol. 83, IACSIT Press, Singapore 2015, pp. 94-98.
15. Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East, (ed.) Carl L. Brown, Columbia University Press, New York 1996.
16. KARPAT, Kemal, Studies on Turkish Politics and Society, Brill, Leiden and Boston 2004.
17. KÖKSAL, Yonca, “Minority Policies in Bulgaria and Turkey: The Struggle to Define a Nation”, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2006, pp. 501-521.
18. ________, “Turkey’s Foreign Policy towards Bulgaria and the Turkish Minority (1923-1934)”, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2014, pp. 175-193.
19. KRISTEVA, Julia, Strangers to Ourselves, Columbia University Press, New York 1991.
20. LATCHEVA, Rossalina, “Nationalism versus Patriotism, or the Floating Border? National Identification and Ethnic Exclusion in Post-communist Bulgaria”, Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, Vol. 1, No 2, Fall 2010, pp. 187-216.
21. LEHFELDT, Werner, “L’écriture arabe chez les slaves”, Slavica Occitania, 12, 2001, pp. 267-281
22. LEWIS, Geoffrey, The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002.
23. Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination, (ed.) Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 1994.
24. LORY, Bernard, Le sort de l’héritage ottoman en Bulgarie. L’exemple des villes bulgares 1878-1900, Isis, Istanbul 1985.
25. MANCHEVA, Mila, “Image and Policy: The Case of Turks and Pomaks in Inter-war Bulgaria, 1918-1944 (with special reference to education)”, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 12:3, pp. 355-374.
26. MARUSHIAKOVA, Elena, Popov, Vesselin, “Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria”, Migration and Political Intervention: Diasporas in Transition Countries, (ed.) J. Blaschke, Parabolis, Berlin 2004, pp. 1-63.
27. MERDJANOVA, Ina, Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013.
28. MICHAILIDIS, Iakovos D., “Minority Rights and Educational Problems in Greek Interwar Macedonia: The Case of the Primer ‘Abecedar’”, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14-2 (1996), pp. 329-343.
29. MUYHTAR, Fatme, The Human Rights of Muslims in Bulgaria in Law and Politics since 1878, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Sofia 2003.
30. NAHAPETYAN, Haykaram, “The Turks of Bulgaria, The 5th Column of Ankara”, 21st Century, No 1, 2007, pp. 33-49.
31. NEUBURGER, Mary, The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria, Cornell University Press, London 2004.
32. POPOVIC, Alexandre “The Turks of Bulgaria (1878-1985)”, Central Asia Survey, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1986, pp. 1-32.
33. Protocol B in: “Treaty of Friendship between Bulgaria and Turkey, signed at Ankara”, October 19, 1925. League of Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 54, 1926, pp. 127-133.
34. RECHEL, Bernd, “Bulgaria. Minority Rights ‘light’”, Minority Rights in Central and Eastern Europe, (ed.) B. Rechel, Routledge, London and New York 2009, pp. 77-89.
35. SAFRAN, William. “Nationalism”, , Handbook of Language & Ethnic Identity, (eds) A. J. Fishman, O. Garcia, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 77-93.
36. SANDERS, Irwin T., “The Moslem Minority of Bulgaria”, The Muslim World, Volume 24, Issue October 1934, pp. 356-369.
37. SELVELLI, Giustina, “Caratteri arabi per la lingua bosniaca. Esempi di scrittura fra influssi ottomani e riappropriazioni locali” (“Arabic Characters for the Bosnian Language. Writing examples between Ottoman influxes and local reappropriations”), Contatti di lingue-contatti di scritture. Multilinguismo e multigrafismo dal Vicino Oriente. Antico alla Cina contemporanea, (eds.) D. Baglioni, e O. Tribulato, Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venezia 2015, pp. 197-218.
38. ________, “Alphabet and Writing in the Armenian Diaspora of Plovdiv. Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives”, Mediterranean Language Review, Vol. 22, Harrassowitz Verlag, Heidelberg 2015, pp. 157-188.
39. ________, L’ideologizzazione degli alfabeti in Bulgaria e Croazia nel periodo post-imperiale e post-socialista (“The ideologization of the alphabets in Bulgaria and Croatia in the post-imperial and post-socialist period”). PhD Dissertation, University Ca’ Foscari, Venice 2017.
40. SHIVAROV, Stoyan, “Bulgaristan’da Muhafaza Edilen Osmanlıca Gazeteler. Durumu, Katalog ve Dijital Çalışmaları”, Balkan Ülkeleri Kütüphaneler Arası Bilgi-Belge Yönetim ve İşbirliği-Sempozyum Bildirileri, Trakya Üniversitesi Rektörlüğü, Edirne 2008, pp. 133-139.
41. Société des Nations, L'adoption Universelle des caractéres latins, Institut international de coopération intelectuelle, Librairie Stock, Paris 1934.
42. STĂRŠENOV, S. G., Ръководство за изучаване турски език с новата турска азбука : Пълна граматика с турско-български речник, Rahvira, Sofia 1933.
43. STOYANOV, Valeri, Die Türkische Minderheit Bulgariens bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges, in: ВАЛЕРИСТИКА ПОЛИХИСТОРИКА - 2. Избрани приноси към гранични области на историята, Институт за исторически изследвания при БАН, Sofia 2011, pp. 349-373.
44. ŞİMŞİR, Bilal N., The Turks of Bulgaria. 1878-1985, K. Rustem and Brother, London 1988.
45. WELLISH, Hans H., The Conversion of Scripts: Its Nature, History, and Utilization, John Wiley & Sons, New York-Chichester-Brisbane-Toronto 1978.
46. YALAMOV, Ibrahim, История на турската общност в България, IMIR, Sofia 2002.
47. ZÜRCHER, Erik J., Turkey: A Modern History, I. B. Tauris, London-New York 2004.