The 1989 migration from Bulgaria to Turkey: nationalism and identity among the migrants

Abstract

This thesis mainly explores the process of identity construction among the migrants who migrated to Turkey from Bulgaria in 1989. It analyzes the migrants' attachment to nationalist discourse in Turkey and the ideological and practical conditions of the migrants' anti-Kurdish attitude. Migrants' belonging to Bulgaria as their birth place, and belonging to Turkey due to their identity as Muslim Turks is crucial in this process of identity construction. The process of identity construction always presumes the other and the relationship between self an other is grounded in difference. The migrants, who had been the others in the Bulgarian context, arrived in the Turkish context where the 'sovereign self' established itself in relation with the Kurdish other. The anti-Kurdish discourse has enabled the migrants to establish their identity as Turks it helps them identify with other Turks in the Turkish context. This anti-Kurdish attiutude is reinforced by 'nationalist' and 'orientalist' discourses and it can be observed in migrants' perceptions about the Kurdish people and their refusal to have relations with the Kurds.