Sharing the Same Fate: Muslims and Jews of the Balkans · 65order to save their lives and dignity. The lands of the Turks were taken.
Their remaining mosques were destroyed on the pretext of city plans.
Muslim pious foundations were plundered. Therefore, the Turkish mi-
gration to Turkey never stopped. Bulgaria achieved independence in
- According to the census of 1910, the number of Muslims decreased
to 601,999, only 13.9 percent of the population.^62
During the Principality, the number of Jews in Bulgaria was not com-
parable with the Turks of Bulgaria. However, their problems were not
much different. Jews were not allowed to go to the military school or the
school for reserve officers, nor were they allowed to find employment
at the Bulgarian national bank and other prestigious institutions. There
were some laws against Jewish doctors and professionals. Anti-Semitic
organizations were established, and anti-Semitic books and journals were
published. The anti-Semitic conferences of Tr. Bozhidarov are worth men-
tioning. They claimed that even though Jews were born in Bulgaria, they
were still foreigners; therefore, they had to be expelled from Bulgaria.^63
The first years after World War I were the least problematic for the
Turks and Jews of Bulgaria. Probably the Turkish-Bulgarian alliance dur-
ing the war, the Treaty of Neuilly, which Bulgaria signed afterwards, and
the tolerant policy of the Agrarian Party, which governed postwar Bul-
garia played roles in this calm. Due to the Agrarian Party’s tolerant pol-
icy, non-Bulgarian minorities took back some rights that had been lost.
Following the assassination of Agrarian leader and prime minister Alek-
sandar Stamboliyski in 1923, semi-fascist parties ruled Bulgaria. Those
governments followed anti-Turkish and anti-Semitic policies. Some orga-
nizations, including Rodna Zashtita in northern Bulgaria and the Thrace
Committee in southern Bulgaria, declared that “other races have no right
to live in Bulgaria” and attacked the Turks. As a result of this kind of
pressure, from 1923 until World War II, about 200,000 Turks of Bulgaria
migrated to Turkey.^64 Apart from the ones that have already been men-
tioned, Otets Paisiy, Koubrat, Ratnik, and the Legionaries were the other
leading nationalist and fascist organizations. Those organizations were
encouraged by the government and the officials to attack Jewish shops
and law offices.^65
Under the influence of Nazi Germany, the Law of Protection of the Na-
tion was issued in Bulgaria in 1940. Due to dissatisfaction with that law,
more restrictive measures were taken against the Jews. The Jews were
obliged to wear special signs on their clothes and homes. They could