{"title":"Diplomacy, State Policies and Muslim Minorities: Turkey's Relations with Bulgaria and Romania (1923–1936)","authors":"Yonca Köksal, D. Barlas","doi":"10.1177/02656914231180821","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article studies how and why the policies of the Bulgarian and Romanian states towards Muslim/Turkish minorities differed widely from each other between 1923 and 1936. Minority policies in Bulgaria shifted from tolerance during the Agrarian People's Union government in 1919, to assimilation and repression in the 1930s. In contrast, the Romanian state tolerated and favourably treated Muslim minorities throughout the interwar period. In order to account for this difference, we highlight the influence of Turkey's diplomatic relations on Bulgarian and Romanian state policies towards minorities and the responses of the latter. While Turkish-Bulgarian relations see-sawed, Turkish-Romanian relations constantly improved from the 1920s to 1930s. We argue that, whenever Turkey's diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and Romania ameliorated, Bulgaria's and Romania's minority policies improved. Yet, whenever diplomatic relations deteriorated, so did the minority policies.","PeriodicalId":44713,"journal":{"name":"European History Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European History Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02656914231180821","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article studies how and why the policies of the Bulgarian and Romanian states towards Muslim/Turkish minorities differed widely from each other between 1923 and 1936. Minority policies in Bulgaria shifted from tolerance during the Agrarian People's Union government in 1919, to assimilation and repression in the 1930s. In contrast, the Romanian state tolerated and favourably treated Muslim minorities throughout the interwar period. In order to account for this difference, we highlight the influence of Turkey's diplomatic relations on Bulgarian and Romanian state policies towards minorities and the responses of the latter. While Turkish-Bulgarian relations see-sawed, Turkish-Romanian relations constantly improved from the 1920s to 1930s. We argue that, whenever Turkey's diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and Romania ameliorated, Bulgaria's and Romania's minority policies improved. Yet, whenever diplomatic relations deteriorated, so did the minority policies.
期刊介绍:
European History Quarterly has earned an international reputation as an essential resource on European history, publishing articles by eminent historians on a range of subjects from the later Middle Ages to post-1945. European History Quarterly also features review articles by leading authorities, offering a comprehensive survey of recent literature in a particular field, as well as an extensive book review section, enabling you to keep up to date with what"s being published in your field. The journal also features historiographical essays.