Stefka D. Gabrovska

This study explores Bulgaria’s model of inter-ethnic cooperation in the inter-war and World War II period by investigating the institutional arrangements through which the interests of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria were articulated, debated, reconciled with the idea of Bulgarian nationhood and national interest, and incorporated into the Bulgarian state’s domestic and international agenda. It does so with an eye to the Turkish minoritiy’s own agency in the process, and places this experience in the context of broader European developments such as nationalization and modernization in Eastern Europe.

This dissertation addresses the relationship between the Bulgarian majority and the ethnic Turkish minority in Bulgaria in the inter-war and WWII period. It explores the network of formal and informal institutions through which the interests of the Turkish minority were articulated, debated, reconciled with the idea of Bulgarian nationhood and national interest, and incorporated into the Bulgarian state’s domestic and international agenda. Furthermore, it explains how irredentist post-WWI Bulgaria, at the height of its nation-building and modernization effort, maintained a peaceful coexistence with its ethnic Turks. Contemporary minority policy is well documented. The project explores how this came about with an eye to contemporary public opinion and the Turkish minority's own agency in the process.