Belene Concentration Camp and Muslim Communities (1964-1987)

Abstract

The imprisonment of Muslims in the Belene concentration camp, subsequently called forced settlement of a new residence, as the punitive measure in a more mitigated form, was applied against opponents of assimilation policy almost until the fall of communist power in Bulgaria. The article summarizes data on Turks and Pomaks who opposed the state decisions and repression, sent to the second division of the Belene concentration camp in the first two periods (1949-1953 and 1956-1959) of its history. Then we consider in more detail the imprisonment of Pomaks in relation of the change of names in the almost unexplored by this aspect 1960s and 1970s of the concentration camp. Finally, brief parallels are drawn between the internment in these two decades, and the last, largest forced internment of Turks (1984-1987) in the concentration camp in the name change campaign of 1984-1985 and the subsequent years of repression.