Post-Komünist Süreçte Başmüftülük ve Bulgaristan Türklerinin Dinî Hürriyetleri
Balkanların azınlıklarından olan Bulgaristan Türkleri, Bulgaristan’ın bağımsızlığından günümüze bölgedeki diğer Müslüman toplumlarına nazaran farklı evrelerden geçmiştir. Komünist rejimin, Türkçe isimlerin zorla değiştirilmesi gibi en temel insan hak ihlalleriyle gündelik hayatın güçlüklerini tecrübe etmiştir. Bu çalışma, Bulgaristan Türklerinin dinî hak ve özgürlüklerini, komünizm sonrasından günümüze kadar bölgesel, ulusal ve uluslararası yönleriyle derinlemesine bir analizdir. Çalışmanın temel argümanı şudur: Her ne kadar Soğuk Savaş sonrası dönemde Müslüman azınlığın dinî özgürlükleri artmaya devam ediyor olsa da Bulgaristan, 2007’deki AB üyeliğinden günümüze Müslümanların dinî hürriyetlerini tam anlamıyla sağlamamakta; insan ve azınlık haklarıyla ilgili AB normlarını vatandaşları arasında eşit bir şekilde uygulamamaktadır.
The Grand Muftiate and Religious Freedom of Bulgarian Turks in the Post-Communist Period
Bulgarian Turks, one of the minorities of the Balkans have gone through different phases from Bulgaria’s independence to the present day compared to other Muslim societies in the region. This community experienced the hardships of daily life through the most basic human rights violations of the communist regime, such as the forced change of Turkish names. This study is an in-depth analysis of the religious rights and freedoms of Bulgarian Turks with their regional, national and international aspects from the post-communist process to present day. The main argument of the study is as follows: Although the religious freedom of the Muslim minority has continued to develop in the post-Cold War period, Bulgaria has not fully ensured the religious freedom of Muslims since its EU membership in 2007 and does not apply EU norms regarding human and minority rights equally among its citizens.
The Turks in Bulgaria constitute a significant number of citizens in that country. In addition to being one of the historical religions of the Balkan Peninsula, Islam is a wellestablished religion in Bulgaria. The rights of people adhering to Islam have been safeguarded in different ways and times since the end of the 19th century. The very first indication of the rights provided to Muslims goes back to the 1878 Berlin Treaty and that of the very first constitution of the Principality of Bulgaria, namely. Tarnovo Constitution of 1879. These rights would later be strengthened after the establishment of the Kingdom of Bulgaria in 1909, and after the 1913 Peace Treaty of Istanbul with the Ottoman Empire and that of the 1919 Treaty of Neuilly.
In the interwar era, Muslims in Bulgaria largely suffered from a variety of violations of their religious rights and liberties in spite of some positive steps such as the opening of the Nuvvab School in Shumen. The rights of Muslims under the Communist regime throughout the Cold War era would be highly restricted, thus making everyday life totally unbearable for many of them. The totalitarian regime intervened in issues related to Islam as well as its practices among its Muslims citizens. The Bulgarian Communist Party increased its control and power on the offices of the muftiates and that of the Chief Muftiate. Mosques as well as some muftiate offices were closed while the rest of the Muslim religious leaders had to adopt a pro-regime stance in their offices and support Communist policies limiting the rights of their own Muslim congregates.
After a brief historical introduction, this study deals with the main paradigms of the Normative Theory and shows the reader its usefulness to tackle the main research question of this research: How effective has the EU membership of Bulgaria been with regards to the protection and promotion of the rights of Muslims in Bulgaria? As indicated in the title, the main aim of this article is primarily to focus on the religious issues of the Muslims of Bulgaria in the post-Communist regime and to provide a detailed analysis of them from various aspects. This study covers a period of three decades between 1990 and 2020. It primarily concentrates on issues concerning the highest religious body of the Muslims in Bulgaria, namely the. Chief Muftiate since many discussions about Islam in the country are centred around it.
An institution with a history of over a century, the Chief Muftiate is the oldest and most powerful of its kind and deals with a variety of issues concerning its congregates living in different parts of the country. It is the earliest institution of Muslims in which Islam is portrayed in the context of Bulgaria. This research starts by exploring the main problematic areas in the functioning of the institution, namely, state-endorsed policies aiming to break the solid leadership of the institution over Muslims. Second, it highlights the monetary problems of the Chief Muftiate and questions the role of fiscal issues on its effective functioning. Third, it continues by emphasizing the role of the Chief Muftiate regarding the protection of those properties belonging to waqf, religious pious endowments of Muslims. This research ends by highlighting the link between the Chief Muftiate and prayer houses located in different parts of Bulgaria which are still in use.
Having studied the abovementioned topics in detail using both local Bulgarian, Turkish and English sources, this study argues that some progress has been made in the area of religious freedom and the rights of Muslims in Bulgaria since the beginning of the post-Communist period. Nevertheless, despite becoming a member of NATO in 2004 and particularly of the EU in 2007, Bulgaria has not fully provided religious liberties to her Muslim citizens for the last thirty years. It seems that Bulgaria prefers not to find a final solution for the on-going violation of religious rights of Muslims, thus failing to promote principles of equality and non-discrimination among her citizens.
