About Us

Trakya University Migration and Exchange Studies Research and Application Centre

Trakya University, due to both the mission imposed on it by history and its geo-political and geo-strategic position, performs an active duty in the entire Balkan geography on behalf of our country. This activity of our university starts from our borders right next to us and continues its existence in a region extending from Hungary on one side and Ukraine and Crimea on the other.  The activity area of our university extends from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea. This activity manifests itself in almost every field from student recruitment to exchange programmes, from the Balkan Universities Association to joint symposiums, panels and workshops. Balkan Research Institute, Roma Research Institute, Thracian Research Centre are some of the institutional dimensions of this activity.

Based on all these, with the goal set by our Rector Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu, a Migration and Exchange Studies Application and Research Centre was established within our University, which will cover the Balkans in particular, Europe and the whole world in general, and started its activities. Our Centre aims to further increase the effectiveness of our University on the Balkans as an institution that provides both research and academic education.

The Migration and Exchange Studies Application and Research Centre was established to fulfil the responsibility that Edirne, that is, both history and geography, has imposed on our University. Because Edirne is literally a city of migration and exchange. Namely; The political and economic crises experienced by the Ottoman Empire led to the disintegration of the state even more rapidly, which resulted in the mass migration of our cognates and relatives living in the Balkans. The famous 93 War accelerated the migration from the Balkan geography, followed by the Balkan War and World War I. The Republic of Turkey, which was founded in 1923, followed a policy of rapidly incorporating the national elements living in the lands separated from the Ottoman Empire on the way to becoming a homogenous state. The biggest tool of this policy was again "migration". It is possible to summarise these migrations as follows:

A)-According to the "Convention and Protocol Agreement on the Turkish-Greek Population Exchange" concluded within the scope of the Lausanne Peace Treaty in 1923, the Orthodox of Turkey living outside Istanbul and the Muslims of Greece living outside Western Thrace were subjected to compulsory migration. As a result of this migration, approximately 1.200.000 Greeks living in Turkey had to migrate to Greece and approximately 500.000 Muslim Turks living in Greece had to migrate to Turkey. According to the figures given by the State Institute of Statistics, 40.041 people were settled in Edirne, where 90.000 Greeks left within the scope of the exchange, and according to researchers, 49.336 people were settled.  Considering that the total population of Edirne in 1927 was 150,840 people, the extent of the exchange can be better understood. In a sense, one out of every three people living in Edirne at that time was an exchange migrant.¹ Within the scope of the Lausanne Population Exchange, Edirne was the province where the highest number of immigrants were settled. The migration within the scope of the Turkish-Greek Population Exchange, which started in 1924, continued until 1927, and the distribution of property and settlement of the immigrants was almost completed by 1930.

B-) In the early 1930s, there was a serious influx of immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania. The provinces where the majority of these immigrants were settled were Kırklareli, Tekirdağ and Çanakkale, especially Edirne. The fact that the majority of the settled immigrants were settled in Edirne caused a significant portion of the immigrants with the status of "free immigrants" to prefer Edirne, where their relatives were settled, as a settlement site. This preference led to an increase in the number of immigrants living in Edirne.

C-) In 1950, a new wave of migration that would last for about two years was experienced. On 10 August 1950, the Bulgarian Government gave a stern note to Turkey and demanded that 250.000 Bulgarian Turks be taken to Turkey within 3 months. Since it was not possible to settle 250.000 people in Turkey in a short period of three months, as a result of the negotiations, it was requested that the Bulgarian Government should allow the Turkish migrants to take their movable goods with them and that this situation should be guaranteed by an agreement, but when this did not happen, the Turkish Government closed the Turkish-Bulgarian border on 7 October 1950² . After Turkey closed the border, an agreement was reached and Turkey opened the border gate on 2 December 1950 and a new migration started. According to the figures given by Şimşir, approximately 30.000 Bulgarian Turks migrated to Turkey until the border was closed in 1950. From the opening of the border until 31 December, 22.000 more people arrived. In 1951 this figure rose to about 100,000. In April 1951, the Turkish Government took a decision regarding immigrants and included all those who had migrated from Bulgaria to Turkey since 1 January 1950 in the category of "settled immigrants".³  

Edirne, which played a key role during the 1950-51 migration due to the fact that it was the city that formed Turkey's border with Bulgaria, was also extremely important in this period, both as the city where the migrants were first hosted and as the place where a significant number of migrants were resettled. By 1960, it is seen that a significant portion of the immigrants who migrated to Turkey until this date had been settled in Edirne. In the period between 1927-1960, the population of Edirne increased by 78.8 per cent to 270 thousand, and 71.3 per cent of this increase, equivalent to 84,946 people, was provided by immigrants.⁴ However, migration did not stop after this date and Edirne, a border city, opened its doors for new immigrants.

D-) On 22 March 1968 in Ankara, Turkey and Bulgaria (Foreign Minister İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivan Başev) signed the "Agreement on the Immigration of Bulgarian Citizens of Turkish Origin, whose Close Relatives Immigrated to Turkey until 1952, from the People's Republic of Bulgaria to the Republic of Turkey". Approximately 130 thousand more Bulgarian Turks migrated to Turkey between 1969-1978⁵ .

E-) The migrations Edirne has experienced in the last century did not stop there and unfortunately Edirne witnessed another "mass migration" on the threshold of the 2000s. On 29 May 1989, after the then Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov asked Turkey to open its doors to Turks who wanted to emigrate from Bulgaria, Prime Minister Turgut Özal addressed Zhivkov on television and said:  "Our doors are open to everyone who will emigrate from Bulgaria", a new "mass migration" movement started.⁶ Within 24 hours after this statement made by Prime Minister Turgut Özal, nearly 400 migrants with the annotation "For Turkey" in their passports were sent to Edirne-Kapıkule and Kırklareli-Dereköy border gates.⁷ The number of Turks deported by Bulgaria increased rapidly day by day and the number of Turks emigrating from this country reached 300 thousand before the end of 1989. Our incoming compatriots were temporarily hosted in tent cities, dormitories, state guesthouses and sports halls in Edirne, 3.645 of them resided with their relatives in Edirne, and an additional 3.284 people were settled in Edirne.⁸

As a result, there is no city in our country whose recent history is so intertwined with migration and exchange.  For this reason, the Migration and Exchange Studies Application and Research Centre, which was established within Trakya University, will continue its work at a great pace, which was suspended due to the pandemic. Because it is not possible to understand Edirne without understanding migration and exchange, and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and the Balkans without understanding Edirne.

Director of Migration and Exchange Studies Application and Research Centre

Assoc. Prof. Dr Mustafa Hatipler

FOOTNOTES

[1] Cem Behar, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun ve Türkiye’nin Nüfusu 1500-1927, Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü, Ankara 1996, p. 63.

2 Bilal N. Şimşir, BulgaristanTürkleri, BilgiYayınevi, Ankara 1986 p. 212-225; Türk-BulgarHududuAçıldı”, MilliyetGazetesi, 03.12.1950, p.1

3 İbrahim Kamil, Bulgaristan’dakiTürklerin Statüsü, p. 53.

4 Cevat Geray, Türkiye’den veTürkiye’ye Göçler (1923-1961), Türk İktisadî Gelişmesi Araştırma Projesi, Ank. 1962, pp. 30-32.

5 TBMM Tutanak Dergisi (07 Haziran 1989), Dönem 18, Toplantı 2, C. 28, p.280;

İbrahim Kamil, a.g.e., p. 61.

6 İlker Alp, Belge ve Fotoğraflarla Bulgar Mezâlimi(1878-1989), Trakya Üniversitesi Yayınları, Ankara 1990, p.232.

7 “Yine Zorunlu Göç”, Cumhuriyet, June 3, 1989, pp. 1-15., “Göçmenlerin Hepsini Alırız”, Milliyet, June 14, 1989, p.13.,

8 Ayrıntılı bilgi için bkz.,Ayşegül İnginar Kemaloğlu, Bulgaristan’dan Türk Göçü (1985-1989), Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Yayınları, Ankara 2012.