Migration, identity and politics :|the case of Bulgaristanlı Turks

Abstract

This thesis examines the associational life of Turkish immigrants from Bulgaria in Turkey. Firstly, this thesis argues how the communal identity of “Bulgaristanlı Turks” which is shaping by assimilation policies of the Bulgarian Communist Party, immigration, and citizenship policies of Turkey, is reproducing by associations’ executives considering the tensions between their idealized pure Turkish identity discourses and double loyalties toward Bulgaria and Turkey. Secondly, the aim of the thesis sheds light on how associations’ executives who are the elites of the community engage in political mobilization activities using the discourse of protecting the ethno-cultural communal identity of Turks of Bulgaria in both Turkey and Bulgaria in the corporate identity of associations. Sources of the thesis consist of empirical research based on semi-structured interviews with executives of associations and participant observations during nine months of fieldwork, print and online publications of associations, documents of The Grand National Assembly of Turkey.