Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-2 of 2
- Alina tells story of Melisa Eryilmaz, a double agent named Alina, and her fight to discover the truth about her family and her real identity.
- Bulgaria gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878 with Treaty of San Stefano. The Turks were between fifth and quarter of the population, which made them to become a minority. The rights of the Turkish minority, as well as the Muslim minority was protected with the Treaty of Berlin, which gave basic rights like freedom of worship. Later the Turnovo Constitution of 1879 and the Bulgarian-Ottoman Convention of 1909 also protected and guaranteed the rights of the Muslim minority. After WWII Bulgaria became a communist country and her opinion of Turkey changed since Turkey was not part of the Eastern Bloc. As Turkey and Bulgaria were political oppositions, the borders were closed and emigration was practically impossible. A commission created in 1947 toured various Turkish settlements and concluded that the Turks would never be loyal and that there was no point in stopping it if they wanted to emigrate. Actions for emigration began in 1949, when the expulsion of the Turks was associated with national security. After the Bulgarian retake of Southern Dobruja in 1950, the percentage of the Turkish population increased significantly, as many Turks live in the area itself. The opinion about emigration of the Turks did not change, but one more reason for exodus was added; the large number of Turks in Bulgaria. August 10, 1950, Bulgaria sent a note to Turkey to accept 250,000 Turks within a month, but Turkey quickly rejected this note, claiming that it was impossible to accept so many people in such a short period of time. The refugees were given a 15 day deadline to sell all their belongings. Many of them failed to do so. Refugees boarded different trains and their belongings were placed on others - leaving many Turks without their most important belongings. Although they had the right to take their animals and property with them, that right was taken away. All groups in the different settlements were given a total of 20 minutes to board the train to travel to the border. The Kapikule-Edirne road was being run on foot by the immigrants brought to the border by the Bulgarians with military trucks and trains. Filmmaker Seda Egridere's paternal grandparents were one of the refugees who had to leave everything behind and forced to the Turkish border with their 1 year old baby. They spent 70 days on the Bulgarian Turkish border. Their daughter died within months of arriving in Turkey. Seda Egridere worked on the project over three decades to bring the story of her grandparents to the big screen.