1984 was not like 2021!

13 December 1988 United Nations

"You may lose your home, your job, even your loved ones, but the last thing a person can lose in their life is their identity. The names of two million Turks living in Bulgaria have been changed. They have been tortured and persecuted. Our only request is that we enjoy universal human rights like every citizen of the world. It is to live freely with the identity we have in the land we were born in. If the Communist Party of Bulgaria cannot provide this, let our people living in those places return to Turkey. I, Naim SÜLEYMANOĞLU, will shout FREEDOM, FREEDOM, after every record I have broken today and after every medal I have won. I will do this not only for the oppressed Turkish people, but for every person whose human rights have been taken away." Naim Süleymanoğlu

Due to the "rebirth/return to lineage" assimilation policy against Pomaks and Turks initiated in Bulgaria in December 1984, the names of 2 million Turkish identities were forcibly changed to Bulgarian, the mosques they worshiped were closed, and they were forbidden to speak Turkish even at home. Those who objected and resisted were sent to the Belene exile camp and were subjected to various tortures.

No one was taken to the villages and cities in the region during the assimilation process, which was initiated during the period of Bulgarian Communist Party leader and Bulgarian prime minister Todor Jivkov and carried out under the name of "return to ancestry", and the world was prevented from being aware of this.

The person who gave the above speech at the UN building is Olympic and World Champion Naim Süleymanoğlu, the greatest athlete in the history of World Weightlifting and known as "pocket hercules", who broke the world record 46 times.

Born in Bulgaria on January 23, 1967, Naim Süleymanoğlu started weightlifting in 1977. At the age of 15, he won 2 gold medals for Bulgaria at the World Junior Weightlifting Championships held in Brazil, broke the record a year later and became the world champion, becoming the youngest world record holder in weightlifting history.

As part of the "return to lineage" assimilation process initiated in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian government changed his Turkish name to Naum Salamanov.

In the beginning, the Bulgarian authorities served the event to the world with the news that "Turkish terrorists kidnapped our athlete". The first thesis of the Bulgarians collapsed when Naim said in his interrogation at the Australian airport that he had voluntarily escaped the pressures in Bulgaria and that he wanted to go to Turkey.

Naim was first brought to England and then to Turkey with the efforts of Turgut Özal, the Turkish Prime Minister of the time. In this process, the Bulgarian authorities tried to prevent the asylum by getting support from the Russian KGB.

According to the rules of international sports competitions, he could not participate in weightlifting competitions for 1 year. He won snatch, clean and jerk and 3 gold medals in total at the Olympic games held in Seoul, South Korea in 1988. He is the only weightlifter who can lift 10 kilograms more than 3 times his weight, no one is still able to break his record. The force that pushed him to break this record was to announce the persecution they experienced in Bulgaria to the whole world, and the Olympic champion spoke at the UN building in the same year and achieved his goal.

After his speech at the UN building, Bulgaria could not stand the pressure and gave up its assimilation policy, opened the border gates for those who wanted to return to Turkey, and 350 thousand Turks emigrated. All those who remained in Bulgaria were restored to their real names by the courts and regained their rights. Everyone living in peace in that region today owes this to Naim Süleymanoğlu.

It is important to shout out the negativities experienced and to have your voice heard when you shout. Naim did this from the UN building where he went as the Olympic Champion that day and shouted his voice and the persecution they were subjected to to the whole world.

Today, the internet provides us with this power, and everyone who has been subjected to injustice and persecution is free to make their voice heard wherever they want.

No one is accused of being blamed in the article, there are dark times in the past of every country, we have the right to enlighten them and everyone has the right to live where they were born, and this requires a transnational effort and effort. Everything is only for humanity and people!

Thank you for reading.