Abstract:

This article discusses the activities of the Turan Youth and Sports Association, which operated in Bulgaria during the interwar period between 1924 and 1934. In this context, it focuses on the Association’s efforts to develop national consciousness among the Turks in Bulgaria and to improve the public intellectually and physically by dealing with educational and cultural issues. The State of Bulgaria had been striving to erase the traces of the Turks in Bulgaria with the policies such as intimidation, assimilation and forced migration. Meanwhile, a number of intellectuals came together to strengthen the bond between the Turks in Bulgaria and to preserve Turkish culture, and founded the Turan Association. The Turan Association, which took the Kemalist reforms in the homeland Turkey as an example for the development of national consciousness and culture among the Turks, was also at the center of the relations between the two countries with its activities and the ideas it pursued.