Emigration of Muslims from Bulgaria to the Bulgarian villages in North Western Anatolia. The case of Kocapınar and Necipköy villages more

The paper focuses on the migration of Muslims from Bulgaria during the Balkan wars (1912-1913) and their settlement in the former Bulgarian villages in Anatolia and the short cohabitation of Pomak Muslims and Christian Bulgarians – communities that were completely marginalized in their home countries. The subsequent exodus of the local Bulgarians to their ancestral homeland, during which they mostly settled in abandoned by Muslims residential settlements in nowadays Greece and Bulgaria, is also carefully examined. Special attention is put on the cases of Kocapınar and Necipköy villages (vilayet of Balıkesir) as they present a classic example of such population exchange with a short-lived co-existence. The villages of origin of the current dwellers are also presented. In many cases the names changed multiple times during the 20th century, thus making many of the offspring of the migrants completely unaware of an important part of their family history. Basis for the research are two fieldwork studies in the abovementioned villages, as well as information retrieved from cartographic and archival sources, both in Bulgarian and Ottoman Turkish languages. Other villages with similar fate in the region of North Western Anatolia (vilayets of Balıkesir, Bursa and Çanakkale) are also mentioned.