The Museum of Ethnography's travelling exhibition in Vetovo, Bulgaria

Our research in Bulgaria has been closely followed by the Turkish and Tatar communities in the settlements where István Györffy has previously collected or where we (also) visited with my colleague Vivien Zatykó. The first stop of the travelling exhibition, presenting our work, was Vetovo, where today one of the largest Tatar communities in Bulgaria lives. The exhibition opened on Saturday 18 May at the Tepreş festival, an event that encapsulates several meanings for the community.

The celebration of Tepreş, or Hıdrellez as it is most commonly called by Turks, has its roots in the pre-Islamic era. Not only in Turkey (or formerly in the Ottoman Empire), but also among many Turkic peoples of Central Asia and the Middle East, it is a celebration of spring, nature turning green and the arrival of summer. These peoples have a rich pastoral tradition, so this specific period was crucial for the livelihood of their flocks and the well-being of their human communities. The word Tepreş (Tepreç, Depreş) itself refers to this, coming from the Crimean Tatar word depreşmek, meaning to revive, to revitalise. The holiday is also incorporated into Islamic traditions, but it has parallels in Christian culture, where it is most closely related to the tradition of St George's Day.

The Tatars used to gather in the fallow meadow, sacrifice horses (kurban), sit in a circle and eat together, and many traditional entertainment activities were also performed, such as Tatar wrestling (Tatar güreşi), many children's games, dancing and singing.

However, since 2015, the commemoration of the hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars deported in 1944 has been officially linked to Tepreş. In the course of a few days, Soviet Russia deported nearly 200,000 people (in fact, several times that number, or at least twice as many, according to indirect data and estimates), in cattle wagons, hungry and thirsty, to the deserted, uninhabited parts of Uzbekistan. The charge was collaboration with Nazi Germany, but it had no basis in fact. Many had already died during the journey, which lasted several days, whilst those who survived had to cope with starvation, typhus and freezing death. In the 1980s, they were given the opportunity to resettle, and the vast majority of people decided to do so, despite the fact that they had nothing in Crimea, and had to start life anew. The relative calm lasted until 2014, when the Crimean Tatars again faced Russian aggression. Many fled to Turkey or moved to Kiev in the western part of Ukraine. Here, in Vetovo, the commemoration was held at the mevlita (prayer meeting) in the Tatar mahalle (quarter) mosque.

The Bulgarian Tatars look to the Crimean Tatars in Ukraine as an example of how they are making progress in the process of articulating and expressing their ethnic identity. And for the Tatars who fled Crimea, diaspora communities now serve as a resource, in part because they do not have access to collections preserved in Bakhchisera, Kerch and other formerly Tatar-inhabited areas. It is for this reason that our exhibition has revealed to many another authentic source for the preservation of ethnic identity and culture.

Author: Gabriella Paréj, museologist of the Europe-collection