Did Turks serve in the Bulgarian Army in WW1?

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 01 Mar 2007 08:34

Bulgaria's Turkish minority consisted of 520,399 people,or 10.7% of the total population in 1920.

http://www.emz-berlin.de/projekte_e/pj4 ... iakova.pdf

Were muslim Turks subject to conscription in WW1?

Nikolay · Post by **Nikolay** » 01 Mar 2007 09:22

According to Bulgarian "Armed forces law" of 1903 Muslims were subject to exemption from military service upon payment of a specific sum over 10-year period. I don't recall the exact amount, but according to different sources roughly 30-40 per cent of Muslims did nevertheless their military duty. This provisions was valid for all Muslim in Bulgaria (Turks, Bulgarian Pomaks, Roma etc.). When a general mobilisation was ordered for the Balkan war in 1912, only small number of Muslim reservists were called to serve in the rear units. In the later stages of the Balkan war (april-may 1913) Muslim reservists were called to duty and did participate in the Second Balkan war.
Generally in WW1 all Muslim reservists were called to duty on mobilization and between 1915 and 1918 there was no exemption from military duty for Muslims. Even Muslims from Macedonia and Kosovo were called to banners. Quite many ethic Turks were send to serve in the Ottoman army, but information on them is very scarce.
Bulgarian Turks did their service in WW1 in the existing regiments of the Bulgarian army, so no separate troops were formed for them, except the Mountain division where there was one regiment (67th), formed almost entirely from Turks from pre-1915 Serbian Macedonia, and a couple of battalions in the same division, formed from Albanians from Western Macedonia and Kosovo. Out of the other regiments 70th IR was the one with the highest percentage of Bulgarian Turks - not less that 70 %.
Generally all minorities in the Bulgarian army of that period (especially the ones from the pre-war Bulgarian territory) received praise for their loyalty to Bulgaria in the wartime. And so did the ethnic Turks as well.

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 01 Mar 2007 11:39

Thanks.Very interesting.

Regards
Peter

stevebecker · Post by **stevebecker** » 01 Mar 2007 23:07

Nik,

Can you point me to a sourse or can you place on this site some details of the Bulgarian Army during WWI.

Like what Div's were raised and what they were made up of?

Cheers

S.B

Peter H · Post by **Peter H** » 02 Mar 2007 00:55

Discussions on the Bulgarian Army in our First World War section:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=59565

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=108897

stevebecker · Post by **stevebecker** » 02 Mar 2007 01:36

Peter,

Thanks mate,

Yes I ve seen them but they don't mention the Regts given by Nik (67th and 70th Regts)?

I take it they were second line regts on occupation duty?

S.B

territoriale · Post by **territoriale** » 02 Mar 2007 10:25

Steve,

See my 3rd December 2006 post on the First World War Forum and Nikolay's reply.

Martin