The exhibition BANISHMENT is a curatorial project by Diana Ivanova and Zeynep Zafer, featuring unique documentary photographs by Süleyman Akman and Behiç Günalan — Turkish photographers who captured two waves of forced migration of Bulgarian Turks from the country — in 1969 and 1989.

This exhibition brings together for the first time in one space a visual testimony of the forced assimilation, deportation, and ethnic cleansing carried out by the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria. The images are part of the project Visual Archive of Assimilation — an initiative whose mission is to collect, preserve, and present what has for decades been pushed out of public discourse and historical memory.

The photographs are exhibited at the National Reconciliation Exhibit at the Regional History Museum – Sofia and convey the human depth that history often overlooks.

“This exhibition is not an attempt to renegotiate the past. It is an act of resistance against forgetting.”
— Emmy Barouh, Director of FotoFabrika

SÜLEYMAN AKMAN
Photographer born in Bulgaria, who experienced forced migration as a child. In 1969, he documented one of the early expulsions of Bulgarian Turks. His photographs are being shown in Bulgaria for the first time.

BEHİÇ GÜNALAN
Photojournalist who worked for the newspaper Hürriyet. He photographed the summer of 1989, cynically referred to as “The Great Excursion.” His images from border stations and roads leading to Turkey captured the largest ethnic cleansing in Europe since World War II.

ACCOMPANYING EVENTS

June 4, 18:00 – 19:30
Workshop: “Trauma and Testimony”
For journalists
With participation from Mimoza Dimitrova, psychoanalyst, and Diana Ivanova, co-curator of the exhibition.
Focus: secondary and collective trauma, testimony as a process, and photography as a catalyst.
The workshop is free of charge. Space is limited. Advance registration required.

INDIVIDUAL TOURS

“What You See / What I See”
Guided tours led by individuals with a personal connection to the topic of the expulsion:

• June 4, 16:00 – Nesrin Filiz, psychological counselor
  Born in Dobrich, experienced the 1989 expulsion, now works with migrant communities in Germany.
• June 10, 18:00 – Vera Gotseva, photographer
  Works with photography as therapy. Witnessed the 1989 events.
• June 14, 11:00 – Darina Sarelska, journalist
  Daughter of a woman who was forcibly renamed. At the time, worked as a young reporter in Kardzhali.
• June 24, 18:00 – Tayfur Hussein, journalist
  Experienced the forced renaming as a child. His family was among those expelled in 1989.
• July 5, 11:00 – Radost Nikolaeva, journalist and cultural manager
  Witnessed the “Revival Process” as a journalist in the early 1980s. Later co-organized Behiç Günalan’s exhibition in Kardzhali.

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