The Turkish National Liberation Movement in Bulgaria (TNLM) was an underground organization of Bulgarian Turks opposed to the so-called "Revival Process" of forced assimilation carried out by the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Founded in Varna in July 1985, it was broken up in the summer of 1986 by the communist secret police known as State Security. About two-hundred participants were arrested, and eighteen of them were ultimately convicted and imprisoned. Allegedly, State Security itself played an active clandestine role in the creation of the organization. The TNLM was the predecessor of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS). Background In 1984, Bulgaria, under General Secretary Todor Zhivkov, initiated a program of forced assimilation known as the "Revival Process" under which Bulgarian citizens with names of Turkish, Islamic, and Arabic origin (overwhelmingly Muslims from the Turkish and Pomak minority groups) were forced to officially change their names to ones deemed sufficiently Bulgarian (primarily those of Slavic and Christian origin), kicking off a wave of protests. Though the protests were quashed and the name-changing process was largely completed by early 1985, resentment remained, culminating in the foundation of the "Turkish National Liberation Movement in Bulgaria" in July of that year. Founding Sali Ahmed, Kasim Dal, Nejemetin Hak, and two other people (all from the village of Drandar), along with one person from Provadia, two from Shumensko, Shuman Oblast, and eleven from Tolbukhinsky district (now Dobrichka region) participated in the inaugural meeting of the organization. The organization was initially headed by Nejmetin Hak. One participant, the student Rushen Riza, was later found to have also acted as a State Security agent under the pseudonym "Peter". Agent Peter and even subsequently became the head of the political office of Mehmed Dikme (the former Bulgarian minister of Agriculture and Forestry). Goals The TNLM sought to spread awareness abroad about the "Revival Process" taking place in Bulgaria, agitate locally, and organize rallies and demonstrations (including for the release of detained members and oppositions figures). The organization rejected the use of violence in line with Ahmed Dogan's conception of non-violent forms of political struggle and explicit distinction from (and rejection of) terrorism. The TNLM did not support or pursue territorial autonomy or secession. It instead advocated for the restoration of Muslim/Turkish names, Islamic customs, and the renewal of Muslim linguistic and cultural expression. Ultimately, the organization sought state recognition and protection of the Islamic minority in Bulgaria.