a refugee crisis in Turkey. On August 22, Turkey officially closed its border with Bulgaria to stop the flow of "Bulgarian citizens without a Turkish visa". As a result, the number of Muslims crossing into Turkey dropped dramatically, though some did obtain Turkish visas and subsequently cross the border. Indeed, some Bulgarian Muslims who had already packed to leave the country were unable to do so because of the closure, suggesting that the total number of those expelled from Bulgaria would have been higher if not for Turkey's action. Subsequently, Bulgaria did not attempt to more directly expel the Muslim population, though repression would continue until on December 29, 1989, exactly seven months since Zhivkov announced the opening of the Turkish border and just over one month after Zhivkov's resignation, when the government of Petar Mladenov announced that the rights of Muslims would be restored, though it would take two years for that promise to be fully fulfilled. Return of Bulgarian Muslims Even before the ultimate end of the Excursion, large numbers of expellees returned to Bulgaria, with the number accelerating thereafter. By the end of 1990, communist rule had come to an end, with the People's Republic of Bulgaria transformed into simply the Bulgarian Republic, and around 150,000 Muslims had returned. By the end of 1991, as many as 200,000 had returned. Foreign Response As Bulgaria was a member of the Warsaw Pact and Turkey was a member of NATO, armed conflict involving the two over the "Big Excursion" had the potential to draw in the United States and Soviet Union, the two principal nuclear-armed superpowers of the era. That no armed conflict emerged might suggest that negotiations occurred between the superpowers prior to the Excursion. However, because records in both Russia and the United States remain sealed and the topic has received little scholarly attention, this allegation cannot be confirmed. The excursion was covered by Western media organizations in 1989, but was front-page news only in Turkey and Yugoslavia. Amidst the tumult in Eastern Europe of that year, western press focused on other developments. Voluntary or Forced In the face of criticism, the Bulgarian regime insisted that the victims of the "Big Excursion" voluntarily emigrated and pointed to the large portion of the Bulgarian Muslim population that remained in the country unaffected. The argument that the Excursion had been voluntary rather than forced, continued to be made well