Against the Barriers. The Unusual Story of the Usual Yusein Mashev

In the context of the repressions of the Pomaks the unusual story of the miner worker Yusein Mashev from village of Ribnovo, which started in 1979 and finished in 1980, give us an idea of the time of the communist regime in Bulgaria. He succeeded to escape form the concentration camp in Belene, crossing during the night the Danube river. He was able to reach the town of Kyustendil and to cross illegally the Bulgarian – Yugoslav border. In the emigration camp in Italy he decided to depart illegally for Turkey, boarded the ship to Istanbul without documents, without any roblems he reached his acquaintances and relatives in the town of Saray, Takirdag district. After five years he turned back to Bulgaria with false identity reached Ribnovo and smuggled his wife and two children into Yugoslavia. Yusein Mishev bravely resisted the change of the names of the Pomaks, the following repressions did not discourage him, he overcame all the barriers, caring a letter send to him in order to voice the protests in village of Kornitsa during March – April 1973. Makes important events available to the Bulgarian and world public, events which were hidden very carefully by the Bulgarian authorities. On the radio in Yugoslavia he told of the repression of innocent citizens and informed about the concentration camp in Belene, announcing the names of imprisoned in the II section Pomaks. The aim of this research, based on field researches in Bulgaria and Turkey and many interviews, is to preserve for the history and science the unusual story of Yusein Mahev – a man of freedom loving spirit and rich vision.