Tour of the Exhibition “The Banishment” with Muharem Mehmed

November 25, 2025 (Tuesday), 6:00 PM

Following the deeply emotional meeting with Diana Ivanova and Prof. Zeynep Zafer, which touched everyone present – both those who had lived through the events and those who knew them only as historical facts – the gallery invites the public to a special guided tour of the exhibition “The Banishment” with Muharem Mehmed.

Many of the stories shared during the meeting revealed the human face of violence and loss – how not only the names of the living but even of the dead were taken away, how gravestones were erased, how families were separated, and how people were put on trains, sometimes even freight wagons, with no money and no belongings.

On November 25, Muharem Mehmed will lead visitors through the exhibition, interweaving his personal story – a story of dignity, resistance, and survival through the forced assimilation.
Born in 1956 in the village of Smirnenski, Ruse region, he was asked during his military service in 1975 to change his name in exchange for career opportunities – a request he firmly refused. He experienced the forced assimilation in 1985 and today lives with his family in Ruse.

This tour offers a rare opportunity to hear living testimonies behind the photographs by Süleyman Akman and Behich Günalan – images that preserve the memory of one of the most painful chapters in Bulgaria’s recent history.