Serbian-Croation-Sloven Kingdom got the name of Jugoslavi in 1929. Census in 1931 showed that there were 499,362 Muslims, 104,039 Orhodox Christians, 18,472 Catholic Christians and 7,579 Jews in Vardar region of this country. Because this census made on religious base we cannot give the exact numler of Turks around Gostivar. Turks in Vardar State migrated to Turkey between 1918 and 1941. This migration was not an important number because Mustafa Kemal Atatürk followed an excellent rational policy about Turks living in foreign countries. They worked for achieving all the basic rights and freedom for these Turk groups by good relations. Ataturk often said, We turn to our roods and unionize with them in our history separated by several reasons. We cannot wait them (Turks in foreign countries) to come. We should approach them.
Being invaded by Italian forces in the World War II, Macedonia was give to Albania. Albanian administrators wanted to benefit from this opportunity and worked for the hope for establishing Great Albania, which was lead by Prizren Unions Megalo Idea. They made unjust application to Turks in respect of economy, cultur and similar fields. So, number of Turks was decreased in Gostivar, Kalkandelen, Raptişah, Banitsalar, Kocacık, Jupa, Ustruga and some other cities upon this Albanian outrage.
Jugoslavian authorities also made suppression over Turks in the years following World War II. Thus many Turks migrated to the Republic of Turkey. Communist administrators had the ideal for establishing a communist Balkan federation including Albania. So they left Turks in West Macedonia in the hands of Albanians in order to please them. These cruel Albanians did the same outrage as in the period of 1941-1944. They tried to tried to get rid of Turks in the region. Some of the Turk had to admit that they were Albanians in order to survive. According to census in 1948, the population of Turks was 95,940 in Macedonia. But this was not true, because Turks were majority in the western Macedonian cities such as Gostivar, Raptişah, Kalkandelen, North and South Banitsa and Zudunya. They recorded Turks as Albanians at this census.
Thus Turks became minority group. Macedonian government did not react this application. Moreover, Jugoslavian Government started Yucel Incident in 1947. This dealt a great blow to Turks in the region. Its aim was to terrorize and neutralize Turks in order to assimilate them in Albanians. When the relations between Jugoslavia and Soviets harmed in 1950, governmental approach to Albanian and Macedonians was changed. This put Turks at ease. Jugoslavian government opened Turkish primary schools after 1950 in Gostivar, Raptişah, Banitsalar, Zudunya, Kalkandelen, Tearçe, Ustruga and Upper Debre. Turks turned their real nationalities in this time and census in 1953 showed that they formed an important portion of the population in Macedonia. According to this census, there lived 203,398 Turks in Macedonia, which was 15,6% of the whole population.
At the beginning of 1950s, there signed an agreement of migration between Turkey and Jugoslavia Federation, which had a deep impact over Turkish existence in Macedonia. Thousands of Turks migrated to homeland. Families were separated. The rest of them stayed in difficult position. There would be no future for Turks. Today they are fighting for their survival.
During this period, many Turks migrated from Gostivar. But census in 1961 showed that the number of Turks in Macedonia did not decrease. There was even an increase because of the fact that Albanians showed themselves as Turks since they wanted to migrate to Turkey. According to this census, there were 131,481 Turks in Macedonia, which was 9,4% of the whole population.
To be continued