Fall
Zhivkov had long since benefited from restoring and promoting Bulgarian national symbols, such as those on the country's national emblem, thus creating a sort of patriotic national communism, which proved to increase Zhivkov's popularity. This, alongside the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, done ostensibly in order to protect the interests of Turkish Cypriots in 1974, alongside a fear of the militarist, anti-communist regime brought to power in Turkey by the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, caused both Zhivkov and the establishment to fear a similar scenario repeating in Bulgaria. To this end, Zhivkov attempted to counter this perceived threat by attempting to trigger a second Bulgarian National Revival through a series of policies collectively alluded to as the "Revival Process". The most controversial of these was a decision taken in December 1984 that aimed to assimilate the Bulgarian Turks through the "restoration" of "Turkish" to "Bulgarian" names. Though official statements attempted to portray this as a campaign of unity and the destruction of inter-ethnic barriers, it was met with strong resistance among several groups of Bulgarian Turks, who viewed it as an attack on their identity. The first demonstration against the "revival process" took place on 24 December, when 1200 people peacefully protested in the village of Mlechino without incident. However, the protests turned violent the day after, as the local chief of police alleged that the demonstrators had started throwing stones at both the police and local fire brigade, which led to an attempt by the authorities to disperse the protests via a water cannon. Several more incidents occurred between protesting crowds and the local police during the following few days.
In early January the following year, an organised ethnic Turkish opposition to the "revival process" was established, acting as an honoured "fighter against fascism and capitalism", with a local mayor and a communist party secretary joined forces to petition the government to end the campaign. Eventually, militant anti-government groups were formed in one village; when local government officials came to negotiate with the protesters, they were taken prisoner by the groups, while their members subsequently cut off all communication between the village and the outside world. The next day, another group of local officials arrived in the village, this time escorted by a large detachment of armed policemen. They were met by the armed groups, which targeted them with Molotov cocktails and improvised armaments, forcing them to retreat. The armed groups then detonated bombs in order to demolish the local bridges and set up barricades along the roads. On 19 January, the village was surrounded by government tanks, APCs, fire trucks, and police vehicles. The armed groups responded by first sending out their wives, who were hanging onto fake babies, while they stood behind them armed. Upon figuring out this ruse, the police arrested the group's main negotiator and stormed the village through the use of tear gas and water cannons. After a quick fight, the armed groups were subdued and beaten, while one of their members was accidentally killed after falling in front of a moving tank.
The name-changing campaign ended just a month after it began, but the "Revival process" persisted. Some of the militant groups openly resorted to terrorism, setting off several bombs – in the Varna Airport parking lot, Plovdiv's main railway station, inside a civilian passenger train near Bunovo (the bomb was programmed to detonate whilst inside a tunnel in order to maximise casualties, but the train had run two minutes late and it detonated while it was near the railway station instead) and inside a hotel in Sliven, leading to several deaths and many injuries. The CSS would report uncovering a total of 42 illegal pro-Turkish groups and foiling several more terror plots. In total, 517 people were sent to prisons for their roles in the uprisings, riots, terrorist attacks, and other "revival process"-related events between 1984 and 1989. In May 1989, Zhivkov declared that all persons who felt not at home in Bulgaria would be free to leave the country to go live in Turkey. Zhivkov underestimated the opposition he had generated within the ranks of the Bulgarian Turks, and over 360,000 people left the country, some of whom reportedly felt as though they had few other options. The campaign was an abject failure and generally considered to be Zhivkov's biggest mistake. The GERB-majority National Assembly passed a non-binding resolution in 2012, in which it condemned the revival process, dubbing it "a form of ethnic cleansing carried out by a totalitarian regime."
As it turned out, this was the beginning of the end for the long-time leader. Bulgaria was the target of near-unanimous condemnation from the international community; even the Soviets protested. Gorbachev already did not think much of Zhivkov; he regarded Zhivkov as one of a group of inflexible hardliners that included East Germany's Erich Honecker, Czechoslovakia's Gustáv Husák and Romania's Nicolae Ceaușescu. However, after the Turkish episode, he was determined to see Zhivkov gone. The Turkish affair alarmed several high-ranking Bulgarian officials as well, including Prime Minister Georgi Atanasov, Foreign Minister Petar Mladenov and Finance Minister Andrey Lukanov. They began plotting to remove him, but had to move discreetly given the ubiquity of the CSS.
In October 1989, Mladenov organised a CSCE environmental summit in Sofia. He invited an independent group of Bulgarian environmental activists, Ecoglasnost, to participate. Ten days into the conference, several Ecoglasnost activists and supporters were brutally beaten up by CSS and militia officers—on orders from Zhivkov. They then corralled 36 other opposition activists, drove them to the countryside, and forced them to walk back to Sofia. Amid near-unanimous international condemnation, Mladenov, Lukanov and Atanasov decided that Zhivkov had to go. In a critical step, they convinced Defence Minister Dobri Dzhurov to support them.
The plotters struck on 9 November, a day before a Politburo meeting. Dzhurov met with Zhivkov in private and informed him he was expected to resign, emphasizing that there was sufficient support on the Politburo to vote him out. Zhivkov was taken by surprise and tried to marshal support, to no avail. Just before the meeting the next day, Dzhurov gave Zhivkov an ultimatum – unless he stepped down, the Politburo would not only vote to remove him, but have him executed. Seeing the writing on the wall after the motion calling for his removal passed, Zhivkov resigned, officially for reasons of age and health. Mladenov was elected his successor. On 17 November, the National Assembly removed him from the post of Chairman of the State Council, and replaced him with Mladenov.
On 11 December, only a month after Zhivkov's ousting, Mladenov called for the Communist Party to give up its guaranteed right to rule. The Central Committee fell into line two days later, calling for free elections in the spring and asking the National Assembly to delete the portions of the Constitution that enshrined the party's "leading role". On 15 January, the National Assembly struck out the portions of the constitution giving the Communist Party a monopoly of power. Thus, within only two months of Zhivkov losing power, the Communist system he had helped to create, and which he had dominated for 35 years, was no more.
While he was initially shown reverence in public upon removal, that had changed by 17 November, when he was sharply criticised in parliament. On 13 December, Zhivkov was expelled from the party for what Lukanov described as "gross violations of laws and gross mistakes in politics". Mladenov contended that Zhivkov's stewardship had left the country in "a near heart-attack condition". The party also began an investigation into what it considered Zhivkov's "high living".
