Bulgarisation
Bulgarisation (
History
Ottoman Rule
Under Ottoman rule, much of the expansion of the Bulgarian ethnic group was reversed. While the Ottoman Empire provided for some cultural and religious autonomy under the "Millet System", and Bulgarians were briefly granted their own Bulgarian Millet, Bulgarians were no longer politically dominant in their own lands. While the Ottomans did not generally require Bulgarians to convert to Islam,[1] the empire did enforce the Jizya tax and other forms of discrimination on non-Muslims (such as the Devshirme). Those Bulgarians who converted to Islam but retained their Slavic language and customs became known as Pomaks[2] (though many still identified as "Bulgarian"). A sub-set of these converts to Islam also assimilated into the Turkish ethnic group.[2] Between that assimilation and the settlement of many Turkish people in Bulgaria, much of modern day Bulgaria had an ethnic Turkish Muslim majority prior to Bulgarian independence (see 1861 map below).
The Principality and Tsardom
Following the decisive defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the
Assimilation efforts continued thereafter, and many Muslims
People's Republic of Bulgaria
While the
The idea that Bulgarian Turks shared a Slavic and Christian origin with the Bulgarians originated in the 1960s during Zhivkov's rule.[9] The regime in Sofia often fell back on claims that the Ottoman Empire had planned and executed the "Islamization" and "Turkification" of Bulgaria.[9] In 1985, a senior Bulgarian Communist Party official proclaimed that “The Bulgarian nation has no parts of other peoples and nations”.[10]
Notable among the Bulgarianisation campaigns of the Zhivkov era was the "
Modern Day
Despite historic tensions with its Muslim minority, the current constitution of Bulgaria provides for freedom of religion, though it does recognize the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as the "traditional religion" of Bulgaria.[10] While draconian forced assimilationist policies are no longer in place, the idea of a planned "genocide" carried out by the Ottomans against ethnic Bulgarians persists.[9] Bulgarisation has also affected the Vlachs (Romanians in Bulgaria), who were largely assimilated.[13]
See also
- Anti-Turkism
- Cultural assimilation
- Islam in Bulgaria
- Freedom of religion in Bulgaria
- Human rights in Bulgaria
- Turks in Bulgaria
References
- ^ a b Crampton 1997.
- ^ a b Apostolov 2018.
- ^ a b Kamusella 2019, pp. 17.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 17–18.
- ^ "ILib - Lister". Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ "Население по местоживеене, пол и етническа група" [Population by place of residence, sex and ethnic group]. Censusresults.nsi.bg (in Bulgarian). 1900–2011. Archived from the original on 30 May 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 19.
- ^ Kamusella 2019, pp. 1.
- ^ a b c Kamusella 2019, pp. 23.
- ^ a b Briefing: Bulgaria's Muslims: From Communist assimilation to tentative recognition Archived 19 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Islamic Human Rights Commission
- ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Chronology for Turks in Bulgaria". Refworld. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
- ^ Legal Problems Arising of Using Both the Turkish and Bulgarian Name
- ^ CERCETĂRI ETNOGRAFICE LA ROMÂNII DINTRE KOZLODUI ȘI ȘIȘTOV
Bibliography
- Apostolov, Mario (2018). Religious Minorities, Nation States and Security: Five Cases from the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-78441-2.
- Crampton, R. J. (1997). A Concise History of Bulgaria. ISBN 0-521-85085-1.
- Kamusella, Tomasz (2019). Ethnic Cleansing During the Cold War: The Forgotten 1989 Expulsion of Turks from Communist Bulgaria. Routledge.
- Simpson, Neil (1994). Macedonia: its Disputed History. Aristoc Press. ISBN 0-646-20462-9.
- Sperling, James; Kay, Sean; Papacosma, S. Victor (2003). Limiting institutions?: the challenge of Eurasian security governance. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6605-4.