Pomaks

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Pomaks (Bulgarian: Помаци, romanized: Pomatsi; Greek: Πομάκοι, romanized: Pomáki; Turkish: Pomaklar) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey, and northeastern Greece.^[9] The c. 220,000 strong^[10] ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is recognized officially as Bulgarian Muslims by the government.^[11] The term has also been used as a wider designation, including also the Slavic Muslim populations of North Macedonia and Albania.^[12][13]

Most Pomaks today live in Turkey where they have settled as muhacirs as a result of escaping previous ethnic cleansing in Bulgaria.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Bulgaria recognizes their language as a

The name "Pomak" first appeared in the Bulgarian Christian-heretical language surroundings of North Bulgaria (the regions of Lovech, Teteven, Lukovit, Byala Slatina). According to one theory,^[citation needed] it comes from the expression "по-ямак" ("more than a Yemek", "more important than a Yamak", similar to "пó юнак", i.e. "more than a hero"). It has also been argued that the name comes from the dialectal words "помáкан, омáкан, омáчен, помáчен" (pomákan, omákan, omáchen, pomáchen), meaning "tormented, tortured".^[28][29]

Origins

Their precise origin has been interpreted differently by Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish historians,

A specific DNA mutation, HbO, which emerged about 2,000 years ago on a rare haplotype is characteristic of the Greek Pomaks. Its frequency increased as a consequence of high genetic drift within this population. This indicates that the Greek Pomaks are an isolated population with limited contacts with their neighbours.^[42][43] A 2014 study also confirmed high homozygosity and according to MDS analysis the Greek Pomaks cluster among European populations, near the general Greek population.^[44]

History

Pomaks are today usually considered descendants of native Orthodox Bulgarians and

The mass turn to Islam in the Central

Meanwhile, the perception of the

Bulgaria, after a brief period of control over the area, passed the sovereignty of Western Thrace at the end of World War I. The Provisional Government was revived between 1919 and 1920 under French protectorate (France had annexed the region from Bulgaria in 1918) before Greece took over in June 1920.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, the religious millet system disappeared and the members of the Pomak groups today declare a variety of ethnic identities, depending predominantly on the country they live in.^{[clarification needed]}

Language

Main article: Pomak language

There is no specific Pomak dialect of the Bulgarian language. Within Bulgaria, the Pomaks speak almost the same dialects as those spoken by the Christian Bulgarians with which they live side by side and Pomaks living in different regions speak different dialects.

Torlakian dialects (incl. the Gora dialect),^{[60][61][62][63][64][65][66]} which are sometimes also considered to be part of the "wider Bulgarian dialect continuum".^[67][68][69]

Most Pomaks speak some of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, mainly the

Balkan dialects in Northern Bulgaria. The Pomaks living in the Bulgarian part of the Rhodopes speak the Rhodope (especially the Smolyan, Chepino, Hvoyna and Zlatograd subdialects) and Western Rup (especially the Babyak and Gotse Delchev sub-dialects) dialects.^[70] The Smolyan dialect is also spoken by the Pomaks living in the Western Thrace region of Greece. The Pomaks living in the region of Teteven in Northern Bulgaria speak the Balkan dialect, specifically the Transitional Balkan sub-dialect.^[71] The Rup dialects of the Bulgarian language spoken in Western Thrace are called in Greece Pomak language (Pomaktsou). Similar to Paulician dialect, it has words and resemblance to the grammatical forms of the Armenian language^[38]

The Pomak language is taught at primary school level (using the Greek alphabet) in the Pomak regions of Greece, which are primarily in the

Yat isogloss of Bulgarian, yet many pockets of western Bulgarian speakers remain.^{[citation needed]} A large number of them no longer transmit it; they have adopted Turkish as a first language and Greek as a second language.^[72] Recently the Community of the Pomaks of Xanthi, has announced its request to be treated equally and therefore to have the right of education in Greek schools without the obligation of learning the Turkish language.^[73][74]

Population

Bulgaria

Main article: Bulgarian Muslims

The Pomaks in Bulgaria are referred to as

Muslim and ethnic Bulgarian identity,^[4] down from 131,000 who declared Muslim Bulgarian identity at the 2001 census.^[78] Unofficially, there may be between 150,000^[21] and 250,000^[1] Pomaks in Bulgaria, though maybe not in the ethnic sense as one part declare Bulgarian, another part – Turkish ethnic identity. During the 20th century the Pomaks in Bulgaria were the subject of three state-sponsored forced assimilation campaigns – in 1912, the 1940s and the 1960s and 1970s which included the change of their Turkish-Arabic names to ethnic Bulgarian Christian Orthodox ones and in the first campaign conversions from Islam to Eastern Orthodoxy. The first two campaigns were abandoned after a few years, while the third was reversed in 1989. The campaigns were carried out under the pretext that the Pomaks as ancestral Christian Bulgarians who had been converted to Islam and who therefore needed to be repatriated back to the national domain. These attempts were met with stiff resistance by many Pomaks.^[79]

Turkey

Eastern Thrace and to a lesser extent in Anatolia, where they are called in Turkish Pomaklar, and their speech, Pomakça. The Pomak community in Turkey is unofficially estimated to be between 300,000 and 600,000.^[80]

Greece

Further information: Muslim minority of Greece

Today the Pomaks (Greek: Πομάκοι) in Greece inhabit the region of

Moglena) as a big village with 300 houses and two panes, inhabited exclusively by Pomaks. Greek nationalist scholars and government officials frequently refer to the Pomaks as "slavicised" Greek Muslims, to give the impression and support Greek narratives that they are the descendants of Ottoman-era Greek converts to Islam like the Vallahades of Greek Macedonia.^{[citation needed}

]

North Macedonia

The

Macedonian national identity and are linguistically distinct from the larger Muslim ethnic groups in the country, Albanians and Turks. However the estimated 100,000 Pomaks in North Macedonia maintain a strong affiliation to the Turkish identity.^[1]

Albania

Slavic-speaking Muslims, sometimes referred to as "Pomaks", live also in the Albanian region of

Torbeš". Within Macedonian academia, their language has been regarded as Macedonian,^[89] while within Bulgarian academia, their dialect is considered as part of the Bulgarian language.^[90] Part of this people still self-identify as Bulgarians.^[91]

Kosovo

The

ethnic Muslims, like Bosniaks.^[97]

Notable people

• Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.^[98]
• Arif Sami Agush (born 1953), Member of the Bulgarian Parliament; Parliamentary Group of Movement for Rights and Freedoms. His ancestor was an Ottoman feudal called Agush Aga. The Agush castle (konak) is situated in the village of Mogilitsa. He was born in Sandrovo, Bulgaria.
• Los Angeles, California
  , to a Pomak father and a Greek mother.
• Hussein Mumin (born 1987), Greek footballer, currently playing for PAS Lamia. Born in Passos, Rhodope, Greece.

See also

• Pomak language
• Pomak Republic
• Provisional Government of Western Thrace

References

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Further reading

• ISBN 978-0-691-13955-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Demetriou, Olga (January 2004). "Prioritizing 'ethnicities': The uncertainty of Pomak-ness in the urban Greek Rhodoppe" (PDF). Ethnic and Racial Studies. 27 (27): 95–119.
  S2CID 143619160. Archived from the original
  (PDF) on 4 September 2011.
• Georgieva, Bozhidara (June 2009). "Who are the Pomaks?". Vagabond (33).
• Raichevsky, Stoyan (2004). Mohammedan Bulgarians. Pencheva, Maya (translator). Sofia: Natl Museum of Bulgaria.
  ISBN 978-954-9308-41-9
  .
• Kahl, Thede (2007): The presence of Pomaks in Turkey. In: Voss, C.; Steinke, K. (ed.): The Pomaks in Greece and Bulgaria - a model case for borderland minorities in the Balkans, p. 227-234. Munich: Biblion.
• Арденски, Владимир (2005). Загаснали огнища (in Bulgarian). София: ИК "Ваньо Недков".
  ISBN 978-954-8176-96-5
  .
• Груев, Михаил; Кальонски, Алексей (2008). Възродителният процес. Мюсюлманските общности и комунистическият режим (in Bulgarian). София: Институт за изследване на близкото минало; Фондация "Отворено общество"; Сиела.
  ISBN 978-954-28-0291-4
  .
• ISSN 1214-1615. Archived from the original
  on 2 March 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2009.
• Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "The Human Rights of Muslims in Bulgaria in Law and Politics since 1878", Sofia, November 2003
• ISBN 978-0-691-13955-5
  .
• Горчева, Даниела (1 February 2009). "Балканите: съжителство на вековете". Либерален Преглед (in Bulgarian) (21).
• Тодорова, Мария (4 February 2009). "Ислямизацията като мотив в българската историография, литература и кино". Либерален Преглед (in Bulgarian) (21).
• Мехмед, Хюсеин (2007). Помаците и торбешите в Мизия, Тракия и Македония (in Bulgarian). София. Archived from the original on 2 February 2011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the stateless nations 3, L-R (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.; London: Greenwood Press. pp. 1516–1522.
  ISBN 978-0-313-32111-5
  .
• Benovska-Sabkova Milena (2015). "Urban culture, religious conversion, and crossing ethnic fluidity among the Bulgarian Muslims ("Pomaks")". Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU. 63 (1): 49–71.
  doi:10.2298/GEI1501049B
  .
• Varvounis Manolis G. (2003). "Historical and ethnological influences on the traditional civilization of Pomaks of the Greek Thrace". Balcanica (34): 268–283.
  doi:10.2298/BALC0334268V
  .

External links

• Page 1
• Pomaknews Agency | Nezavisen Glas na Pomacite
• http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/reports/pomaks.html Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (related to Greek Pomaks)