Bulgarisation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (December 2007) |
 |
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2007) |
 |
This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008) |
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) |
Bulgarisation (or Bulgarization, Bulgarianisation or Bulgarianization; Bulgarian: побългаряване or българизация) is a term used to describe a cultural change of the spread of Bulgarian culture within the area inhabited by persons who identify themselves as Bulgarian, but were persecuted for doing so when under foreign rule.
The modern use is in connection with the attempt of the former communist regime in 1980s to achieve an ethnically pure state by the assimilation of the Turkish minority. In the Republic of Macedonia it is incorrectly used regarding the perceived Bulgarisation of the Slavic speaking people inhabiting the region of Macedonia[1],[2],[3] in the west part of Bulgaria, following a forced Macedonisation policy undertaken by the BKP in keeping with Stalin's plan for creating a Balkan Federative Republic.
Contents |
[edit] Romanians and Aromanians
| Year | Native speakers of Romanian and Aromanian |
Romanian and Vlach ethnics |
|---|---|---|
| 1881 | 49,070 | |
| 1887 | 75,235 | |
| 1905 | 89,847 | 79,910 |
| 1910 | 96,502 | 81,272 |
| 1920 | 75,065 | 66,944 |
| 1926 | 83,746 | 69,080 |
| 1934 | 16,504 | |
| 1938 | 1,511 | |
| 1992 | 12,615[5] | 7,651 |
| 2002 | ? | 11,654 |
According to the 1926 census, there were 79,728 Balkan Romance speakers in Bulgaria. Most of them lived in the northеrn part , with some Aromanians in the southern part. They were divided into:
- 69,080 Romanians
- 5,324 Aromanians
- 3,777 Kutsovlachs (the same as Aromanians)
- 1,551 Tsintsars (the same as Aromanians)
It should be noted that, across northern Bulgaria, many Roma of the Boyash subgroup (better known as Vlach Gypsies) traditionally identify themselves as Romanians or Vlachs.
According to the 1965 census, there were 6,000 Romanians. This result can be explained in the context of the population exchanges that took place in 1940. See Treaty of Craiova.
[edit] Turks
During the Communist period of Bulgarian history, the Turkish minority in the south-east of the country was forced to change their names from Turkish to Bulgarian in 1984-1985, during the Todor Zhivkov regime. The argument was that the Turkish population of Bulgaria were allegedly Bulgarians forced to convert to Islam during the Ottoman rule.[6]
This violation of human rights met forceful resistance from large-scale protests, international pressure and cases of terrorism. After the collapse of the Zhivkov regime, people were free to revert back to previous names or adopt new Islamic/Turkish names.
In 2003 the Islamic Human Rights Commission claimed that religious discrimination remained a major problem, but this has not been noted by other human rights organizations.
[edit] Greeks
During the Second World War, the pro-German government of Bulgaria, allied with Nazi Germany, occupied east Macedonia and Thrace in northern Greece. According to the Greek writer Yiannis D. Stefanidis, the local Greek population was persecuted[7]. According to the Bulgarian historian Dimitar Yonchev, the annexation of part of Aegean Thrace and Macedonia to Bulgaria contributed significantly to the economic development of this region as a part of Bulgaria.[8]
[edit] Gagauz
According to Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, people from the Gagauz ethnic group remaining in Bulgaria were noted to have been Bulgarianised at the end of the 19th century.[1]
[edit] Macedonians
After the BKP seizes power in Bulgaria following the coup-d-etat on 9 September 1944, its leader Georgi Dimitrov plans the creation of a Balkan Federative Republic, an idea proposed by Stalin. The proposed republic would have included Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Bulgaria would have ceded its part of the geographic area of Macedonia (also known as "Pirin Macedonia", consisting of the province of Blagoevgrad), and would have received negligible in size lands along the western border, lost in the Second Balkan War.
In keeping with this plan, in the late 1940s a policy of "Macedonisation" was undertaken in Bulgarian Macedonia, in keeping with Stalin's concept of a Macedonian nation. When collecting census data, authorities only allowed inhabitants of Pirin to declare themselves Macedonians. This process was undertaken forcefully, with the blame mostly cast on Georgi Dimitrov.
As a consequence, in 1947 Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. Soon after that, in 1948, due to the Tito-Stalin split, the treaty was anulled, and the Macedonisation campaign was stopped. For a while, the BKP and the Bulgarian state keep silent on the so-called "Macedonian question", until 1963, when at a special meeting of the Central Committee of the BKP, Todor Jivkov declared the policy as greatly misguided.
This explains how from virtually none in previous censuses, Macedonians appeared at 169,544 souls in 1946, dropping to 9,632 in 1965. In the 2001 census, 5,071 declared their ethnicity as Macedonian (3,117 in the Blagoevgrad region). In the 1960s and 70s there were a number of political trials of people charged with activities based on “Macedonian nationalism.”[9]
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/bulgaria/report-2007
- ^ http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/bulgaria/report-2008
- ^ 1999 report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
- ^ Gheorghe Zbuchea, Cezar Dobre, "Românii timoceni", Bucharest, 2005 ISBN 973-86782-2-6
- ^ 1999 report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
- ^ Briefing: Bulgaria’s Muslims: From Communist assimilation to tentative recognition, Islamic Human Rights Commission
- ^ http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/downloads/library/Stefan01.pdf
- ^ Dimitar Yonchev. Bulgaria and the Aegean (October 1940 - 9 September 1944): Military and Political Aspects, Sofia, 1993, 198 p.[In Bulgarian] (The author holds a Ph.D. in History with decades in studying Bulgarian-Greek relations. The monograph is written on the basis of an ample collection of primary sources)
- ^ 1999 report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
