1. Loring Danforth, “Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Nations, States, and Minorities,” Cultural Survival, 1995, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 3.Google Scholar

2. Refers to an area south of the Danube delta from Tulcea in Romania to Varna in Bulgaria. Among the various spellings—“Dobruja,” “Dobrugea,” “Dobrudzha,” and “Dobruca” among others—I've chosen the last, the Turkish spelling. In this spelling the letter “c” is pronounced as “j” in the word “jam.”Google Scholar

3. Hugh Poulton, “Islam, Ethnicity and State in the Contemporary Balkans,” in Hugh Poulton and Suha Taji-Farouki, eds, Muslim Identity and the Balkan State (New York: New York University Press, 1997), p. 15.Google Scholar

4. Some Turkish speakers may have begun to settle in the Balkans long before the beginning of Ottoman conquests in the region, perhaps as early as the middle of the eleventh century. See H. T. Norris, Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society between Europe and the Arab World (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1993), pp. 146–155. One such group is the Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians, the Gagauz. The origins of the Gagauz are disputed. Over the years they have been regarded as the descendants of Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian, or Wallachian Christians who had maintained their religion but had been Turkified during the Ottoman period. A more popular traditional view held that they are of Anatolian Turkish origin. The researches of T. Kowalski, Les Turcs et la Langue Turque de la Bulgarie du Nord-Est (Krakow: Commission Orientaliste de l'Academie de Cracovie, 1933) and “Les elements ethniques turcs de la Dobrudja,” Rocznik Orientalistyczny, Vol. 14, 1938, pp. 66–80, in Dobruca established a close connection between the Turkish spoken by the Gagauz and Anatolian Turkish. The researches of Paul Wittek, “Yazicioghly ‘Ali on the Christian Turks of Dobruja,” BSOAS, Vol. 14, 1952, pp. 639–668 and “Les Gagaouzes—les gens de Kaykaus,” Rocznik Orientalistyczny, Vol. 12, 1952, pp. 12–24; Wlodzimierz Zajaczkowski, “Gagauz,” Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 2 (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1965), pp. 971–972, and “K etnogenezu Gagauzov,” Folia Orientalia, Vol. 15, 1974, pp. 77–86); Kemal Karpat, “Gagauz'larin tarihi mensei üzerine kisa bir bakis,” I. Uluslararasi Türk Folklor Kongresi Bildirileri, Vol. 1, 1976, pp. 163–177, and others support this hypothesis. However, more recent analysis of historical and linguistic evidence indicates that the Gagauz are a synthetic population, formed from the melding of Pechenegs, Uz, Cumans, and Anatolian Turks. See Harun Güngör and Mustafa Argunshah, Gagauz Türkleri: Tarih-Dil-Folklor ve Halk Edebiyati (Ankara: Kültür Bakanligi Yayinlari, 1991), and Dünden Bugüne Gagauzlar (Ankara: Elektronik Iletisim Ajansi Yayinlari, 1993). There are an estimated 12,000 Gagauz in Bulgaria, about 30,000 each in Greece and Romania. Most of the Gagauz today live in Moldova and the Ukraine.Google Scholar

5. L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans Since 1453 (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1958), p. 98; Ömer Barkan, “Quelques observations sur l'organization economiques et sociales des villes Ottomanes de XVI et XVII siecles,” Recueils de la Societe Jean Bodin, 1955, pp. 292–293.Google Scholar

6. Ömer Barkan, “Research on the Ottoman Fiscal Surveys,” in M. A. Cook, ed., Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to the Present Day (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 170.Google Scholar

7. Maria Todorova, “The Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans,” in Carl L. Brown, ed., Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 62–63.Google Scholar

8. Ibid., p. 64.Google Scholar

9. For a discussion of demographic changes in Bulgarian towns following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, see Richard Crampton, “The Turks in Bulgaria, 1878–1944,” in Kemal Karpat, ed., The Turks of Bulgaria: The History, Culture, and Political Fate of a Minority (Istanbul: Isis Press, 1990), pp. 43–78.Google Scholar

10. R. R. King, Minorities under Communism: Nationalities as a Source of Tension among Balkan Communist States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. See Victor Friedman, “Observing the Observed: Language, Ethnicity, and Power in the 1994 Macedonian Census and Beyond,” in Barrett R. Rubin, ed., Toward Comprehensive Peace in Southeast Europe: Conflict Prevention in the Balkans (New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1996), pp. 81–105, 119–128.Google Scholar

12. King, Minorities under Communism , p. 92.Google Scholar

13. Kemal Karpat, “Ottoman Urbanism: The Crimean Tatar Emigration to Dobruca and the Founding of Mecidiye, 1856–1878,” International Journal of Turkish Studies, Vol. 3, 1984–1985, p. 3.Google Scholar

14. Mark Pinson, “Russian Policy and the Emigration of Crimean Tatars to the Ottoman Empire,” Part I, Güneydoǧu Avrupa Arastirmalari Dergisi, Vol. 1, 1972, pp. 42–43.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 44.Google Scholar

16. Ibid.Google Scholar

17. Karpat, “Ottoman Urbanism,” p. 7.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 8. See also Kemal Karpat, “Population Movements in the Ottoman State in the Nineteenth Century: An Outline,” Collection Turcica, 1983, pp. 385–428, and “The Crimean Emigration of 1856–1862 and the Settlement and Urban Development of Dobruca,” in Ch. Remercier-Quelquejay et al., eds, Turco-Tatar Past, Soviet Present: Studies Presented to Alexandre Bennigsen (Paris: Editions Peeters, 1986).Google Scholar

19. Karpat, “Ottoman Urbanism,” p. 1.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

21. Nikolai Todorov, “The Balkan Town in the Second Half of the 19th Century,” Etudes Balkaniques, Vol. 2, 1969, p. 38.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., p. 33.Google Scholar

23. Ibid.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., p. 39Google Scholar

25. John Georgeoff, “Ethnic Minorities in Bulgaria,” in George Klein and Milan J. Reban, eds, The Politics of Ethnicity in Eastern Europe (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 71.Google Scholar

26. The Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878 was fought mostly on Bulgarian soil. Tatars, nursing a hatred toward Russians who had forced them out of their homes in Crimea less than a quarter century before, fought ferociously and mercilessly against the Russians and the Bulgarians who supported the Russian war effort, taking no prisoners. Remaining in Bulgaria after the war would have exposed the Tatars and their families to certain death at the hands of the Russians and the Bulgarians. Most chose to leave with the retreating Ottoman armies.Google Scholar

27. The most comprehensive description of the rich cultural life of Turkish and Tatar communities in Romanian Dobruca remains Ülküsal's Dobruca ve Türkler (Dobruca and the Turks). It was originally published in Constanta in 1940. After emigrating to Turkey, the author rewrote, expanded, and updated the monograph and it was published in Ankara in 1966.Google Scholar

28. Frederick De Jong, “The Turks and Tatars in Romania: Materials Relative to Their History and Notes on Their Present-Day Condition,” Turcica: Revue d'Etudes Turques, Vol. 28, 1986, pp. 170–171, 174.Google Scholar

29. King, Minorities under Communism , p. 48.Google Scholar

30. De Jong, “The Turks and Tatars in Romania,” pp. 171–172.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 172. In Bulgaria the Shiites are known as Alevi, Aliani, or more generally as Kizilbash (“red head”) after their traditional headgear with 12 stripes representing the 12 imams. Most of the Kizilbash settled in Dobruca in large numbers, either voluntarily or by being deported there from Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Traditionally the Kizilbash were associated with various Sufi orders active in the Balkans during the Ottoman period. Since the Kizilbash were considered “heterodox,” even heretical, by the majority Sunnis, they were subject to periodic persecutions. In the face of such persecution, they have adopted the strategy of concealment in an attempt to maintain their true identity, “outwardly professing to be orthodox Sunnis to their Turkish or Bulgarian neighbors, or alternately claiming to be Bektashis, depending on who is addressing them” (H. T. Norris, Islam in the Balkans, p. 98). Besides concealment, village and confessional endogamy have helped them maintain their religious identity and traditions. According to the 1992 census, there were 85,773 Shiites in Bulgaria, accounting for 7.7% of the Muslim population in Bulgaria. For more information on origins of the Kizilbash and their relationship to Sufi brotherhoods, see Frederick De Jong, “Notes on Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods in Northeast Bulgaria,” Der Islam, Vol. 63, 1986, pp. 303–308, and “Problems Concerning the Origins of the Qizilbas in Bulgaria: Remnants of the Saffaviya?” Academia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome), Vol. 25, 1993, pp. 203–215.Google Scholar

32. Elemer Illyes, National Minorities in Romania: Change in Transylvania (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1982), pp. 34–52; Anuarul Statistic al Ramaniei (Bucharest: Comisia Nationala Pentru Statistica, 1994), p. 110.Google Scholar

33. De Jong, “The Turks and Tatars in Romania,” p. 175.Google Scholar

34. Ülküsal, Dobruca ve Türkler, pp. 105–125, 155–163, 231–239, provides a wealth of information on Turkish educational institutions and organizations, the Turkish press, and Turkish cultural associations in Romania prior to World War II as well as information about the impact of communist rule on these institutions.Google Scholar

35. De Jong, “Turks and Tatars in Romania,” pp. 178–179.Google Scholar

36. Anuarul Statistic al Ramaniei , pp. 274–277.Google Scholar

37. For a more detailed discussion of Islam in Romania prior to World War II, see Ülküsal, Dobruca ve Türkler , pp. 129–145.Google Scholar

38. De Jong, “The Turks and Tatars in Romania,” p. 169.Google Scholar

39. Frederick De Jong, “Muslim Minorities in the Balkans on the Eve of the Collapse of Communism,” Islamic Studies, Vol. 36, 1997, p. 416.Google Scholar

40. For example, according to Ülküsal there were 122 mosques in the province of Constanta and 29 in the province of Tulcea. During the 1980s there were about 50 mosques open to worship in the entire Romanian Dobruca.Google Scholar

41. De Jong, “The Turks and Tatars in Romania,” pp. 180–181.Google Scholar

42. Ibid., pp. 182–183.Google Scholar

43. De Jong, “The Muslim Minorities in the Balkans,” p. 416.Google Scholar

44. Bilal Simsir, Contribution a l'Histoire des Populations Turques en Bulgarie, 1876–1880 (Ankara: Turk Kültürünü Arastirma Enstitüsü Yayinlari, 1966), p. 9.Google Scholar

45. Natsionalen Statisticheski Institut, Rezultati ot Prebrojavaneto na Naselenieto: Demografski Kharakteristiki , 1994, p. 106.Google Scholar

46. Helsinki Watch, Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Gypsies of Bulgaria (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991), pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

47. Ibid., p. 71.Google Scholar

48. Ibid.Google Scholar

49. Ibid., p. 72.Google Scholar

50. Nedim Ipek, Rumeli'den Anadolu'ya Türk Göcleri, 1877–1890 (Ankara: Türk Tarik Kurumu Basimevi, 1994), pp. 40–41. Crampton, ‘The Turks of Bulgaria,” pp. 43–78, provides a detailed discussion of changes in the ethnic composition of the population of Bulgaria as a whole, and especially of the urban population between 1878 and 1944.Google Scholar

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52. Natsionalen Statisticheski Institut, Demografska Kharakteristika na Bulgarija (Rezultati ot 2% Izvadka): Prebrojavane na Naselenieto I Zhilishtnija Fond kum 4 Kekemvri 1992 Godina (Sofia: Natsionalen Statisticheski Institut, 1993), p. 92.Google Scholar

53. Bilal Simisir, The Turks of Bulgaria, 1878–1985 (London: K. Rustem & Brother, 1988), pp. 13–30.Google Scholar

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55. Jan F. Triska, ed., “Bulgaria,” in Constitutions of the Communist Party States (Stanford: Hoover Institutions on War, Revolution, and Peace, 1968), p. 163.Google Scholar

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58. Todorova, “Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans,” p. 64.Google Scholar

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60. Sofia Press Agency, The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria (Sofia, 1991), p. 11.Google Scholar

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63. This is a long poem by Süleyman Celebi celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. It is chanted either in memory of a dead person or to mark a special religious or other important occasion.Google Scholar

64. For a more extended discussion of government attitudes to Islam and Muslims, see Eminov, Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities , pp. 24–121, and Poulton, The Balkans, pp. 153–161.Google Scholar

65. Ilona Tomova and Plamen Bogoev, “Minorities in Bulgaria: A Report of the International Conference on the Minorities, Rome 1991,” The Insider, Vol. 2, 1992, pp. 1–15.Google Scholar

66. Both chief muftis were Turkish speakers. The socialist governments supported Nedim Gendzhev for two reasons: to reward a loyal supporter, and to punish Turkish speakers who had voted overwhelmingly for non-socialist candidates in all of the elections held since 1989.Google Scholar

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68. Daniel Bates, “What's in a Name? Minorities, Identity, and Politics in Bulgaria,” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Vol. 1, 1994, p. 202.Google Scholar

69. Ibid.Google Scholar

70. Daniel Bates, “The Ethnic Turks and the Bulgarian Elections of October 1991,” Turkish Review of Balkan Studies , 1993.Google Scholar

71. Sofia Press Agency, The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria , (Sofia: Sofia Press Agency), p. 6.Google Scholar

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75. Ath. Angelopoulos, “Population Distribution of Greece Today According to Language, National Consciousness and Religion,” Balkan Studies, Vol. 20, 1979, pp. 125–126.Google Scholar

76. Ibid., p. 129.Google Scholar

77. See Anastasia Karakasidou, “Politicizing Culture: Negating Macedonian Identity in Northern Greece,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Vol. 11, 1993, pp. 1–28; “Sacred Scholars, Profane Advocates: Intellectuals Molding National Consciousness in Greece,” Identities, Vol. 1, 1994, pp. 35–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78. Anastasia Karakasidou, “Vestiges of the Ottoman Past: Muslims under Siege in Contemporary Greek Thrace,” Cultural Survival, Vol. 19, 1995, p. 71.Google Scholar

79. For specific examples of persecution of individuals who challenge the official Greek position on the ethnic identity of Muslims, see Human Rights Watch, Greece: The Turks of Western Thrace .Google Scholar

80. Angelopoulos, “Population Distribution of Greece Today,” pp. 126–127.Google Scholar

81. The drawing of territorial boundaries after the Balkan Wars and World War I had split the Bulgarian-speaking Muslim communities between Bulgaria, Greece, and Yugoslavia.Google Scholar

82. Angelopoulos, “Population Distribution in Greece Today,” p. 128.Google Scholar

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85. Poulton, “Changing Notions of National Identity,” pp. 85–86; Tatjana Seypel, “The Pomaks of Northwestern Greece: An Endangered Balkan Population,” Journal Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 10, 1989, pp. 41–49. The Greek government embarked upon a policy to assimilate the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, the Pomaks, into the Turkish population by requiring them to attend Turkish-language schools and forcing them to identify themselves as Turks. This policy was embraced wholeheartedly by Turkish speakers in Greece as well as by the Republic of Turkey. This practice was ended in the 1950s as the relations between Greece and Turkey deteriorated over the Cyprus question. However, the consistent denial of the Bulgarian ethnicity of Pomaks forced many Pomaks to draw closer to the Turkish community, believing that Turkey as a kin state would protect the interests of all Muslims in Greece. Consequently, over the years, most Pomaks in Western Thrace have come to “manifest a Turkish national consciousness in part through enculturation and education in minority [Turkish] schools and through intermarriage with ethnic Turks.” Karakasidou, “Vestiges of the Ottoman past,” p. 71. This certainly was not the intention of the Greek authorities.Google Scholar

86. Poulton, “Changing Notions of Identity,” p. 86.Google Scholar

87. The relationship between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek government is unique among European Union member countries. Not only is the Greek Orthodox Church the official religion in Greece but it is so powerfully established in popular consciousness that being a Christian and a Greek are synonymous. Moreover, the Church is in the vanguard of Hellenism and Greek nationalism and has enormous influence on government policies toward its Muslim minority and toward Turkey. The messages of Archbishop Christodoulos are full of the virtues of Hellenism and hard nationalism. He takes every opportunity to give vent to his hostility toward the Turks, whom he calls “eastern barbarians,” calls upon Greeks to mobilize to “liberate Constantinople,” and, on his visits to Western Thrace, urges Greeks to defend Orthodoxy against Muslims, with weapons if necessary. See “Greece's Nationalist Archbishop,” The Economist , 12 December 1998, p. 53.Google Scholar

88. MRG Greece, “The Slavomacedonian Minority in Greece: A Case Study in Balkan Nationalism,’ in MRG Greece, James Pettifer and Hugh Poulton, eds, The Southern Balkans (London: Minority Rights Group, 1994), p. 18.Google Scholar

89. See Human Rights Watch, Destroying Ethnic Identity .Google Scholar

90. Human Rights Watch, “Greece: Improvements for Turkish Minority: Problems Remain,” (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1992).Google Scholar

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99. Poulton, The Balkans , pp. 185–186.Google Scholar

100. Ibid., p. 186.Google Scholar

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103. Ibid.Google Scholar

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108. Poulton, “Changing Notions of National Identity,” pp. 96–97.Google Scholar

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110. Ibid., pp. 106–107.Google Scholar

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