Bulgaria recognizes their language as aBulgarian dialect, whereas in Greece and Turkey they self-declare their language as thePomak language.[18] The community in Greece is commonly fluent in Greek, and in Turkey, Turkish, while the communities in these two countries, especially in Turkey, are increasingly adopting Turkish as their first language as a result of education and family links with the Turkish people.[19][20]
They are not officially recognized as one people with the ethnonym ofPomaks. The term is widely used colloquially for Eastern South Slavic Muslims,[21] consideredderogatory.[clarification needed] However, in Greece and Turkey the practice for declaring the ethnic group at census has been abolished for decades.[clarification needed] Different members of the group today declare a variety of ethnic identities: Bulgarian,[22][23] Pomak,[24][25][26]ethnic Muslims, Turkish and other.[27]
The name "Pomak" first appeared in the Bulgarian Christian-heretical language surroundings ofNorthern Bulgaria (the regions of Loveč, Teteven, Lukovit, Bjala Slatina). According to one theory,[citation needed] it comes from the expression "по-ямак" ("more than aYemek", "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, omáčeen, pomáčen), meaning "tormented, tortured".[28][29]
Their precise origin has been interpreted differently by Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish historians,[30][31][32][33][34] but it is generally considered they are descendants of nativeEastern OrthodoxBulgarians,[35][36] andPaulicians who also previously converted to Orthodoxy and Catholicism, who converted to Islam during theOttoman rule of theBalkans.[37][38][39][40] Information through Ottoman and Catholic missionaries reports supports this theory.[38][41]
A specificDNAmutation, HbO, which emerged about 2,000 years ago on a rarehaplotype is characteristic of the Greek Pomaks. Its frequency increased as a consequence of highgenetic 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]
Pomaks are today usually considered descendants of native Orthodox Bulgarians andPaulicians who converted toIslam during theOttoman rule of theBalkans. They started to become Muslim gradually, from the Ottoman occupation (early 15th century) to the end of the 18th century. Subsequently, these people became part of the Muslim community of themillet system. At that time people were bound to their millets by their religious affiliations (or theirconfessional communities), rather than their ethnic origins, according to themillet concept.[45]
A monkPachomios Roussanos (1508–1553), who visited the mountain area ofXanthi, mentioned that around 1550 only six or nine villages had turned to Islam.[46][47] Furthermore[clarification needed] the documents[which?] show that not only had Islam spread to the area at that time, but that the Pomaks had participated in Ottoman military operations voluntarily as is the case with the village of Shahin (Echinos).[48]
In North Central Bulgaria (the regions of Lovech, Teteven, Lukovit, Byala Slatina)[49] the Ottoman authorities requested in 1689, after theChiprovtsi Uprising, for military reasons[clarification needed] BulgarianPaulicians (heterodox Christian sect) to convert to one of the officially recognized religions in the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed] One part of them became theBulgarian-Christians by converting to Ottoman recognized Christian denominations, either theEastern Orthodox Christian Church or theRoman Catholic Church, while the other part converted toIslam and began to be calledPomaks.[38] So, in North Central Bulgaria Pomaks became those of Bulgarian Christian heretics, for which it was unacceptable or impossible to convert to the Eastern Orthodox Christian because of dogmatic, economic, family or other reasons.[clarification needed][39]
Ethnographic map of European Turkey from the late 19th century, showing the regions largely populated by Pomaks in brown.
The mass turn to Islam in the CentralRhodope Mountains happened between the 16th and the 17th century. According to the Codes of Bishop ofPhilippoupolis and theCzech historian andslavicistKonstantin Josef Jireček in the middle of the 17th century, some Bulgarian provosts agreed to become Muslim en masse. They visited theOttoman local administrator to announce their decision, but he sent them to the Greek bishop of Philippoupolis Gabriel (1636–1672). The bishop could not change their mind. According to the verbal tradition of theGreeks of Philippoupolis,[citation needed] a large ceremony of masscircumcision took place in front of the old mosque of the city, near the Government House. After that, the villagers became Muslim, too. According to the verbal tradition[clarification needed] of the Bulgarians,Grand VizierKöprülü Mehmed Pasha (1656–1661) threatened the Bulgarians ofChepino Valley that he would execute them if they didn't turn to Islam.[citation needed] In 1656, Ottoman military troops entered the Chepino valley and arrested the local Bulgarian provosts, in order to transfer them in the local Ottoman administrator.[clarification needed][citation needed] There, they converted to Islam. Grand Vizier Mehmed Köprülü, after the mass Islamization, destroyed 218 churches and 336 chapels in these areas.[citation needed] A lot of Bulgarians preferred to die instead of becoming Muslim.[50][51] According to recent investigations the theory of forced conversion to Islam, supported by some scientists, has no solid grounds with all or most evidence being faked or misinterpreted. At the same time, the sincerity of the convert is a subject to suspicion and interrogation. Some authors for example, explain the mass conversions that occurred in the 17th century with the tenfold increase of theJizya tax.[52][53][54] Muslim communities prospered under the Ottoman Empire, as the Sultan was also theCaliph. Ottoman law did not recognize such notions asethnicity orcitizenship; thus, a Muslim of any ethnic background enjoyed precisely the same rights and privileges.
Tuhovishta's Mosque
Meanwhile, the perception of themillet concept was altered[clarification needed] during the 19th century and rise of nationalism within theOttoman Empire begun. After theRusso-Turkish War (1877–1878), Pomaks in theVacha valley, apprehensive of retribution for their role in the bloody suppression of theApril Uprising two years earlier, rebelled againstEastern Rumelia and established an autonomous state, calledRepublic of Tamrash. In 1886 the Ottoman government accepted the Bulgarian rule over Eastern Rumelia and that was the end of the free Pomak state. During theBalkan Wars, at 16 August 1913, an Islamic revolt begun in theEastern Rhodopes andWestern Thrace. On 1 September 1913, the "Provisional Government of Western Thrace" (Garbi Trakya Hukumet i Muvakkatesi) was established inKomotini. The Ottoman administration didn't support the rebels and finally under the neutrality of Greek and Ottoman governments, Bulgaria took over the lands on 30 October 1913. The rebels requested support by the Greek state and put Greek major inAlexandroupoli.[clarification needed][55][56][57][58] 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 thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, the religiousmillet 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]
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.[59] In Bulgaria there is a trend for dialects to give way to the standard Bulgarian language and this is also affecting the dialects spoken by the Pomaks and their usage is now rare in urban areas and among younger people. As part of the wider Pomak community, theTorbeshi andGorani in North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo speakMacedonian orTorlakian dialects (incl. theGora dialect),[60][61][62][63][64][65] which are sometimes also considered to be part of the "widerBulgarian dialect continuum".[66][67][68]
Most Pomaks speak some of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, mainly theRup dialects in Southern Bulgaria and theBalkan dialects in Northern Bulgaria. The Pomaks living in the Bulgarian part of the Rhodopes speak the Rhodope (especially theSmolyan,Chepino,Hvoyna andZlatograd subdialects) and Western Rup (especially theBabyak andGotse Delchev sub-dialects) dialects.[69] 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.[70] The Rup dialects of the Bulgarian language spoken inWestern Thrace are called in GreecePomak language (Pomaktsou). Similar toPaulician dialect, it has words and resemblance to the grammatical forms of theArmenian 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 theRhodope Mountains. The Pomaks of Thrace were, together with Turks and Roma, exempted from the population exchanges provided by theLausanne Treaty (1923). The treaty made no mention of their language, but declared that their languages of education should be Turkish and Greek. The main school manual used for the teaching the language is 'Pomaktsou' by Moimin Aidin and Omer Hamdi, Komotini 1997. There is also a Pomak-Greek dictionary by Ritvan Karahodja, 1996. The Pomak dialects are on the Eastern side of theYat 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.[71] 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.[72][73]
The Pomaks in Bulgaria are referred to asBulgarian Muslims (българи-мюсюлманиBalgari-Myusyulmani), and under the locally used namesAhryani (pejorative, meaning "infidels"[74]), Pogantsi, Poturani, Poturnatsi, Eruli, Charaklii, etc.[75] They mainly inhabit theRhodope Mountains inSmolyan Province,Kardzhali Province,Pazardzhik Province andBlagoevgrad Province. There are Pomaks in other parts of Bulgaria as well. There are a few Pomak villages inBurgas Province,Lovech Province,Veliko Tarnovo Province andRuse Province.[76] Officially no ethnic Pomaks are recorded, while 67,000 declaredMuslim and ethnic Bulgarian identity,[4] down from 131,000 who declared Muslim Bulgarian identity at the 2001 census.[77] 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.[78]
Pomaks in Turkey community is present mostly inEastern Thrace and to a lesser extent inAnatolia, where they are called in TurkishPomaklar, and their speech,Pomakça. The Pomak community in Turkey is unofficially estimated to be between 300,000 and 600,000.[79]
TheMacedonian Muslims (orTorbeši), are also referred to as Pomaks, especially in historical context.[82][83][84][85][86][87] They are a minority religious group inNorth Macedonia, although not all espouse aMacedonian national identity and are linguistically distinct from the larger Muslim ethnic groups in the country,Albanians andTurks. However the estimated 100,000 Pomaks in North Macedonia maintain a strong affiliation to the Turkish identity.[1]
Slavic-speaking Muslims, sometimes referred to as "Pomaks", live also in the Albanian region ofGolloborda. However these people are also referred to as "Torbeš". WithinMacedonian academia, their language has been regarded as Macedonian,[88] while within Bulgarian academia, their dialect is considered as part of theBulgarian language.[89] Part of this people still self-identify asBulgarians.[90]
TheGorani occasionally are also referred to as Pomaks in historical context.[91][92] They are people who inhabit theGora region, located betweenAlbania,Kosovo andNorth Macedonia. The general view is that they should be treated as a distinctminority group.[93][94] Part of these people are alreadyalbanised.[95] By the last censuses at the end of the 20th century in Yugoslavia they had declared themselves to beethnic Muslims, likeBosniaks.[96]
Arif Sami Agush (born 1953), Member of the Bulgarian Parliament; Parliamentary Group ofMovement for Rights and Freedoms. His ancestor was an Ottoman feudal calledAgush Aga. The Agush castle(konak) is situated in the village ofMogilitsa. He was born in Sandrovo, Bulgaria.
Rita Wilson (born 1956 as Margarita Ibrahimoff), American actress and producer, married to actorTom Hanks. Born inLos Angeles, California, to a Pomak father and a Greek mother.
^Carl Waldman; Catherine Mason (2006).Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Infobase Publishing. pp. 607–.ISBN978-1-4381-2918-1.living in the Rhodope Mountains in Thrace in southern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and northwestern Turkey.
^Hugh Poulton; Suha Taji-Farouki (January 1997).Muslim Identity and the Balkan State. Hurst. pp. 33–.ISBN978-1-85065-276-2.The Pomaks, known officially in Bulgaria as Bulgarian Muhammadans or Bulgarian Muslims, are an ethno-confessional minority at present numbering about 220,000 people.
^Fred de Jong, "The Muslim Minority in Western Thrace", in Georgina Ashworth (ed.),Muslim Minorities in the Eighties, Sunbury, Quartermaine House Ltd., 1980, p.95
^Vemund Aarbakke, The Muslim Minority of Greek Thrace, University of Bergen, Bergen, 2000, pp.5 and 12 (pp. 27 and 34 in the pdf file)."The muslim minority of Greek Thrace". Archived fromthe original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved7 February 2016.
^Olga Demetriou, "Prioritizing 'ethnicities': The uncertainty of Pomak-ness in the urban Greek Rhodoppe", inEthnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, January 2004, pp.106–107 (pp. 12–13 in the pdf file).[2]
^Brunnbauer, Ulf (1999). "Diverging (Hi-)Stories: The Contested Identity of the Bulgarian Pomaks".Ethnologia Balkanica. Vol. 3. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 38–49. GGKEY:X5ZYCWAEE9A.
^abIvanov, Йордан.Богомилски книги и легенди. (Bulgarian language) С., 1925 (фототипно изд. С., 1970), с. 36 (Jordan. Bogomil Books and Legends, Sofia, 1925, p. 36: or in: Ivanov, Ĵ. Bogomil Books and Legends. Paris, Maisonneuve et Larose, 1976.
^Archimandrite Nikodemos Anagnostopoulos, Orthodoxy and Islam: Theology and Muslim–Christian Relations in Modern Greece and Turkey, Culture and Civilization in the Middle East, Taylor & Francis, 2017,ISBN9781315297927, p. 128.
^Ortaylı, İlber."Son İmparatorluk Osmanlı (The Last Empire: Ottoman Empire)", İstanbul, Timaş Yayınları (Timaş Press), 2006. pp. 87–89.ISBN975-263-490-7(in Turkish).
^Tsvetkova, Bistra (1972).Turski izvori za bŭlgarskata istoriya. Tom 3:2Турски извори за българската история. Том 3:2 [Turkish sources for Bulgarian history. Volume 3:2] (in Bulgarian). София: Българска академия на науките. p. 416.ISBN978-0-439-01834-0.OCLC405458491.
^Adamou E. & Drettas G. 2008, Slave, Le patrimoine plurilingue de la Grèce – Le nom des langues II, E. Adamou (éd.), BCILL 121, Leuven, Peeters, p. 107-132.
^Demetriou, Olga (January 2004). "Prioritizing 'ethnicities': The uncertainty of Pomak-ness in the urban Greek Rhodoppe".Ethnic and Racial Studies (27)., pg. 105–108[3]
^Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entestehung und etwicklung bis 1908., Wiessbaden 1979 (in Bulgarian: Аданър, Фикрет. Македонският въпрос, София 2002, с. 20)
^Bulgarians in the region of Korcha and Mala Prespa (Albania) nowadays, Balkanistic Forum (1-3/2005), South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad, Pashova, Anastasija Nikolaeva; Issue: 1-3/2005, Page Range: 113–130.
Raichevsky, Stoyan (2004).Mohammedan Bulgarians. Pencheva, Maya (translator). Sofia: Natl Museum of Bulgaria.ISBN978-954-9308-41-9.
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".ISBN978-954-8176-96-5.
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.ISBN978-954-28-0291-4.
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