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Thracians[1] orThracian Bulgarians[2] (Bulgarian: Тракийски българи or Тракийци) are a regional,ethnographic group of ethnicBulgarians, inhabiting or native toThrace. Today, the larger part of this population is concentrated inNorthern Thrace, but much is spread across the whole ofBulgaria and thediaspora.
Until the beginning of the twentieth century the Thracian Bulgarians were scattered in the whole ofThrace, then part of theOttoman Empire. After the persecutions during thePreobrazhenie Uprising and theethnic cleansing, caused to the Bulgarian population inEastern Thrace after theSecond Balkan War, these people were expelled from the area. AfterWorld War I, Bulgaria was required to cede Western Thrace to Greece. A whole population of Bulgarians inWestern Thrace was expelled into Bulgaria-controlled Northern Thrace. This was followed by a further population exchange between Bulgaria and Greece (under theTreaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine), which radically changed the demographics of the region toward increased ethnic homogenization within the territories each respective country ultimately was awarded. At this period theBulgarian Communist Party was compelled byComintern to accept the formation of a newThracian nation on the base of this people in order to include them in a new separateThracian state, as a part of a futureBalkan Communist Federation.[3]
The last flow of Thracian refugees into Bulgaria was as the Bulgarian Army pulled out of theSerres-Drama region in late 1944.[4]
With the accession of Bulgaria into the European Union, Bulgarian authorities appear to revisit the issue as a precondition forTurkey's membership to the Union.[5]
Some Thracian Bulgarians still live inEast Thrace inTurkey, descended from the people and families who converted toIslam in order to stay and avoid being deported during thegenocide in 1913.[6]
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