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This article is obviously written by a Romanian with erratic knowledge of Bulgarian history and geography. 74.66.234.61 ( talk) 04:51, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
AFAIK, the population exchange was only within Dobruja. In 1926, Bulgaria did not included that region. bogdan 13:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Removed, because here we're not discussion on the Dobruja issue. bogdan 15:26, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
BTW, here's a link: http://www.omda.bg/BULG/NAROD/vlasi_arumani.html bogdan 13:31, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
There is absolutely no international consensus on a definition of Bulgarisation, as evidenced by the sources given here. They are all Romanian, Turkish, Greek that push nationalistic views of the respective countries all of whom have territorial claims on Bulgaria which are partial and competing. Thus, the article is clearly being used to promote various POVs and provide justification for nationalistic claims. Lantonov 14:47, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
I believe it. Look at the nationality of the sites. About half of them are Macedonian or Serb sites full of nationalistic propaganda. A large percentage of those sites refer to this Wikipedia article. I have no doubt that makers and contributors to this article are very keen to maintain also those nationalistic sites. The other half are about changing the names of Turks (which is indeed Bulgarisation) or Bulgarization in another meaning (like Bulgarization of the Linux console or a Bulgarization of a typing technique). For Bulgarization of Macedonians, I agree, it sounds like Hellenization of Greeks. Lantonov 05:21, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Every Balkan nation has tried to assimilate all or part of its neighbours, whether it collaborated with Nazi Germany or not.-- NetProfit 12:09, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Political and ideological warfare, and ethnical warfare are two different things. By mixing them, you are making the same mistake as the Macedonists from FYROM. Lantonov 16:27, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Ok, let us see those documents, and then talk. Because I have seen also documents for Greek atrocities against Bulgarians, like killing and forced deportation of Bulgarian population in Greek Macedonia to remote islands during WWII. And also the police in the occupied territories was exclusively Greek. There are documented police raids, arrests, and tortures of Bulgarians by Greek policemen during WWII too. Also killing of Bulgarian civilians by Greek communist partisans. Facts against facts for both sides. Sweeping generalizations here are POV for either side. I agree that there have been atrocities by the Bulgarian side too, but as you say, if they have nothing to do with ethnicity, then we can hardly talk about 'Bulgarization' which is all about ethnicity. User:Lantonov|Lantonov]] 16:41, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
No one but reading authentic documents taught me this. Instead of quoting what you read in Greek history schoolbooks, read primary documents of what actually happened and then we can discuss this. For a beginning, an easy question for you: Do you know how many people in Greece during WWII were imprisoned for reading Bulgarian newspapers or having Bulgarian literature in their home? If you still try to force the term Bulgarization, it must be changed to re-Bulgarization following the genocidal de-Bulgarization committed by Greeks during the Balkan and WWI and the period following those wars in the same regions. Lantonov 05:28, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
I am not describing anything. I just do not approve the attempt of the authors of this article to describe political and ideological warfare (in this case fascist-communist battles) as ethnic cleansing. This is a FYROMian patent. If this was so, there would not be a civil war in Greece after withdrawal of all occupying powers. Lantonov 09:20, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
The WWII government of Bulgaria was not fascist as it was not ruled by a single fascist party. Bulgaria was a constitutional parliamentary monarchy (Tarnovo constitution). The government was ruled by a coalition of parties with different ideologies. The only parties that were banned were the extreme left Bulgarian Communist Party which was under direct orders from the Soviet Union, and the Anarchist Party that helped the Communist in committing acts of terrorism. Lantonov 07:58, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
This article is biased and should either be deleted or rewritten to meet NPOV. It is written and being watched by biased nationalists whose interest lies in painting a rosy picture of Bulgarisation. It lacks verifiable resources.
User:Nostradamus1 21:29, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
'In the early 1970s pomaks who had become Turkified were required to adopt Slav names, and those who did not were punished; in 1974 500 of the 1,300 inmates of the notorious Belene labour camp were Pomaks who had resisted pressure to change their names.' [1]
References
This Turkish athlete is a good example of forced Bulgarisation. Unfortunately, someone keeps deleting my contribution about him. I don't understan why. 66.65.129.159 ( talk) 06:05, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
Please, prior to removing any tags, visit the talkpage. It might provide useful feedback from users that actually dispute its accuracy. As for the paragraph that you added, the problems with it are exactly the same as those in the Doxato article. There is one single source for them, they are one sided and provide only the nationalistic view of one of the sides. Do you really need me to list all the words that are inappropriate again? The fact that you as the author fail to see why the paragraph is unencyclopaedic speaks volumes about the lack of neutrality by the almost copy&paste text added to a number of articles. -- Laveol T 14:23, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Perhaps you can compromise over the tags. It's usually not recommended to remove tags, but it's also not recommended to overtag. Both are happening here. I think a neutrality tag is sufficient, just because no Bulgarian sources are used in the article.-- Ptolion ( talk) 14:43, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Not so successful advise Ptolion. And I really cannot understand what you say. The prof. Miller's sentence "throughout the Bulgarian zone, Bulgarian policy was that of extermination or expulsion, aiming to forcibly Bulgarize as many Greeks as possible and expel or kill the rest" has any meaning to you? What OR? According to that the massacres are only one tool in the Bulgarization procedure, the expulsion a third, the confiscation of their houses, of their land, or their business a fourth, a fifth and a sixth. They tried to intimidate the people to accept the forced Bulgarization. "Everyone who doesn't accept the Bulgarization is dead, or out, or without house, or without the means of living". That was the clear meaning. Unless, why should someone admit to become Bulgarian if he is not? If this is not relevant to the Bulgarization procedure then what is? Safari of "no-mister" preys? -- Factuarius ( talk) 22:27, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Factuarius, unless you have a source that says, for example, that the Drama revolt are an example of Bulgarisation, it's original research. As far as I can see, it's just the occupiers putting down a local rebellion (the Germans also massacred villages, were theh trying to Germanise the areas?). You have got plenty of sourced information that should stay, but anything in which you have been drawing your own conclusions should be removed.-- Ptolion ( talk) 09:47, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
Just using the census results to prove Bulgarisation is WP:OR. I think state-sponsored Bulgarisation did occur to an extent, however, it needs proper sources.-- Ptolion ( talk) 14:37, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
I am alarmed by this edit by Factuarius, whose edit summary claims that its text is taken "almost word-by-word" from the text of a print publication. Two reasons:
In writing a history article in Wikipedia on the basis of reliable academic sources, it is absolutely crucial that we as Wikipedia editors filter our sources by separating reported facts from opinion, taking notice of all elements that may convey bias, such as: evaluative judgments in a source; wording that may covertly imply value judgment; selection and arrangement of facts designed to insinuate relation between them; bias expressed through quantity of material reported, etc. It's a difficult task; it may be near-impossible at times, but it is a vital part of good Wikipedia writing. Fut.Perf. ☼ 08:13, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
I've made some changes, the article is now more neutral in my opinion, without the original research or the emotionally/propagandistically charged statements such as the creation of an "ethnically pure" Bulgaria, or the Bulgarians entering Greece "on the heels of the Wehrmacht". Let's see if it holds, suggestions welcome.-- Ptolion ( talk) 11:51, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
@Kostja. I told you before, the only common areas between the 1913-18 and 1941-1944 periods were (the rather small) prefectures of Xanthi & Komotini, thus A PART of Western Thrace. So it's wrong again. Bulgaria didn't took W.Thrace in 1941, took a part of W.Thrace (the third and bigger prefecture -Evros- went to the Germans who at the time didn't wanted to disturb the Turks), check again. As it is now, is like they took all W.Thrace, which is misleading. Find a way to fix it or put out this sentence which is full of problems. -- Factuarius ( talk) 17:26, 20 December 2009 (UTC)
Edits such as these [2] are nothing more than attempts to "justify" Bulgaria's WW II policies. As such, they are completely against the spirit NPOV and should be reverted. -- Athenean ( talk) 19:47, 20 December 2009 (UTC)
Bellow is a chart showing the Bulgarian population's figures based upon the official Bulgarian censuses between 1880-1910, compared with that of its minorities. It showing a more than 60% increase in just 30 years, an impossible figure by any means, strongly illustrating beyond any dοupt the effects of an intensive Bulgarization policy taken during the period. Note that at the same time the minorities' figures are staying more or less the same or declined. -- Factuarius ( talk) 13:03, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
In comparison, at the same period other neighbouring countries like Romania and Greece showed an approx. 10% increase per decade equalling to a total 30% increase for the same time span, thus half that of Bulgaria's [ [3]] [ [4]]. Close to the Bulgarian % figures presents only Serbia which also has traditionally major issues over ethnic cleansing policies (possibly extended until the present days) [ [5]]. -- Factuarius ( talk) 13:30, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
Sorry for my late answer Kostja I was watching a good old movie in TV, (The last Mohican: what a film! don't you agree?) Now:
Kostja is an expert of pushing Bulgarian POV, which is usually unsourced or randomly sourced then spiced with some original research. I have had to request the article Turks in Bulgaria be protected by the admin since source abuse got really out of hand. Regarding Bulgarisation it does not take a rocket scientist to see that Bulgaria has had a long tradition of systematically attempting to artificially change the ethnic structure of the country. The Examples: Bulgaristaion of Macedonians, Pomaks, Gagauz the assimilation campaign against the Turks in Bulgaria. I see the assimilation campaign against the Pomaks is not included in this article. Hittit ( talk) 09:42, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
"Assimilation of Bulgarians by Bulgarians sounds...odd?!" you mean like the Turks were Bulgarian, and the Macedonians are Bulgarian etc.? As a Bulgarian citizen I do not find this odd at all, I am a witness to this policy so are you so we might as well end the charedes. Pomaks are Bulgarian perdominantly based on Bulgarian sources, their real origins and when they adopted Islam is highly disputable. I just had a look at the Pomaks article and it is now quite messed up, so I gess next in line for protection.To add other minorities affected by the assimilation campaign and the Process of Rebirth not mentioned: Circassians, Tatar, Alevi/Kizilbas and Turkish speaking Gypsies Hittit ( talk) 12:54, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Factuarius the numbers on the chart above seem to me to what Crampton has used in his book: A concise history of Bulgaria. On page 116 he presents a number of the Turkish speaking population (measured by mother tongue). He states that in 1875 the Turks were 33% in 1880 728 000, but by 1900 only 540 000. In the same years the Greeks increased from 53 000 to 71 000. The number of Muslims is not depicted (I would guess the group Others refers to Pomaks or these are counted under Bulgarians?); the Pomak element is significant since already a century and a half form Ottoman conquest there was a demographic balance between Muslims and Christians (Eminov). During the Russo-Turkish war even 300 000 (some claim 500 000) Muslims being killed and even up to 1 million forced to flee with the retreating Turkish army. Having in mind that this number of refugees also included Pomak, Circassian and Crimean Tatar population. After the Berlin Congress many Turks returned to claim back their lands. The Turks were and are a problematic minority for the Bulgarian state since these are ethnically and religiously self conscious and clearly separate: Turkish. The Turkish question has often being settled by forcing Turks out of Bulgaria until 1978 (last major wave before the initiation of the Revival process against the Turks and the great Exodus of 1989). The estimates of Turks leaving Bulgarian 1878 - 1989 is somewhere between 1,2 million and 2 million so it is fair to say that 1,5 million could be used as a reference. The issue is that it is very difficult to obtain exact numbers for the refugee waves during the wars such as the Russo-Turkish war, Balkan Wars and the First World War. What we know is that the population growth among the Bulgarians in 1954 was 8,3 per 1000 and among the Turks 25,2 per thousand in 1970 a figure is given for the nationwide Bulgarian total population growth rate 0,72 (same figure only for the Turks 1,21). This is what is seen as one of the reasons for the Bulgarian government to initiate the Revival Process (zero growth among Bulgarians and the fear of growing Turkish/Muslim element). Having in mind the great number of Turkish refugee waves out of Bulgaria until 1978 it seems driving the excess growth of Turks to Turkey was not enough to solve this issue for the state. The number of Turks given for 1880 is 728 000 (note that the Rhodopes and Thrace were not even part of Bulgaria then) the number of Turks presented in census 2001 is at 745 000 (not counting the 320 000 Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin in Turkey). My point being is that assimilation against the Turks was tried and that failed, the only effective way of keeping Turkish numbers since 1878 is to just drive them out in waves. However, when it comes to the other minorities the problem could not have been solved by driving them out and this is where the assimilation policies have being more effective (process of Rebirth starting already in the 1930s with the Pomaks and then gradually being applied on the other minorities). E.g.., the Pomaks are Bulgarian, during Ottoman yoke they sold their religion but not their language, the Gagauz are Bulgarians during Ottoman yoke they sold their language but not their religion Hugh Poulton gives a good definition of this approach as the “monopoly of truth” the state uses the Academy of Science as their apparatus to transmit and provide “undisputed truths” of the minoritie’s origins. My opinion is that Bulgarian population growth per se until 1910 could not have being attributed to any natural growth a more deeper analysis is needed to take into account the territorial expansion of the Bulgarian territories of control (apart from the occupation of Eastern Rumelia not much had happened until 1910 in this perspective) and consequent population exchanges (with whom during those years? Macedonian influx?). How do you count the Pomaks, Macedonians, Armenians, Gagauz, Gypsies these are labelled Bulgarian? Why does the number of Others fluctuate (over 100 000 just between 1880 and 1887). I personally would not use much time on this chart for me it is more relevant to review Bulgaristation after the First World War and in particularly between 1950s until 1989. Questions like 1 million names were changed from Islamic Turkish to Bulgarian ones until 1985, how many were changed back after 1990? There are many members of the minorities still with their Bulgarian names form the Assimilation campaing why? What is the level of discrimination and career opportunities for those with non-Bulgarian names? Are there currently national minorities in Bulgaria? If not why? Is Bulgarisation only the imposition of the Bulgarian language, culture, identitiy or does it also include religion and ethnic cleansing of other ethnicities? During January 2010 the European Parliament will discuss the situation of the Turks in Bulgaria and the attempts of the Sate to stop the only 10min Turkish language news broadcast on State Television, is this Bulgarisation entering a new phase post 1989? Hittit ( talk) 21:36, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
I am going to remove this paragraph beacause by the census nobody identifies himself ethnical as Pomak to be "Bulgarified Pomak". The official data says the population identify only as Bulgarians, Turks and others but nobody as Pomak so that for the Bulgarified Pomaks are some POVs. Pensionero (UTC)
The 'refutation' in the lead section is original research. It is a rebuttal from Wikipedia users, as the sources refuting the alleged Bulgarization of Macedonians do not speak of Bulgarization at all. -- WavesSaid ( talk) 01:32, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
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This article is obviously written by a Romanian with erratic knowledge of Bulgarian history and geography. 74.66.234.61 ( talk) 04:51, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
AFAIK, the population exchange was only within Dobruja. In 1926, Bulgaria did not included that region. bogdan 13:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Removed, because here we're not discussion on the Dobruja issue. bogdan 15:26, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
BTW, here's a link: http://www.omda.bg/BULG/NAROD/vlasi_arumani.html bogdan 13:31, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
There is absolutely no international consensus on a definition of Bulgarisation, as evidenced by the sources given here. They are all Romanian, Turkish, Greek that push nationalistic views of the respective countries all of whom have territorial claims on Bulgaria which are partial and competing. Thus, the article is clearly being used to promote various POVs and provide justification for nationalistic claims. Lantonov 14:47, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
I believe it. Look at the nationality of the sites. About half of them are Macedonian or Serb sites full of nationalistic propaganda. A large percentage of those sites refer to this Wikipedia article. I have no doubt that makers and contributors to this article are very keen to maintain also those nationalistic sites. The other half are about changing the names of Turks (which is indeed Bulgarisation) or Bulgarization in another meaning (like Bulgarization of the Linux console or a Bulgarization of a typing technique). For Bulgarization of Macedonians, I agree, it sounds like Hellenization of Greeks. Lantonov 05:21, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Every Balkan nation has tried to assimilate all or part of its neighbours, whether it collaborated with Nazi Germany or not.-- NetProfit 12:09, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Political and ideological warfare, and ethnical warfare are two different things. By mixing them, you are making the same mistake as the Macedonists from FYROM. Lantonov 16:27, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Ok, let us see those documents, and then talk. Because I have seen also documents for Greek atrocities against Bulgarians, like killing and forced deportation of Bulgarian population in Greek Macedonia to remote islands during WWII. And also the police in the occupied territories was exclusively Greek. There are documented police raids, arrests, and tortures of Bulgarians by Greek policemen during WWII too. Also killing of Bulgarian civilians by Greek communist partisans. Facts against facts for both sides. Sweeping generalizations here are POV for either side. I agree that there have been atrocities by the Bulgarian side too, but as you say, if they have nothing to do with ethnicity, then we can hardly talk about 'Bulgarization' which is all about ethnicity. User:Lantonov|Lantonov]] 16:41, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
No one but reading authentic documents taught me this. Instead of quoting what you read in Greek history schoolbooks, read primary documents of what actually happened and then we can discuss this. For a beginning, an easy question for you: Do you know how many people in Greece during WWII were imprisoned for reading Bulgarian newspapers or having Bulgarian literature in their home? If you still try to force the term Bulgarization, it must be changed to re-Bulgarization following the genocidal de-Bulgarization committed by Greeks during the Balkan and WWI and the period following those wars in the same regions. Lantonov 05:28, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
I am not describing anything. I just do not approve the attempt of the authors of this article to describe political and ideological warfare (in this case fascist-communist battles) as ethnic cleansing. This is a FYROMian patent. If this was so, there would not be a civil war in Greece after withdrawal of all occupying powers. Lantonov 09:20, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
The WWII government of Bulgaria was not fascist as it was not ruled by a single fascist party. Bulgaria was a constitutional parliamentary monarchy (Tarnovo constitution). The government was ruled by a coalition of parties with different ideologies. The only parties that were banned were the extreme left Bulgarian Communist Party which was under direct orders from the Soviet Union, and the Anarchist Party that helped the Communist in committing acts of terrorism. Lantonov 07:58, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
This article is biased and should either be deleted or rewritten to meet NPOV. It is written and being watched by biased nationalists whose interest lies in painting a rosy picture of Bulgarisation. It lacks verifiable resources.
User:Nostradamus1 21:29, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
'In the early 1970s pomaks who had become Turkified were required to adopt Slav names, and those who did not were punished; in 1974 500 of the 1,300 inmates of the notorious Belene labour camp were Pomaks who had resisted pressure to change their names.' [1]
References
This Turkish athlete is a good example of forced Bulgarisation. Unfortunately, someone keeps deleting my contribution about him. I don't understan why. 66.65.129.159 ( talk) 06:05, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
Please, prior to removing any tags, visit the talkpage. It might provide useful feedback from users that actually dispute its accuracy. As for the paragraph that you added, the problems with it are exactly the same as those in the Doxato article. There is one single source for them, they are one sided and provide only the nationalistic view of one of the sides. Do you really need me to list all the words that are inappropriate again? The fact that you as the author fail to see why the paragraph is unencyclopaedic speaks volumes about the lack of neutrality by the almost copy&paste text added to a number of articles. -- Laveol T 14:23, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Perhaps you can compromise over the tags. It's usually not recommended to remove tags, but it's also not recommended to overtag. Both are happening here. I think a neutrality tag is sufficient, just because no Bulgarian sources are used in the article.-- Ptolion ( talk) 14:43, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Not so successful advise Ptolion. And I really cannot understand what you say. The prof. Miller's sentence "throughout the Bulgarian zone, Bulgarian policy was that of extermination or expulsion, aiming to forcibly Bulgarize as many Greeks as possible and expel or kill the rest" has any meaning to you? What OR? According to that the massacres are only one tool in the Bulgarization procedure, the expulsion a third, the confiscation of their houses, of their land, or their business a fourth, a fifth and a sixth. They tried to intimidate the people to accept the forced Bulgarization. "Everyone who doesn't accept the Bulgarization is dead, or out, or without house, or without the means of living". That was the clear meaning. Unless, why should someone admit to become Bulgarian if he is not? If this is not relevant to the Bulgarization procedure then what is? Safari of "no-mister" preys? -- Factuarius ( talk) 22:27, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Factuarius, unless you have a source that says, for example, that the Drama revolt are an example of Bulgarisation, it's original research. As far as I can see, it's just the occupiers putting down a local rebellion (the Germans also massacred villages, were theh trying to Germanise the areas?). You have got plenty of sourced information that should stay, but anything in which you have been drawing your own conclusions should be removed.-- Ptolion ( talk) 09:47, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
Just using the census results to prove Bulgarisation is WP:OR. I think state-sponsored Bulgarisation did occur to an extent, however, it needs proper sources.-- Ptolion ( talk) 14:37, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
I am alarmed by this edit by Factuarius, whose edit summary claims that its text is taken "almost word-by-word" from the text of a print publication. Two reasons:
In writing a history article in Wikipedia on the basis of reliable academic sources, it is absolutely crucial that we as Wikipedia editors filter our sources by separating reported facts from opinion, taking notice of all elements that may convey bias, such as: evaluative judgments in a source; wording that may covertly imply value judgment; selection and arrangement of facts designed to insinuate relation between them; bias expressed through quantity of material reported, etc. It's a difficult task; it may be near-impossible at times, but it is a vital part of good Wikipedia writing. Fut.Perf. ☼ 08:13, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
I've made some changes, the article is now more neutral in my opinion, without the original research or the emotionally/propagandistically charged statements such as the creation of an "ethnically pure" Bulgaria, or the Bulgarians entering Greece "on the heels of the Wehrmacht". Let's see if it holds, suggestions welcome.-- Ptolion ( talk) 11:51, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
@Kostja. I told you before, the only common areas between the 1913-18 and 1941-1944 periods were (the rather small) prefectures of Xanthi & Komotini, thus A PART of Western Thrace. So it's wrong again. Bulgaria didn't took W.Thrace in 1941, took a part of W.Thrace (the third and bigger prefecture -Evros- went to the Germans who at the time didn't wanted to disturb the Turks), check again. As it is now, is like they took all W.Thrace, which is misleading. Find a way to fix it or put out this sentence which is full of problems. -- Factuarius ( talk) 17:26, 20 December 2009 (UTC)
Edits such as these [2] are nothing more than attempts to "justify" Bulgaria's WW II policies. As such, they are completely against the spirit NPOV and should be reverted. -- Athenean ( talk) 19:47, 20 December 2009 (UTC)
Bellow is a chart showing the Bulgarian population's figures based upon the official Bulgarian censuses between 1880-1910, compared with that of its minorities. It showing a more than 60% increase in just 30 years, an impossible figure by any means, strongly illustrating beyond any dοupt the effects of an intensive Bulgarization policy taken during the period. Note that at the same time the minorities' figures are staying more or less the same or declined. -- Factuarius ( talk) 13:03, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
In comparison, at the same period other neighbouring countries like Romania and Greece showed an approx. 10% increase per decade equalling to a total 30% increase for the same time span, thus half that of Bulgaria's [ [3]] [ [4]]. Close to the Bulgarian % figures presents only Serbia which also has traditionally major issues over ethnic cleansing policies (possibly extended until the present days) [ [5]]. -- Factuarius ( talk) 13:30, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
Sorry for my late answer Kostja I was watching a good old movie in TV, (The last Mohican: what a film! don't you agree?) Now:
Kostja is an expert of pushing Bulgarian POV, which is usually unsourced or randomly sourced then spiced with some original research. I have had to request the article Turks in Bulgaria be protected by the admin since source abuse got really out of hand. Regarding Bulgarisation it does not take a rocket scientist to see that Bulgaria has had a long tradition of systematically attempting to artificially change the ethnic structure of the country. The Examples: Bulgaristaion of Macedonians, Pomaks, Gagauz the assimilation campaign against the Turks in Bulgaria. I see the assimilation campaign against the Pomaks is not included in this article. Hittit ( talk) 09:42, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
"Assimilation of Bulgarians by Bulgarians sounds...odd?!" you mean like the Turks were Bulgarian, and the Macedonians are Bulgarian etc.? As a Bulgarian citizen I do not find this odd at all, I am a witness to this policy so are you so we might as well end the charedes. Pomaks are Bulgarian perdominantly based on Bulgarian sources, their real origins and when they adopted Islam is highly disputable. I just had a look at the Pomaks article and it is now quite messed up, so I gess next in line for protection.To add other minorities affected by the assimilation campaign and the Process of Rebirth not mentioned: Circassians, Tatar, Alevi/Kizilbas and Turkish speaking Gypsies Hittit ( talk) 12:54, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Factuarius the numbers on the chart above seem to me to what Crampton has used in his book: A concise history of Bulgaria. On page 116 he presents a number of the Turkish speaking population (measured by mother tongue). He states that in 1875 the Turks were 33% in 1880 728 000, but by 1900 only 540 000. In the same years the Greeks increased from 53 000 to 71 000. The number of Muslims is not depicted (I would guess the group Others refers to Pomaks or these are counted under Bulgarians?); the Pomak element is significant since already a century and a half form Ottoman conquest there was a demographic balance between Muslims and Christians (Eminov). During the Russo-Turkish war even 300 000 (some claim 500 000) Muslims being killed and even up to 1 million forced to flee with the retreating Turkish army. Having in mind that this number of refugees also included Pomak, Circassian and Crimean Tatar population. After the Berlin Congress many Turks returned to claim back their lands. The Turks were and are a problematic minority for the Bulgarian state since these are ethnically and religiously self conscious and clearly separate: Turkish. The Turkish question has often being settled by forcing Turks out of Bulgaria until 1978 (last major wave before the initiation of the Revival process against the Turks and the great Exodus of 1989). The estimates of Turks leaving Bulgarian 1878 - 1989 is somewhere between 1,2 million and 2 million so it is fair to say that 1,5 million could be used as a reference. The issue is that it is very difficult to obtain exact numbers for the refugee waves during the wars such as the Russo-Turkish war, Balkan Wars and the First World War. What we know is that the population growth among the Bulgarians in 1954 was 8,3 per 1000 and among the Turks 25,2 per thousand in 1970 a figure is given for the nationwide Bulgarian total population growth rate 0,72 (same figure only for the Turks 1,21). This is what is seen as one of the reasons for the Bulgarian government to initiate the Revival Process (zero growth among Bulgarians and the fear of growing Turkish/Muslim element). Having in mind the great number of Turkish refugee waves out of Bulgaria until 1978 it seems driving the excess growth of Turks to Turkey was not enough to solve this issue for the state. The number of Turks given for 1880 is 728 000 (note that the Rhodopes and Thrace were not even part of Bulgaria then) the number of Turks presented in census 2001 is at 745 000 (not counting the 320 000 Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin in Turkey). My point being is that assimilation against the Turks was tried and that failed, the only effective way of keeping Turkish numbers since 1878 is to just drive them out in waves. However, when it comes to the other minorities the problem could not have been solved by driving them out and this is where the assimilation policies have being more effective (process of Rebirth starting already in the 1930s with the Pomaks and then gradually being applied on the other minorities). E.g.., the Pomaks are Bulgarian, during Ottoman yoke they sold their religion but not their language, the Gagauz are Bulgarians during Ottoman yoke they sold their language but not their religion Hugh Poulton gives a good definition of this approach as the “monopoly of truth” the state uses the Academy of Science as their apparatus to transmit and provide “undisputed truths” of the minoritie’s origins. My opinion is that Bulgarian population growth per se until 1910 could not have being attributed to any natural growth a more deeper analysis is needed to take into account the territorial expansion of the Bulgarian territories of control (apart from the occupation of Eastern Rumelia not much had happened until 1910 in this perspective) and consequent population exchanges (with whom during those years? Macedonian influx?). How do you count the Pomaks, Macedonians, Armenians, Gagauz, Gypsies these are labelled Bulgarian? Why does the number of Others fluctuate (over 100 000 just between 1880 and 1887). I personally would not use much time on this chart for me it is more relevant to review Bulgaristation after the First World War and in particularly between 1950s until 1989. Questions like 1 million names were changed from Islamic Turkish to Bulgarian ones until 1985, how many were changed back after 1990? There are many members of the minorities still with their Bulgarian names form the Assimilation campaing why? What is the level of discrimination and career opportunities for those with non-Bulgarian names? Are there currently national minorities in Bulgaria? If not why? Is Bulgarisation only the imposition of the Bulgarian language, culture, identitiy or does it also include religion and ethnic cleansing of other ethnicities? During January 2010 the European Parliament will discuss the situation of the Turks in Bulgaria and the attempts of the Sate to stop the only 10min Turkish language news broadcast on State Television, is this Bulgarisation entering a new phase post 1989? Hittit ( talk) 21:36, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
I am going to remove this paragraph beacause by the census nobody identifies himself ethnical as Pomak to be "Bulgarified Pomak". The official data says the population identify only as Bulgarians, Turks and others but nobody as Pomak so that for the Bulgarified Pomaks are some POVs. Pensionero (UTC)
The 'refutation' in the lead section is original research. It is a rebuttal from Wikipedia users, as the sources refuting the alleged Bulgarization of Macedonians do not speak of Bulgarization at all. -- WavesSaid ( talk) 01:32, 7 December 2012 (UTC)