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=== Albania ===
=== Albania ===
Some Pomak live in [[Albania]]'s eastern region of [[Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo|Prespa e Vogël and Golloborda]] ([[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]: Мала Преспа и Голо Брдо ''Mala Prespa i Golo Brdo''), at the country's border with [[Macedonia]].
Some Pomak live in [[Albania]]'s eastern region of [[Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo|Prespa e Vogël and Golloborda]] ([[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]: Мала Преспа и Голо Брдо ''Mala Prespa i Golo Brdo''), at the country's border with [[FYROM]].


=== Greece ===
=== Greece ===

Revision as of 16:25, 16 April 2009

Pomaks
Помаци
Pomaklar
Πομάκοι
Regions with significant populations
Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Languages
Bulgarian
Turkish
Greek
Religion
Islam

Pomaks (Bulgarian: Помаци, Greek: Πομάκοι, Turkish: Pomaklar) are a Bulgarian-speaking Muslim population group native to some parts of Bulgaria, specifically southern Bulgaria, and the adjacent parts of Greece and Turkey. Members of the group today declare a variety of ethnic identities, Bulgarian, Turkish, Pomak[1][2][3] or Muslim.[4] Historically they are usually considered descendants of Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans,[5] although some alternative narratives of their historical identity have been proposed[6] and, according to some authors, their precise origins remain unknown.[7] Pomaks speak the dialects of Bulgarian language as mother tongue[8][9][10][11] and are fluent in Turkish in Greece and Turkey.[12][13]

Population

Bulgaria

The Pomaks in Bulgaria are referred to as Bulgarian Muslims (българи-мюсюлмани bălgari-mjusjulmani), or under the ethnographic names Ahryani, Torbeshi, etc. They mainly inhabit the Rhodope Mountains in Smolyan Province, Kardzhali Province, Pazardzhik Province and Blagoevgrad Province. There are Pomaks in other parts of Bulgaria as well. There are a few Pomak villages in Burgas Province, Lovech Province, Veliko Tarnovo Province and Ruse Province.[14] According to the 2001 census there are 131 531 Muslim Bulgarians in Bulgaria.[15]Since the start of the 20th century the Pomaks in Bulgaria were the subject of state-supported assimilation which included the change of their Turkish-Arabic names to ethnic Bulgarian ones and conversions from Islam to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Bulgarian state redefined the Pomaks as ancestral Bulgarians who therefore needed to be repatriated back to the Bulgarian national domain. These attempts were met with stiff resistance by the Pomaks.[16]

Albania

Some Pomak live in Albania's eastern region of Prespa e Vogël and Golloborda (Macedonian: Мала Преспа и Голо Брдо Mala Prespa i Golo Brdo), at the country's border with FYROM.

Greece

Today the Pomaks (Greek: Πομάκοι) in Greece inhabit the prefectures of Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros.[14] Until Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923 Pomaks inhabited a part of the region of Moglena.[17] and some other parts of Macedonia, Greece. The Pomaks of Thrace were exempted from those exchanges and, together with Muslim Turks and Rom, were granted by the Lausanne Treaty (1923) the right to primary education in Turkish and Greek. A part of Pomaks still transmits their language, pomatsko, to their children and also speaks Turkish and Greek, but a large part of them no longer transmits Pomak, having adopted Turkish as a first language[18].

Turkey

Today the Pomaks are present in Turkey, in both Eastern Thrace and in Anatolia where they are referred to as Pomaklar or Boğmaklar and their language as Pomakça. Since their settlement there many of them have lost their identity and were assimilated to the Turks.[19][citation needed]

Alternative origin theories

A specific DNA mutation which emerged about 2,000 years ago on a rare haplotype is characteristic of the Pomaks. Its frequency increased as a consequence of high genetic drift within this population. This indicates that the Pomaks are an isolated population with limited contacts with their neighbours. The DNA tree line of Pomaks implies the hypothesis, that Pomaks are descendants of ancient Thracian tribes.[20][21]

According some historians some of the Pomaks in the Rhodope Mountains are successors of the Cumans that converted to Islam in the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century after establishing contact with missionaries from North Africa and the Middle East.[22] This theory is further backed by the fact that in the 9th century many Muslims moved from Bulgaria to Hungary and were ordered to be expelled by Pope Nicholas I in 866, yet enjoyed many freedoms and were even allowed to serve in the military and in border guard units during the 11th and 12th century. Many researchers are of the opinion that these were Cumans or Pechenegs.[23]

Another theory, especially popular among the Pomaks themselves, is that they are successors of Arabs or Thraco-Slavs who have adopted Islam from Arabic missionaries. This theory is backed by the fact that Arabs distributed many religious books in the Balkans during the 10th century and that there is overwhelming evidence of Muslim presence on the peninsula from the 7th century on.[24]

Further reading

  • Raichevsky, Stoyan. Mohammedan Bulgarians. Pencheva, Maya (translator). Sofia: Natl Museum of Bulgaria. ISBN 978-954-930-841-9.
  • Арденски, Владимир (2000). Капки от корена (in Bulgarian). София: ИК „Ваньо Недков“. ISBN 978-954-8176-55-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Арденски, Владимир (2005). Загаснали огнища (in Bulgarian). София: ИК „Ваньо Недков“. ISBN 978-954-8176-96-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Груев, Михаил. Възродителният процес. Мюсюлманските общности и комунистическият режим (in Bulgarian). София: Институт за изследване на близкото минало; Фондация „Отворено общество“; Сиела. ISBN 978-954-280-291-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Ghodsee, Kristen (21 January 2009). "Identity Shift". Transitions Online. ISSN 1214-1615.
  • Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "The Human Rights of Muslims in Bulgaria in Law and Politics since 1878", Sofia, November 2003

References

  1. ^ INTERVIEW WITH MR. DAMJAN ISKRENOV* AND MR. SHIKIR BUJUKOV* FROM THE VILLAGE OF KOCHAN – POMAKS FROM CHECH, WESTERN RODOP MOUNTAINS (PIRIN PART OF MACEDONIA), R. OF BULGARIA [1]
  2. ^ READING ROOM 3: Raw deal for the Pomaks [2]
  3. ^ Помаците искат да бъдат признати като етнос [3]
  4. ^ Histories and Identities: Nation-state and Minority Discourses. The Case of the Bulgarian Pomaks. Ulf Brunnbauer, University of Graz
  5. ^ The Balkans, Minorities and States in Conflict (1993), Minority Rights Publication, by Hugh Poulton, p. 111.
  6. ^ KEMAL GÖZLER, Les Villages Pomaks de Lofça aux XVe et XVIe Siècles d’Après les Tahrir Defters Ottomans (Ankara: Imprimerie de la Société Turque d’Historie, 2001)[4]
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Ethnologue, Languages of Greece.Bulgarian.
  9. ^ Ethnologue: Languages of the World Fourteenth Edition.Bulgarian.
  10. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Pomak People.
  11. ^ Social Construction of Identities: Pomaks in Bulgaria, Ali Eminov, JEMIE 6 (2007) 2 © 2007 by European Centre for Minority Issues
  12. ^ [5]THE POMAKS, Report - Greek Helsinki Monitor
  13. ^ [6]The World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
  14. ^ a b Raichevsky, Stoyan. "Geographical Boundaries". Pencheva, Maya (translator). Sofia: Natl Museum of Bulgaria. ISBN 978-954-930-841-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ "Structure of the population by religion". Census 2001 (in Bulgarian). National Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  16. ^ DIMITROV, VESSELIN: In Search of a Homogeneous Nation: The Assimilation of Bulgaria’s Turkish Minority, 1984-1985, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK December 23, 2000 [7]
  17. ^ Capidan, Theodor. Meglenoromânii, istoria şi graiul lor, vol. I, Bucureşti, 1925, p.5, 19, 21-22 (Capidan, Theodor. Megleno-Romanians - their history and dialect, Bucurest 1925, vol 1, p.5, 19, 21-22)
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ M. Apostolov, ibid.
  20. ^ HbO-Arab mutation originated in the Pomak population of Greek Thrace, Haematologica, Vol 90, Issue 2, 255-257, 2005 by Ferrata Storti Foundation
  21. ^ The origin of Greek Pomaks is based on HbO-Arab mutation history [8]
  22. ^ Eminov, Ali (1997). Turkish and other Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria. London: Hurst. p. 25. ISBN 185-0653-19-4.
  23. ^ Norris, Harry (1993). Islam in the Balkans. London: Hurst. p. 26-30. ISBN 185-0651-67-1.
  24. ^ Norris, Harry (1993). Islam in the Balkans. London: Hurst. p. 10-26. ISBN 185-0651-67-1.
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