Greeks in Bulgaria - History

History

Historically, the presence of a Greek population in what is today Bulgaria dates to the 7th century BC, when Milesians and Dorians founded thriving Greek colonies on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, often on the site of earlier Thracian settlements. Maritime poleis like Nesebar (Μεσημβρία Mesimvria), Sozopol (Απολλωνία Apollonia), Pomorie (Αγχίαλος Ankhialos) and Varna (Οδησσός Odissos) controlled the trade routes in the western part of the Black Sea and often waged wars between each other.

Prior to the early 20th century, there was a small Greek minority in Southeastern Bulgaria, living largely between Varna to the north, Topolovgrad to the west and the Black Sea to the east, with a scattered rural population in the inland regions of the Strandzha and Sakar mountains. The Greek-inhabited places in Strandzha and Sakar were the town of Topolovgrad and 9 villages: Oreshnik, Kapitan Petko Voyvoda, Sinapovo, Chukarovo, Golyam Manastir, Malak Manastir, Sharkovo, Malko Sharkovo, and Mamarchevo. However, a large part of this population, the so-called Kariots, is regarded by ethnographers (including Konstantin Josef Jireček) as having been only Greek-identifying, but of Bulgarian origin; (see Grecomans). Greek communities also existed in Plovdiv, Sofia, Asenovgrad, Haskovo and Rousse, among others. In 1900, the Greeks in Bulgaria numbered 33,650.

Following the anti-Greek tensions in Bulgaria in 1906 and the population exchange agreements Kalfov-Politis and Mollov-Kafandaris after World War I, the bulk of the Greek-speaking population in Bulgaria was forced to leave for Greece and was substituted by Bulgarians from Western Thrace and Greek Macedonia. Among the few exceptions were some of the Sarakatsani, estimated at 4107 in 2006 and a small group of Greek speakers with Bulgarian self-consciousness. This group, living in Suvorovo and two nearby villages, according to the ethnographer Anastas Angleov: "...They themselves used to say : We are Bulgarians, but we speak Greek...".