Misplaced Pages

#93906

40-946: Until the beginning of the twentieth century the Thracian Bulgarians were scattered in the whole of Thrace , then part of the Ottoman Empire . After the persecutions during the Preobrazhenie Uprising and the ethnic cleansing , caused to the Bulgarian population in Eastern Thrace after the Second Balkan War , these people were expelled from the area. After World War I , Bulgaria was required to cede Western Thrace to Greece. A whole population of Bulgarians in Western Thrace

80-791: Is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe . Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, it comprises present-day southeastern Bulgaria ( Northern Thrace ), northeastern Greece ( Western Thrace ), and the European part of Turkey ( East Thrace ), roughly the Roman Province of Thrace. Lands also inhabited by ancient Thracians extended in

120-512: Is mentioned in Ovid 's Metamorphoses , in the episode of Philomela , Procne , and Tereus : Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, and cuts out her tongue. Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing her son Itys (by Tereus) and serving him to his father for dinner. At

160-808: The Bulgarian and Greek population are Orthodox Christians , while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Sunni Muslims . Ancient Greek mythology provides the Thracians with a mythical ancestor Thrax , the son of the war-god Ares , who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homer 's Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas and Peiros . Later in the Iliad , Rhesus , another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus , father-in-law to

200-711: The Greek War of Independence . With the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Northern Thrace was incorporated into the semi-autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia , which united with Bulgaria in 1885. The rest of Thrace was divided among Bulgaria , Turkey and Greece at the beginning of the 20th century, following the Balkan Wars , World War I and the Greco-Turkish War . In Summer 1934, up to 10,000 Jews were maltreated, bereaved, and then forced to quit

240-662: The Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during the invasion of the Persian Empire itself. The Thracians recorded no collective name for themselves; terms such as Thrace and Thracians were assigned by the Greeks. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not form any lasting political organizations until the founding of the Odrysian state in the 4th century BC. Like Illyrians , the locally ruled Thracian tribes of

280-821: The Roman Empire . Although the term Byzantine Empire is used by modern historians, the empire's citizens and emperors called themselves Romans, meaning Greek-speaking Eastern Romans, and embraced a Christian identity. Various languages in the Balkans have long used the descriptor "Roman" to refer to the lands of the former Eastern Roman Empire. The term survives in several languages in the region: Albanian : Rumelia ; Bulgarian : Румелия , Rumeliya ; Greek : Ρωμυλία , Romylía , or Ρούμελη, Roúmeli ; Macedonian ; and Serbo-Croatian : Румелија , Rumelija ; as well Romanian : Rumelia . The old Latin documents in Genoa use

320-671: The Romans ; Turkish : Rumeli ; Greek : Ρωμυλία ) was the name of a historical region in Southeastern Europe that was administered by the Ottoman Empire , roughly corresponding to the Balkans . In its wider sense, it was used to refer to all Ottoman possessions and vassals in Europe . These would later be geopolitically classified as "the Balkans", although Hungary , Moldova and Slovakia are often excluded. During

360-596: The Thracians , a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions (like Macedonia and even Scythia ) were added. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into "Asia, Libya, Europa and Thracia". As the Greeks gained knowledge of world geography, "Thrace" came to designate the area bordered by the Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) on the east, by northern Macedonia in

400-766: The expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Anatolia and the Balkans in the second half of the 14th century and after the conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul ) in 1453 by Mehmed II , the term Rumeli came to apply exclusively to the Balkan region of the Ottoman Empire. The region remained primarily populated by Christians ; though gradually, the Albanians , Bosniaks and Pomaks , as well as many Greeks , Serbs , Bulgarians and Vlachs converted to Islam . Many grand viziers , viziers , pashas and beylerbeyis were originally from Rumelia. Rumelia included

440-692: The "Sultanate of the Roman Empire" or "Roman Sultanate", which mostly covered central Anatolia until the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. Anatolia was referred to as Land of the Christians, hence Rum. Afterwards, it was replaced by the Anatolian beyliks , among which the Ottoman Beylik rose to prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries and eventually became the Ottoman Empire . However, following

SECTION 10

#1732766228094

480-554: The Archaic period through the Greek colonisation and was completed by the end of Roman antiquity. As regards the competition between the Greek and Latin language, the very high rate of Greek inscriptions in Thrace extending south of Haemus Mountains proves the complete language Hellenization of this region. The boundaries between the Greek and Latin speaking Thrace are placed just above the northern foothills of Haemus Mountains. During

520-555: The Roman citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire. During the same period (in the 1st-2nd century AD), a remarkable presence of Thracians is testified by the inscriptions outside the borders (extra fines) both in the Greek territory and in all the Roman provinces, especially in the provinces of Eastern Roman Empire. By the mid-5th century, as the Western Roman Empire began to crumble, Thracia fell from

560-572: The Romans", which was the name traditionally given by Turkic societies to the Byzantine Empire and Orthodox Christians . In Greek mythology, Thrace is named after the heroine and sorceress Thrace , who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, and sister of Europa . The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. The ancient Greeks employed the term "Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Thessaly inhabited by

600-541: The Romans, Thrace also lost its independence and became tributary to Rome. Towards the end of the 1st century BC Thrace lost its status as a client kingdom as the Romans began to directly appoint their kings. This situation lasted until 46 AD, when the Romans finally turned Thrace into a Roman province (Romana provincia Thracia). During the Roman domination, within the geographical borders of ancient Thrace, there were two separate Roman provinces, namely Thrace ("provincia Thracia") and Lower Moesia ("Moesia inferior"). Later, in

640-650: The Thracian (northern) side of the Hellespont, which formed part of the contingent led by Asius . Ancient Thrace was home to numerous other tribes, such as the Edones , Bisaltae , Cicones , and Bistones in addition to the tribe that Homer specifically calls the "Thracians". Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes , Tereus , Lycurgus , Phineus , Tegyrius , Eumolpus , Polymnestor , Poltys , and Oeagrus (father of Orpheus ). Thrace

680-535: The Trojan elder Antenor , is also given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont and Black Sea in the east. The Catalogue of Ships mentions three separate contingents from Thrace: Thracians led by Acamas and Peiros, from Aenus ; Cicones led by Euphemus , from southern Thrace, near Ismaros ; and from the city of Sestus , on

720-637: The area suffered a Mongol raid from the Golden Horde , led by Nogai Khan , and between 1305 and 1307 was raided by the Catalan company . In 1352, the Ottoman Turks conducted their first incursion into the region subduing it completely within a matter of two decades and ruled it for five centuries in general peace. In 1821, several parts of Thrace, such as Lavara , Maroneia , Sozopolis , Aenos , Callipolis , and Samothraki rebelled during

760-474: The authority of Rome and into the hands of Germanic tribal rulers. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Thracia turned into a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000 years. The surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire in the Balkans, later known as the Byzantine Empire , retained control over Thrace until the 7th century when the northern half of the entire region

800-622: The current Turkish populations of the Balkans and the descendants of Turkish immigrants from the Balkans. The region in Turkey is also referred to as Eastern Thrace , or Turkish Thrace. In Greece , the term Ρούμελη ( Rumeli ) has been used since Ottoman times to refer to Central Greece , especially when it is juxtaposed with the Peloponnese or Morea. The word Rumeli is also used in some cases, mostly in Istanbul, to refer exclusively to

840-492: The end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne into a swallow , Philomela into a nightingale , and Tereus into a hoopoe . The city of Dicaea in Thrace was named after the son of Poseidon , Dicaeus . Indigenous Thracians were divided into numerous tribes. The first to take greater control of Thrace, in part or whole, were the Achaemenian Persians in the late 6th century BC . The region

SECTION 20

#1732766228094

880-592: The formation of a new Thracian nation on the base of this people in order to include them in a new separate Thracian state , as a part of a future Balkan Communist Federation . The last flow of Thracian refugees into Bulgaria was as the Bulgarian Army pulled out of the Serres - Drama region in late 1944. With the accession of Bulgaria into the European Union, Bulgarian authorities appear to revisit

920-450: The imperial period many Thracians – particularly members of the local aristocracy of the cities – had been granted the right of the Roman citizenship (civitas Romana) with all its privileges. Epigraphic evidence show a large increase in such naturalizations in the times of Trajan and Hadrian, while in 212 AD the emperor Caracalla granted, with his well-known decree ( constitutio Antoniniana ),

960-816: The issue as a precondition for Turkey's membership to the Union . Some Thracian Bulgarians still live in East Thrace in Turkey , descended from the people and families who converted to Islam in order to stay and avoid being deported during the Destruction of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913 . This Bulgaria -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Thrace Thrace ( / θ r eɪ s / , thrayss ; Bulgarian : Тракия , romanized :  Trakiya ; Greek : Θράκη , romanized :  Thráki ; Turkish : Trakya )

1000-517: The main town. Following the administrative reorganization made by the Ottoman government between 1870 and 1875, the name Rumelia ceased to correspond to any political division. Eastern Rumelia was constituted as an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin (1878) , but on September 6, 1885, after a bloodless revolution, it was united with Bulgaria . The Kosovo Vilayet

1040-629: The modern geographical region. In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace . The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is East Thrace . The largest cities of Thrace are: Istanbul , Plovdiv , Çorlu , Tekirdağ , Burgas , Edirne , Stara Zagora , Sliven , Yambol , Haskovo , Komotini , Alexandroupoli , Xanthi , and Kırklareli . Most of

1080-573: The mountainous regions maintained a warrior tradition, while the tribes based in the plains were purportedly more peaceable. Recently discovered funeral mounds in Bulgaria suggest that Thracian kings did rule regions of Thrace with distinct Thracian national identity. During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the Ctistae lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests, and prophets. Sections of Thrace particularly in

1120-452: The north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania and to the west into Macedonia . The word Thrace , from ancient Greek Thrake (Θρᾴκη), referred originally to the Thracians (ancient Greek Thrakes Θρᾷκες), an ancient people inhabiting Southeast Europe. The name Europe (ancient Greek Εὐρώπη), also at first referred to this region, before that term expanded to include its modern sense . The region could have been named after

1160-609: The period of its existence, Rumelia was more often known in English as Turkey in Europe . Rûm in this context means "Roman", and ėli means "land" and Rumelia ( Ottoman Turkish : روم ايلى , Rūm-ėli ; Turkish : Rumeli ) means "Land of the Romans" in Ottoman Turkish . It refers to the lands conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, which formerly belonged to the Byzantine Empire , known by its contemporaries as

1200-560: The principal river there, Hebros , possibly from the Indo-European arg "white river" (the opposite of Vardar , meaning "black river"), According to an alternative theory, Hebros means "goat" in Thracian . According to Stephanus of Byzantium , long before the ancient Greeks started referring to the region as Thrace , it was known as Aria (Αρια) and Perki (Περκη). In Turkey, it is commonly referred to as Rumeli , "Land of

1240-521: The provinces of Thrace , Macedonia and Moesia , which are now Bulgaria and Turkish Thrace , bounded to the north by the rivers Sava and Danube , west by the Adriatic coast and south by the Morea . In the beginning the main town was the city of Plovdiv , then Sofia . The name "Rumelia" was ultimately applied to a province composed of central Albania and northwestern Macedonia, with Bitola being

Thracian Bulgarians - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-655: The region (see 1934 Thrace pogroms ). From Bulgaria and Romania between 1934 and 1938 a large wave of Muslims immigrants called Göçmenler went to East Thrace . Today, Thracian is a geographical term used in Bulgaria , Turkey , and Greece . The Trakiya Heights in Antarctica "are named after the historical region." 42°N 26°E  /  42°N 26°E  / 42; 26 Rumeli Rumelia ( Ottoman Turkish : روم ايلى , romanized :  Rum İli , transl.  Land of

1320-537: The south started to become hellenized before the Peloponnesian War as Athenian and Ionian colonies were set up in Thrace before the war. Spartan and other Doric colonists followed them after the war. The special interest of Athens to Thrace is underlined by the numerous finds of Athenian silverware in Thracian tombs. In 168 BC, after the Third Macedonian war and the subjugation of Macedonia to

1360-669: The south, and by Illyria to the west. This largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom , whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this region's former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River . This usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, (classical) Thrace referred only to the tract of land largely covering the same extent of space as

1400-749: The term Romania , the common name for the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages . Originally, the Seljuks used the name "Land of the Rûm " (Romans) to define Anatolia , which the armies of the Seljuk Empire gradually conquered from the Byzantine Empire after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate was called the Sultanate of Rum by its contemporaries, meaning

1440-436: The times of Diocletian, the two provinces were joined and formed the so-called "Dioecesis Thracia". The establishment of Roman colonies and mostly several Greek cities, as was Nicopolis, Topeiros, Traianoupolis, Plotinoupolis, and Hadrianoupolis resulted from the Roman Empire's urbanization. The Roman provincial policy in Thrace favored mainly not the Romanization but the Hellenization of the country, which had started as early as

1480-407: Was created in 1877. In Turkey , the word Trakya ( Thrace ) has now mostly replaced Rumeli (Rumelia) to refer to the part of Turkey that is in Europe (the provinces of Edirne , Kırklareli , Tekirdağ , the northern part of Çanakkale Province and the western part of Istanbul Province ). However, "Rumelia" remains in use in historical contexts and is still used in the context of the culture of

1520-427: Was expelled into Bulgaria-controlled Northern Thrace. This was followed by a further population exchange between Bulgaria and Greece (under the Treaty 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 the Bulgarian Communist Party was compelled by Comintern to accept

1560-447: Was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian theme . The Empire regained the lost regions in the late 10th century until the Bulgarians regained control of the northern half at the end of the 12th century. Throughout the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, the region was changing in the hands of the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empire (excluding Constantinople). In 1265

1600-510: Was incorporated into their empire as the Satrapy of Skudra , after the Scythian campaign of Darius the Great . Thracian soldiers were used in Persian armies and are depicted in carvings of the Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam . Persians' presence in Thracia lasted for more than a century, ending with the conquests in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great of Macedon , who divided the vast realm between his generals. Notably, Thracian troops are known to have accompanied Alexander when he crossed

#93906