Post by ioan on Jun 28, 2009 6:41:17 GMT -5
Bulgarians in Kosovo (Gorani)[1]
In English: P.D.
The Protobulgarians and the Slavs from the so-called Eastern Group started to penetrate the Balkan Peninsula from the end of the V century on. Nearly two centuries passed, during which they almost constantly waged war against the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine). In their striving to settle permanently on the peninsula in 680 (681) the Protobulgarians, the Slavs and the remains from the Thracian substrate founded the Bulgarian State. Throughout many centuries of constant wars with the Byzantine Empire the Bulgarian State extended its geographic boundaries. During the rule of Tsar Boris the Baptist (852-889) it reached the mountains of Albania. Several decades later during the rule of Tsar Simeon the Great (893-927) Bulgaria had one of its biggest territorial enlargements, with the city of Butrinto (today in Southern Albania) being its Southwestern-most point.
According to a number of foreign scientists-historians, among whom Prof. Han[2], Stadtmueller[3] and others, during the early Middle Ages the whole South Albania was populated with Bulgarians only. The indigenous population welcomed the Bulgarians as liberators and become related to them through marriages[4]. Gradually it became a substantial element of the Bulgarian nation on the Balkans during the Middle Ages. For example the fortress Beli-grad[5] with the Voyvoda Elemag in 1018 was the last Bulgarian stronghold the Byzantines encountered on their way to conquer the First Bulgarian Kingdom. Shortly afterwards, in 1041, the rebels of Tihomir and Petar Delyan managed to liberate Drach (today Durres) and during the rule of Ivan Asen II (1218-1241) the whole territory of Albania without Durres and Shkodra was incorporated into Bulgaria again.
The centuries-long massive Bulgarian presence resulted in the numerous preserved till today Bulgarian toponyms (geographical names) of mountains (Gora, Mokra, Smolika, Prokletiya, Korshpnik), rivers (Sushitsa, Dunavets, Bistritsa, Devol) and a number of settlements (Vrubnitsa, Ostreni, Topolino, etc.): “The Slav toponyms in Kosovo and Albania look more Bulgarian than Serbian, as the Bulgarians conquered those territories during the 9th and mostly in the end of the 10th century during the rise of the Bulgarian Empire with Ohrid as a capital, when the Serbians were to be found far from Kosovo. It was only during the rule of Stefan Nemanich (1196-1227), crowned as King in 1217, that the Serbian State incorporated the region of Pech, while the bigger part of the Kosovo territory remained outside its boundaries…”[6]
During the following centuries mostly due to the Turkish rule a process of decreasing of the number of Bulgarians on the territory of today’s Albania took place, but nevertheless until the end of the 18th century the Bulgarian presence there could be clearly felt and their appearance as a people differed radically from that of the present one.
One of the most extensive researches of this process is the publication by Prof. Dimitar Yaranov “Migration Movements of Bulgarians from Macedonia and Albania towards the Eastern Bulgarian territories through the 15th till the 19th century.” [7] Equally important are the statements by a number of scientists and travellers about the ethnic varieties in Kosovo in the 19th century. The third volume by the French traveller Purcellville[8] mentions repeatedly the Bulgarians. For example on p.48 he writes: “…About 4 km from Yanina (Yoanina) is the town Bopila, whose citizens are Bulgarian”, and on p.249 in the same volume: “Prizren is the natural boundary between Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania”. The book by Malte-Brule[9] mentions that: “To the west the Bulgarian population cuts into central Albania and in the Prishtina and Prizren sanjaks the Bulgarians are second in number only to the Albanians”. In 1857 the Russian scientist A. Hilferding states categorically that “…in Prizren many Bulgarians live together with the Serbians…” In the seventh issue of the newspaper “Prizren”[10] as of 1871 the Turkish page reads the following: “The non-Muslim people in the Nish and Skopie sanjaks and even in the Debrite are mostly Bulgarians, and in the Prizren sanjak all Christians with the exception of the seven hundred Latin houses are Bulgarians, who have many schools in all towns, where they study in Bulgarian.”. The eminent German Slavonic scholar August Leskin claims that the boundary between the Serbian and Bulgarian language passes through Kosovo, “a little to the southeast from Prishtina, further to Prizren or to the junction of Beli and Cherni Drin…” The dedicated Serbian intelligence worker Stefan Verkovich writes: “The population of Prizren is not of Serbian, but of Bulgarian and Kutsovlach origin…” (Topographic-ethnographic novel for Macedonia-St. Petersburg, 1889). Verkovich does not mention anything about Serbians and Albanians.
As a result from the demographic changes[11] during the 17th and 18th centuries the Albanians became the predominant population in Kosovo. However, they could not fully replace the Bulgarian ethnic element that had been living in the country for centuries. That was proved by Art. 6 of the San Stefano Peace Treaty as of 1878 according to which part of today’s Albania had to be incorporated into the Bulgarian territories. The region in question was the Korcha region to the west of Korcha to Berat and to the south of Korcha to the Gramos Mountain, Pogradets, Debar, Gostivar and Tetovo.
Quite illogically, after the restoration of the Bulgarian State in 1878 the Bulgarian population of Kosovo did not receive the so desired support from the authorities in Sofia. Occupied by a number of internal political, economic, social and cultural problems the Bulgarian governments seldom paid any attention to the Bulgarians living north of Shar.
Belgrade held a different position. Having maintained and confirmed its statute on the Balkans after the Berlin Treaty it faced the attractive challenge of starting a process of purposeful assimilation of the “forgotten” by Battenberg and Ferdinand Bulgarian population of Kosovo. This was facilitated by the numerous suggestions of the Dual Monarchy that Serbia had to redirect its interest from Bosnia to Kosovo and Macedonia. The Serbian Kingdom found hope in the plan of Iliya Garashanin and the favourable international situation and taking advantage of the passive Bulgarian policy directed its efforts towards a planned invasion of the inhabited mostly by Bulgarians and Albanians territories to the south of Nish and Leskovatz. Gradually the science started talking about tens and then hundreds of “Old Serbians” inhabiting Kosovo, etc. Having remained outside the boundaries of Bulgaria by a twist of fate, unprotected by it in any way the Bulgarians in Kosovo faced a dilemma. They had to choose between remaining in their birthplaces and calling themselves Serbians or leaving the homes of their fathers forever and keeping their Bulgarian ethnic origin. The passivity of official Sofia, however, was not shared by the whole academic community. The respected Bulgarian historian and Osmanist Prof. Str. Dimitrov wrote about the so called “Kosovo Serbians”: “They speak a language that is closer to ours and easier to understand by us, they are rather closer to the Macedonian Bulgarians…” Afterwards he introduces a number of Osman documents, which are evidence of the plans, methods and activities of the Serbian cultural and armed propaganda in Kosovo. However, we also meet documents of the sort: “The Gniljane “Serbians” that are almost half of the population of Prishtina region say about themselves: “We are not Serbians. The Serbians from Old Serbia came here in 1912 and told us we are Serbians. We want to be Bulgarians like we have been from the old times”.” A large number of foreign scientists and specialists share the same position. According to G. Vajgand in the beginning of 20th centuries in Kosovo“…in the whole Prishtina sanjak with its five kazas: Preshovo, Gilyani, Prishtina, Vuchitrun and Mitrovitza there are 547 Albanian villages, 149 Serbian, 73 Bulgarian and 41 mixed (Albanian-Serbian-Bulgarian)” [12] The confessions of the neighbours of the Bulgarians in Kosovo – the Albanians themselves are quite moving. In a letter to his friend the poet P. Yavorov as of 23 January 1913 Kochi Tsilka, Minister of the Posts and Telegraphs in the first Albanian government from 1912, complains of “the Serbian terror and the daily pushing of Bulgarians and Shipters away from Prizren and other towns and the still worse treatment that Bulgarians and Albanians get from the Greeks in Kostur region, Lerin region and Epir.” Tsilka ends his letter under the loud exclamations of his friends “Reofe Bulgaria” (Long live Bulgaria!)…
One of the last manifestations of interest by the Bulgarian State in the destiny of the Kosovo Bulgarians in XX century is the protocol of the Bulgarian Regional Military Governor of Prizren region Dimitar Vlahov. It was elaborated in 1917 for the needs of several Bulgarian ministries. It reads: “Among the newly acquired Macedonian territories Prishtina region is one of the biggest regions in territory and population. It occupies the bigger part of Kosovo pole with an area of about 8000 square kilometres. There are 546 settlements, grouped in 60 municipalities, of which 4 urban and 56 rural, with population of 208 501 people.”
The document mentions separately the number of settlements falling within the 5 districts that comprise the region – Prishtina urban and rural, Gniljane, Poudevo and Ferizovo and the number of people in each one of them. Further on the report reads: “The population is divided into: Orthodox Bulgarians – 43 714, Bulgarian Catholics – 5 202, Mohammedan Turks – 18 187, Mohammedan Albanians – 128 775, Albanian Catholics – 326, Mohammedan Gypsies – 9517, Orthodox Gypsies – 972, Jews – 494, others – 9 517. Altogether – 208 501 people” [13]
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[1] Quote from the article by Sasho Stanev "Evidence from Albanian and non-Slav sources about the Bulgarian ethnos on territories inhabited by Albanians” published in the symposium “Bulgarians in Albania and Kosovo”, S., 2001; How Bulgarians in Kosovo and Serbia were renamed Serbians – Trendafil Krastanov, Macedonia newspaper, issue 21, 26 May 1999; Bulgarians in Kosovo, Yordan Kolev, EK magazine, issue 4, 1999; Bulgarian presence in Kosovo, Tasho Iv. Tashev, PhD in history, Macedonia newspaper, issue 16, 21 April 1999 and others.
[2] Prof. Han, “Albanian Reserach”, Jena, 1854, p.311
[3] Stadtmueller. Research on the early history of Albania. Budapest, 1941, p. 162
[4] History of Albania, Stefanyak Polo and Arben Puta, 1981
[5] As of 16th century the town is known as Berat
[6] Albanians and their territories. Tirana, 1985, p. 189
[7] Macedonian Review magazine, year VII, volume 2-3, p. 68-118.
[8] Purcellville. Travels to Greece, Albania and other parts of the Ottoman Empire in 1798, 1799,1800 and 1801, Paris, 1802
9 Malte-Brule. Ottoman Empire, 1928
10 Published as of 1871 in Prizren region
11 Anton Aogorechi "Albanians", London, 1977
[12] G. Vajgand, "Ethnography of Macedonia", Leipzig, 1924
[13] Quote from a report by the Regional Governor of Prizren Dimitar Vlahov "about the administrative change and division of Prishtina region" as of 16 September 1917
www.geocities.com/goranite/en.htm
In English: P.D.
The Protobulgarians and the Slavs from the so-called Eastern Group started to penetrate the Balkan Peninsula from the end of the V century on. Nearly two centuries passed, during which they almost constantly waged war against the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine). In their striving to settle permanently on the peninsula in 680 (681) the Protobulgarians, the Slavs and the remains from the Thracian substrate founded the Bulgarian State. Throughout many centuries of constant wars with the Byzantine Empire the Bulgarian State extended its geographic boundaries. During the rule of Tsar Boris the Baptist (852-889) it reached the mountains of Albania. Several decades later during the rule of Tsar Simeon the Great (893-927) Bulgaria had one of its biggest territorial enlargements, with the city of Butrinto (today in Southern Albania) being its Southwestern-most point.
According to a number of foreign scientists-historians, among whom Prof. Han[2], Stadtmueller[3] and others, during the early Middle Ages the whole South Albania was populated with Bulgarians only. The indigenous population welcomed the Bulgarians as liberators and become related to them through marriages[4]. Gradually it became a substantial element of the Bulgarian nation on the Balkans during the Middle Ages. For example the fortress Beli-grad[5] with the Voyvoda Elemag in 1018 was the last Bulgarian stronghold the Byzantines encountered on their way to conquer the First Bulgarian Kingdom. Shortly afterwards, in 1041, the rebels of Tihomir and Petar Delyan managed to liberate Drach (today Durres) and during the rule of Ivan Asen II (1218-1241) the whole territory of Albania without Durres and Shkodra was incorporated into Bulgaria again.
The centuries-long massive Bulgarian presence resulted in the numerous preserved till today Bulgarian toponyms (geographical names) of mountains (Gora, Mokra, Smolika, Prokletiya, Korshpnik), rivers (Sushitsa, Dunavets, Bistritsa, Devol) and a number of settlements (Vrubnitsa, Ostreni, Topolino, etc.): “The Slav toponyms in Kosovo and Albania look more Bulgarian than Serbian, as the Bulgarians conquered those territories during the 9th and mostly in the end of the 10th century during the rise of the Bulgarian Empire with Ohrid as a capital, when the Serbians were to be found far from Kosovo. It was only during the rule of Stefan Nemanich (1196-1227), crowned as King in 1217, that the Serbian State incorporated the region of Pech, while the bigger part of the Kosovo territory remained outside its boundaries…”[6]
During the following centuries mostly due to the Turkish rule a process of decreasing of the number of Bulgarians on the territory of today’s Albania took place, but nevertheless until the end of the 18th century the Bulgarian presence there could be clearly felt and their appearance as a people differed radically from that of the present one.
One of the most extensive researches of this process is the publication by Prof. Dimitar Yaranov “Migration Movements of Bulgarians from Macedonia and Albania towards the Eastern Bulgarian territories through the 15th till the 19th century.” [7] Equally important are the statements by a number of scientists and travellers about the ethnic varieties in Kosovo in the 19th century. The third volume by the French traveller Purcellville[8] mentions repeatedly the Bulgarians. For example on p.48 he writes: “…About 4 km from Yanina (Yoanina) is the town Bopila, whose citizens are Bulgarian”, and on p.249 in the same volume: “Prizren is the natural boundary between Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania”. The book by Malte-Brule[9] mentions that: “To the west the Bulgarian population cuts into central Albania and in the Prishtina and Prizren sanjaks the Bulgarians are second in number only to the Albanians”. In 1857 the Russian scientist A. Hilferding states categorically that “…in Prizren many Bulgarians live together with the Serbians…” In the seventh issue of the newspaper “Prizren”[10] as of 1871 the Turkish page reads the following: “The non-Muslim people in the Nish and Skopie sanjaks and even in the Debrite are mostly Bulgarians, and in the Prizren sanjak all Christians with the exception of the seven hundred Latin houses are Bulgarians, who have many schools in all towns, where they study in Bulgarian.”. The eminent German Slavonic scholar August Leskin claims that the boundary between the Serbian and Bulgarian language passes through Kosovo, “a little to the southeast from Prishtina, further to Prizren or to the junction of Beli and Cherni Drin…” The dedicated Serbian intelligence worker Stefan Verkovich writes: “The population of Prizren is not of Serbian, but of Bulgarian and Kutsovlach origin…” (Topographic-ethnographic novel for Macedonia-St. Petersburg, 1889). Verkovich does not mention anything about Serbians and Albanians.
As a result from the demographic changes[11] during the 17th and 18th centuries the Albanians became the predominant population in Kosovo. However, they could not fully replace the Bulgarian ethnic element that had been living in the country for centuries. That was proved by Art. 6 of the San Stefano Peace Treaty as of 1878 according to which part of today’s Albania had to be incorporated into the Bulgarian territories. The region in question was the Korcha region to the west of Korcha to Berat and to the south of Korcha to the Gramos Mountain, Pogradets, Debar, Gostivar and Tetovo.
Quite illogically, after the restoration of the Bulgarian State in 1878 the Bulgarian population of Kosovo did not receive the so desired support from the authorities in Sofia. Occupied by a number of internal political, economic, social and cultural problems the Bulgarian governments seldom paid any attention to the Bulgarians living north of Shar.
Belgrade held a different position. Having maintained and confirmed its statute on the Balkans after the Berlin Treaty it faced the attractive challenge of starting a process of purposeful assimilation of the “forgotten” by Battenberg and Ferdinand Bulgarian population of Kosovo. This was facilitated by the numerous suggestions of the Dual Monarchy that Serbia had to redirect its interest from Bosnia to Kosovo and Macedonia. The Serbian Kingdom found hope in the plan of Iliya Garashanin and the favourable international situation and taking advantage of the passive Bulgarian policy directed its efforts towards a planned invasion of the inhabited mostly by Bulgarians and Albanians territories to the south of Nish and Leskovatz. Gradually the science started talking about tens and then hundreds of “Old Serbians” inhabiting Kosovo, etc. Having remained outside the boundaries of Bulgaria by a twist of fate, unprotected by it in any way the Bulgarians in Kosovo faced a dilemma. They had to choose between remaining in their birthplaces and calling themselves Serbians or leaving the homes of their fathers forever and keeping their Bulgarian ethnic origin. The passivity of official Sofia, however, was not shared by the whole academic community. The respected Bulgarian historian and Osmanist Prof. Str. Dimitrov wrote about the so called “Kosovo Serbians”: “They speak a language that is closer to ours and easier to understand by us, they are rather closer to the Macedonian Bulgarians…” Afterwards he introduces a number of Osman documents, which are evidence of the plans, methods and activities of the Serbian cultural and armed propaganda in Kosovo. However, we also meet documents of the sort: “The Gniljane “Serbians” that are almost half of the population of Prishtina region say about themselves: “We are not Serbians. The Serbians from Old Serbia came here in 1912 and told us we are Serbians. We want to be Bulgarians like we have been from the old times”.” A large number of foreign scientists and specialists share the same position. According to G. Vajgand in the beginning of 20th centuries in Kosovo“…in the whole Prishtina sanjak with its five kazas: Preshovo, Gilyani, Prishtina, Vuchitrun and Mitrovitza there are 547 Albanian villages, 149 Serbian, 73 Bulgarian and 41 mixed (Albanian-Serbian-Bulgarian)” [12] The confessions of the neighbours of the Bulgarians in Kosovo – the Albanians themselves are quite moving. In a letter to his friend the poet P. Yavorov as of 23 January 1913 Kochi Tsilka, Minister of the Posts and Telegraphs in the first Albanian government from 1912, complains of “the Serbian terror and the daily pushing of Bulgarians and Shipters away from Prizren and other towns and the still worse treatment that Bulgarians and Albanians get from the Greeks in Kostur region, Lerin region and Epir.” Tsilka ends his letter under the loud exclamations of his friends “Reofe Bulgaria” (Long live Bulgaria!)…
One of the last manifestations of interest by the Bulgarian State in the destiny of the Kosovo Bulgarians in XX century is the protocol of the Bulgarian Regional Military Governor of Prizren region Dimitar Vlahov. It was elaborated in 1917 for the needs of several Bulgarian ministries. It reads: “Among the newly acquired Macedonian territories Prishtina region is one of the biggest regions in territory and population. It occupies the bigger part of Kosovo pole with an area of about 8000 square kilometres. There are 546 settlements, grouped in 60 municipalities, of which 4 urban and 56 rural, with population of 208 501 people.”
The document mentions separately the number of settlements falling within the 5 districts that comprise the region – Prishtina urban and rural, Gniljane, Poudevo and Ferizovo and the number of people in each one of them. Further on the report reads: “The population is divided into: Orthodox Bulgarians – 43 714, Bulgarian Catholics – 5 202, Mohammedan Turks – 18 187, Mohammedan Albanians – 128 775, Albanian Catholics – 326, Mohammedan Gypsies – 9517, Orthodox Gypsies – 972, Jews – 494, others – 9 517. Altogether – 208 501 people” [13]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Quote from the article by Sasho Stanev "Evidence from Albanian and non-Slav sources about the Bulgarian ethnos on territories inhabited by Albanians” published in the symposium “Bulgarians in Albania and Kosovo”, S., 2001; How Bulgarians in Kosovo and Serbia were renamed Serbians – Trendafil Krastanov, Macedonia newspaper, issue 21, 26 May 1999; Bulgarians in Kosovo, Yordan Kolev, EK magazine, issue 4, 1999; Bulgarian presence in Kosovo, Tasho Iv. Tashev, PhD in history, Macedonia newspaper, issue 16, 21 April 1999 and others.
[2] Prof. Han, “Albanian Reserach”, Jena, 1854, p.311
[3] Stadtmueller. Research on the early history of Albania. Budapest, 1941, p. 162
[4] History of Albania, Stefanyak Polo and Arben Puta, 1981
[5] As of 16th century the town is known as Berat
[6] Albanians and their territories. Tirana, 1985, p. 189
[7] Macedonian Review magazine, year VII, volume 2-3, p. 68-118.
[8] Purcellville. Travels to Greece, Albania and other parts of the Ottoman Empire in 1798, 1799,1800 and 1801, Paris, 1802
9 Malte-Brule. Ottoman Empire, 1928
10 Published as of 1871 in Prizren region
11 Anton Aogorechi "Albanians", London, 1977
[12] G. Vajgand, "Ethnography of Macedonia", Leipzig, 1924
[13] Quote from a report by the Regional Governor of Prizren Dimitar Vlahov "about the administrative change and division of Prishtina region" as of 16 September 1917
www.geocities.com/goranite/en.htm