Pomaks

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Помаци
Πομάκοι
Pomaklar|Pomaks
Помаци
Πομάκοι
Pomaklar|Template:PAGENAMEBASE}}

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| label11 = Template:Flagcountry | data11 = 350,000<ref name=pomaks/>- 600,000<ref name="Türkiye'deki Kürtlerin sayısı!">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label12 = Template:Flagcountry | data12 = 107,777 (2021 Census)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 67,350 Muslim Bulgarians (2011 census)<ref name=nsi2011>2011 Bulgarian census, p.29 Template:Webarchive (in Bulgarian)</ref>
up to 250,000<ref name=pomaks/> | label13 = Template:Flagcountry | data13 = 50,000 in Western Thrace<ref name=pomaks/> | label14 = | data14 = | label15 = | data15 = | label16 = | data16 = | label17 = | data17 = | label18 = | data18 = | label19 = | data19 = | label20 = | data20 = | label21 = | data21 = | label22 = | data22 = | label23 = | data23 = | label24 = | data24 = | label25 = | data25 = | label26 = | data26 = | label27 = | data27 = | label28 = | data28 = | label29 = | data29 = | label30 = | data30 = | label31 = | data31 = | label32 = | data32 = | label33 = | data33 = | label34 = | data34 = | label35 = | data35 = | label36 = | data36 = | label37 = | data37 = | label38 = | data38 = | label39 = | data39 = | label40 = | data40 = | label41 = | data41 = | label42 = | data42 = | label43 = | data43 = | label44 = | data44 = | label45 = | data45 = | label46 = | data46 = | label47 = | data47 = | label48 = | data48 = | label49 = | data49 = | label50 = | data50 = | label51 = | data51 = | label52 = | data52 = | label53 = | data53 = | label54 = | data54 = | label55 = | data55 = | label56 = | data56 = | label57 = | data57 = | label58 = | data58 = | label59 = | data59 = | label60 = | data60 = | header61 = {{#if:Bulgarian (native), Greek (by those resident in Greece) and Turkish (by those resident in Turkey)Template:Efn<ref name="ethnologue.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="britannica.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ecmi.de">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> |Languages}} | data62 = Bulgarian (native), Greek (by those resident in Greece) and Turkish (by those resident in Turkey)Template:Efn<ref name="ethnologue.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="britannica.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ecmi.de">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | header63 = {{#if:Sunni Islam |Religion}} | data64 = Sunni Islam | header65 = {{#if:Other South Slavic Muslims |Related ethnic groups}} | data66 = {{#if:Other South Slavic Muslims |Other South Slavic Muslims Template:Main other }}

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Pomaks (Template:Langx; Macedonian: Помаци Template:Langx; Template:Langx) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey, and northeastern Greece.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Template:Circa strong<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is recognized officially as Bulgarian Muslims by the government.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The term has also been used as a wider designation, including also the Slavic Muslim populations of North Macedonia and Albania.<ref name="Ghodsee2009">Template:Cite book </ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Most Pomaks today live in Turkey, where they have settled as muhacirs as a result of escaping previous ethnic cleansing in Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Bulgaria recognizes their language as a Bulgarian dialect, whereas in Greece and Turkey they self-declare their language as the Pomak language.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The community in Greece is commonly fluent in Greek, and in Turkey, Turkish, while the communities in these two countries, especially in Turkey, are increasingly adopting Turkish as their first language as a result of education and family links with the Turkish people.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive THE POMAKS, Report – Greek Helsinki Monitor</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

They are not officially recognized as one people with the ethnonym of Pomaks. The term is widely used colloquially for Eastern South Slavic Muslims,<ref name=pomaks1/> considered derogatory.Template:Clarify However, in Greece and Turkey the practice for declaring the ethnic group at census has been abolished for decades.Template:Clarify Different members of the group today declare a variety of ethnic identities: Bulgarian,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Muslim identity and the Balkan State; Hugh Poulton, Suha Taji-Farouki; 1997, p. 102</ref> Pomak,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> ethnic Muslims, Turkish and other.<ref>Histories and Identities: Nation-state and Minority Discourses. The Case of the Bulgarian Pomaks. Ulf Brunnbauer, University of Graz</ref>

Etymology

The name "Pomak" first appeared in the Bulgarian Christian-heretical language surroundings of North Bulgaria (the regions of Loveč, Teteven, Lukovit, Bjala Slatina). According to one theory,Template:Citation needed it comes from the expression "по-ямак" ("more than a Yemek", "more important than a Yamak", similar to "пó юнак", i.e. "more than a hero"). It has also been argued that the name comes from the dialectal words "помáкан, омáкан, омáчен, помáчен" (pomákan, omákan, omáčeen, pomáčen), meaning "tormented, tortured".<ref>Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary, Sofia</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Origins

Their precise origin has been interpreted differently by Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish historians,<ref>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</ref><ref>Vemund Aarbakke, The Muslim Minority of Greek Thrace, University of Bergen, Bergen, 2000, pp.5 and 12 (pp. 27 and 34 in the pdf file). {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Olga Demetriou, "Prioritizing 'ethnicities': The uncertainty of Pomak-ness in the urban Greek Rhodoppe", in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, January 2004, pp.106–107 (pp. 12–13 in the pdf file). [2]</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="MartikainenMapril2019">Template:Cite book</ref> but it is generally considered they are descendants of native Eastern Orthodox Bulgarians,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Paulicians who also previously converted to Orthodoxy and Catholicism, who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans.<ref>Любен Каравелов. Мемоари. Павликяни и семейният бит на българите. (Lyuben Karavelov. Memoirs. Paulicians and the family life of the Bulgarians). http://www.znam.bg/com/action/showBook?bookID=979&elementID=935883124&sectionID=5</ref><ref name="Selian">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Ivanov">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Apostolov2018">Template:Cite book</ref> Information through Ottoman and Catholic missionaries reports supports this theory.<ref name="Selian"/><ref>Archimandrite Nikodemos Anagnostopoulos, Orthodoxy and Islam: Theology and Muslim–Christian Relations in Modern Greece and Turkey, Culture and Civilization in the Middle East, Taylor & Francis, 2017, Template:ISBN, p. 128.</ref>

Genetic studies

A specific DNA mutation, HbO, which emerged about 2,000 years ago on a rare haplotype is characteristic of the Greek Pomaks. Its frequency increased as a consequence of high genetic drift within this population. This indicates that the Greek Pomaks are an isolated population with limited contacts with their neighbours.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A 2014 study also confirmed high homozygosity and according to MDS analysis the Greek Pomaks cluster among European populations, near the general Greek population.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

History

Pomaks are today usually considered descendants of native Orthodox Bulgarians and Paulicians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans. They started to become Muslim gradually, from the Ottoman occupation (early 15th century) to the end of the 18th century. Subsequently, these people became part of the Muslim community of the millet system. At that time people were bound to their millets by their religious affiliations (or their confessional communities), rather than their ethnic origins, according to the millet concept.<ref name="Ortayli 2006 89-8">Ortaylı, İlber. "Son İmparatorluk Osmanlı (The Last Empire: Ottoman Empire)", İstanbul, Timaş Yayınları (Timaş Press), 2006. pp. 87–89. Template:ISBN Template:In lang.</ref>

A monk Pachomios Roussanos (1508–1553), who visited the mountain area of Xanthi, mentioned that around 1550 only six or nine villages had turned to Islam.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> FurthermoreTemplate:Clarify the documentsTemplate:Which show that not only had Islam spread to the area at that time, but that the Pomaks had participated in Ottoman military operations voluntarily as is the case with the village of Shahin (Echinos).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In North Central Bulgaria (the regions of Lovech, Teteven, Lukovit, Byala Slatina)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the Ottoman authorities requested in 1689, after the Chiprovtsi Uprising, for military reasonsTemplate:Clarify Bulgarian Paulicians (heterodox Christian sect) to convert to one of the officially recognized religions in the Ottoman EmpireTemplate:Citation needed. One part of them became the Bulgarian-Christians by converting to Ottoman recognized Christian denominations, either the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church or the Roman Catholic Church, while the other part converted to Islam and began to be called Pomaks.<ref name="Selian"/> So, in North Central Bulgaria Pomaks became those of Bulgarian Christian heretics, for which it was unacceptable or impossible to convert to the Eastern Orthodox Christian because of dogmatic, economic, family or other reasons.Template:Clarify<ref name="Ivanov"/>

File:Ethnographic map of European Turkey from 1877 by Carl Sax.jpg

Ethnographic map of European Turkey from the late 19th century, showing the regions largely populated by Pomaks in brown.

The mass turn to Islam in the Central Rhodope Mountains happened between the 16th and the 17th century. According to the Codes of Bishop of Philippoupolis and the Czech historian and slavicist Konstantin Josef Jireček in the middle of the 17th century, some Bulgarian provosts agreed to become Muslim en masse. They visited the Ottoman local administrator to announce their decision, but he sent them to the Greek bishop of Philippoupolis Gabriel (1636–1672). The bishop could not change their mind. According to the verbal tradition of the Greeks of PhilippoupolisTemplate:Citation needed, a large ceremony of mass circumcision took place in front of the old mosque of the city, near the Government House. After that, the villagers became Muslim, too. According to the verbal traditionTemplate:Clarify of the Bulgarians, Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha (1656–1661) threatened the Bulgarians of Chepino Valley that he would execute them if they didn't turn to IslamTemplate:Citation needed. In 1656, Ottoman military troops entered the Chepino valley and arrested the local Bulgarian provosts, in order to transfer them in the local Ottoman administratorTemplate:ClarifyTemplate:Citation needed. There, they converted to Islam. Grand Vizier Mehmed Köprülü, after the mass Islamization, destroyed 218 churches and 336 chapels in these areasTemplate:Citation needed. A lot of Bulgarians preferred to die instead of becoming Muslim.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>M. G. Varvounis Folk tales of Pomaks in Thrace, Athens 1996</ref> According to recent investigations the theory of forced conversion to Islam, supported by some scientists, has no solid grounds with all or most evidence being faked or misinterpreted. At the same time, the sincerity of the convert is a subject to suspicion and interrogation. Some authors for example, explain the mass conversions that occurred in the 17th century with the tenfold increase of the Jizya tax.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Muslim communities prospered under the Ottoman Empire, as the Sultan was also the Caliph. Ottoman law did not recognize such notions as ethnicity or citizenship; thus, a Muslim of any ethnic background enjoyed precisely the same rights and privileges.

File:Tuhovishta's Mosque(363).jpg

Tuhovishta's Mosque

Meanwhile, the perception of the millet concept was alteredTemplate:Clarify during the 19th century and rise of nationalism within the Ottoman Empire begun. After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Pomaks in the Vacha valley, apprehensive of retribution for their role in the bloody suppression of the April Uprising two years earlier, rebelled against Eastern Rumelia and established an autonomous state, called Republic of Tamrash. In 1886 the Ottoman government accepted the Bulgarian rule over Eastern Rumelia and that was the end of the free Pomak state. During the Balkan Wars, at 16 August 1913, an Islamic revolt begun in the Eastern Rhodopes and Western Thrace. On 1 September 1913, the "Provisional Government of Western Thrace" (Garbi Trakya Hukumet i Muvakkatesi) was established in Komotini. The Ottoman administration didn't support the rebels and finally under the neutrality of Greek and Ottoman governments, Bulgaria took over the lands on 30 October 1913. The rebels requested support by the Greek state and put Greek major in Alexandroupoli.Template:Clarify<ref>in Turkish: Biyiklioglou Tevfik, "Trakya' da millî mücadele" Ankara 1956</ref><ref>in German: Peter Soustal, "Thrakien (Thrake, Rodope und Haimimontos)" Wienn 1991</ref><ref>in Greek: General Administration of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, "Thrace" Komotini 1994</ref><ref>in Turkish: Aydinli Ahmet, "Bati Trakya faciasinin icyuzu" Istanbul 1972</ref> Bulgaria, after a brief period of control over the area, passed the sovereignty of Western Thrace at the end of World War I. The Provisional Government was revived between 1919 and 1920 under French protectorate (France had annexed the region from Bulgaria in 1918) before Greece took over in June 1920.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, the religious millet system disappeared and the members of the Pomak groups today declare a variety of ethnic identities, depending predominantly on the country they live in.Template:Clarify

Language

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} There is no specific Pomak dialect of the Bulgarian language. Within Bulgaria, the Pomaks speak almost the same dialects as those spoken by the Christian Bulgarians with which they live side by side and Pomaks living in different regions speak different dialects.<ref>Bulgarian dialectology; Stoyan Stoykov; 4th edition, 2002; p.128</ref> In Bulgaria there is a trend for dialects to give way to the standard Bulgarian language and this is also affecting the dialects spoken by the Pomaks and their usage is now rare in urban areas and among younger people. As part of the wider Pomak community, the Torbeshi and Gorani in North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo speak Macedonian or Torlakian dialects (incl. the Gora dialect),<ref>Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Jorgen S. Nielsen, Samim Akgönül, Ahmet Alibasic, BRILL, 2009, Template:ISBN, p. 221.</ref><ref>The Albanian Question: Reshaping The Balkans, James Pettifer, Miranda Vickers, I.B.Tauris, 2007, Template:ISBN, p. XV.</ref><ref>Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: L-R, James Minahan, Template:ISBN, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, p. 1517.</ref><ref>Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States Religion and Global Politics, Vjekoslav Perica, Oxford University Press, 2004, Template:ISBN, p. 75.</ref><ref>Culture and Learning in Islam Different Aspects of Islamic Culture, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, UNESCO, 2003, Template:ISBN, pp. 96–98.</ref><ref>Who Are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 208.</ref> which are sometimes also considered to be part of the "wider Bulgarian dialect continuum".<ref>Who are the Macedonians?, Hugh Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 116.</ref><ref>When languages collide: perspectives on language conflict, language competition, and language coexistence, Brian D. Joseph, Ohio State University Press, 2003, p. 281, Template:ISBN.</ref><ref>Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity, Miranda Vickers, James Pettifer, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 205.</ref>

Most Pomaks speak some of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, mainly the Rup dialects in Southern Bulgaria and the Balkan dialects in Northern Bulgaria. The Pomaks living in the Bulgarian part of the Rhodopes speak the Rhodope (especially the Smolyan, Chepino, Hvoyna and Zlatograd subdialects) and Western Rup (especially the Babyak and Gotse Delchev sub-dialects) dialects.<ref>Bulgarian dialectology; Stoyan Stoykov; 4th edition, 2002; pp.128–143</ref> The Smolyan dialect is also spoken by the Pomaks living in the Western Thrace region of Greece. The Pomaks living in the region of Teteven in Northern Bulgaria speak the Balkan dialect, specifically the Transitional Balkan sub-dialect.<ref>Bulgarian dialectology; Stoyan Stoykov; 4th edition, 2002; pp.117–118</ref> The Rup dialects of the Bulgarian language spoken in Western Thrace are called in Greece Pomak language (Pomaktsou). Similar to Paulician dialect, it has words and resemblance to the grammatical forms of the Armenian language<ref name="Selian"/>

The Pomak language is taught at primary school level (using the Greek alphabet) in the Pomak regions of Greece, which are primarily in the Rhodope Mountains. The Pomaks of Thrace were, together with Turks and Roma, exempted from the population exchanges provided by the Lausanne Treaty (1923). The treaty made no mention of their language, but declared that their languages of education should be Turkish and Greek. The main school manual used for the teaching the language is 'Pomaktsou' by Moimin Aidin and Omer Hamdi, Komotini 1997. There is also a Pomak-Greek dictionary by Ritvan Karahodja, 1996. The Pomak dialects are on the Eastern side of the Yat isogloss of Bulgarian, yet many pockets of western Bulgarian speakers remain.Template:Citation needed A large number of them no longer transmit it; they have adopted Turkish as a first language and Greek as a second language.<ref>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.</ref> Recently the Community of the Pomaks of Xanthi, has announced its request to be treated equally and therefore to have the right of education in Greek schools without the obligation of learning the Turkish language.<ref>Demetriou, Olga (January 2004). "Prioritizing 'ethnicities': The uncertainty of Pomak-ness in the urban Greek Rhodoppe". Ethnic and Racial Studies (27)., pg. 105–108 [3]</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Population

Bulgaria

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Pomaks in Bulgaria are referred to as Bulgarian Muslims (българи-мюсюлмани Balgari-Myusyulmani), and under the locally used names Ahryani (pejorative, meaning "infidels"<ref name="Nitsiakos2008">Template:Cite book</ref>), Pogantsi, Poturani, Poturnatsi, Eruli, Charaklii, etc.<ref name="Apostolov2001">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="geo bound">Template:Cite book</ref> Officially no ethnic Pomaks are recorded, while 67,000 declared Muslim and ethnic Bulgarian identity,<ref name=nsi2011/> down from 131,000 who declared Muslim Bulgarian identity at the 2001 census.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Unofficially, there may be between 150,000<ref name=pomaks1>Template:Cite book</ref> and 250,000<ref name=pomaks/> Pomaks in Bulgaria, though maybe not in the ethnic sense as one part declare Bulgarian, another part – Turkish ethnic identity. During the 20th century the Pomaks in Bulgaria were the subject of three state-sponsored forced assimilation campaigns – in 1912, the 1940s and the 1960s and 1970s which included the change of their Turkish-Arabic names to ethnic Bulgarian Christian Orthodox ones and in the first campaign conversions from Islam to Eastern Orthodoxy. The first two campaigns were abandoned after a few years, while the third was reversed in 1989. The campaigns were carried out under the pretext that the Pomaks as ancestral Christian Bulgarians who had been converted to Islam and who therefore needed to be repatriated back to the national domain. These attempts were met with stiff resistance by many Pomaks.<ref>DIMITROV, VESSELIN: "In Search of a Homogeneous Nation: The Assimilation of Bulgaria's Turkish Minority, 1984–1985" Template:Webarchive, London School of Economics, UK 23 December 2000</ref>

Turkey

Pomaks in Turkey community is present mostly in Eastern Thrace and to a lesser extent in Anatolia, where they are called in Turkish Pomaklar, and their speech, Pomakça. The Pomak community in Turkey is unofficially estimated to be between 300,000 and 600,000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Greece

File:20091128 Medusa Xanthi Thrace Greece 2.jpg

Medusa Pomak village, Xanthi, Thrace, Greece

Today the Pomaks (Template:Langx) in Greece inhabit the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, particularly the eastern regional units of Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros.<ref name="geo bound" /> Their estimated population is 50,000,<ref name=pomaks/> only in Western Thrace. Until the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923 did Pomaks inhabit a part of the regions of Moglena<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – Almopia (Karadjova), Kastoria<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and some other parts of Greek Macedonia and North Macedonia. German sightseer Adolf Struck in 1898 describes Konstantia (in Moglena) as a big village with 300 houses and two panes, inhabited exclusively by Pomaks. Greek nationalist scholars and government officials frequently refer to the Pomaks as "slavicised" Greek Muslims, to give the impression and support Greek narratives that they are the descendants of Ottoman-era Greek converts to Islam like the Vallahades of Greek Macedonia.Template:Citation needed

North Macedonia

The Macedonian Muslims (or Torbeši), are also referred to as Pomaks, especially in historical context.<ref>Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, published by the Endowment Washington, D.C. 1914, p.28, 155, 288, 317, Поп Антов, Христо. Спомени, Скопje 2006, с. 22–23, 28–29, Дедиjeр, Jевто, Нова Србија, Београд 1913, с. 229, Петров Гьорче, Материали по изучаванието на Македония, София 1896, с. 475 (Petrov, Giorche. Materials on the Study of Macedonia, Sofia, 1896, p. 475)</ref><ref>Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe – Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE). Muslims of Macedonia. p. 2, 11</ref><ref>Лабаури, Дмитрий Олегович. Болгарское национальное движение в Македонии и Фракии в 1894–1908 гг: Идеология, программа, практика политической борьбы, София 2008, с. 184–186, Кънчов, Васил. Македония. Етнография и статистика, с. 39–53 (Kanchov, Vasil. Macedonia — ethnography and statistics Sofia, 1900, p. 39-53), Leonhard Schultze Jena. «Makedonien, Landschafts- und Kulturbilder», Jena, G. Fischer, 1927</ref><ref>Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entestehung und etwicklung bis 1908., Wiessbaden 1979 (in Bulgarian: Аданър, Фикрет. Македонският въпрос, София 2002, с. 20)</ref><ref>Смиљанић, Тома. Пастирски живот код Миjака, Гласник српског географског друштва, Свеска 5, Београд, 1921, с. 232.</ref><ref>Матов, Милан. За премълчаното в историята на ВМРО. Спомени, Второ издание София 2011, с. 58.</ref> They are a minority religious group in North Macedonia, although not all espouse a Macedonian national identity and are linguistically distinct from the larger Muslim ethnic groups in the country, Albanians and Turks. However the estimated 100,000 Pomaks in North Macedonia maintain a strong affiliation to the Turkish identity.<ref name=pomaks/>

Albania

Slavic-speaking Muslims, sometimes referred to as "Pomaks", live also in the Albanian region of Golloborda. However these people are also referred to as "Torbeš". Within Macedonian academia, their language has been regarded as Macedonian,<ref name=Vidoeski214309339>Template:Cite book p. 214.</ref> while within Bulgarian academia, their dialect is considered as part of the Bulgarian language.<ref>Асенова, Петя. Местни имена от Голо бърдо, Североизточна Албания, в: Езиковедски проучвания в памет на проф. Йордан Заимов, София 2005, с. 42–53.</ref> Part of this people still self-identify as Bulgarians.<ref>Urgent anthropology Vol. 3 Problems of Multiethnicity in the Western Balkans. Fieldwork Edited by Antonina Zhelyazkova, Template:ISBN. Template:Dead link</ref>

Kosovo

The Gorani occasionally are also referred to as Pomaks in historical context.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They are people who inhabit the Gora region, located between Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. The general view is that they should be treated as a distinct minority group.<ref>Kosovo: the Bradt travel guide, Gail Warrander, Verena Knaus, Published by Bradt Travel Guides, 2007, Template:ISBN, p. 211.</ref><ref>Historical dictionary of Kosova, Robert Elsie, Scarecrow Press, 2004, Template:ISBN, p. 70.</ref> Part of these people are already albanised.<ref>Bulgarians in the region of Korcha and Mala Prespa (Albania) nowadays, Balkanistic Forum (1-3/2005), South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad, Pashova, Anastasija Nikolaeva; Issue: 1-3/2005, Page Range: 113–130.</ref> By the last censuses at the end of the 20th century in Yugoslavia they had declared themselves to be ethnic Muslims, like Bosniaks.<ref>Religion and the politics of identity in Kosovo by Gerlachlus Duijzings, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 27.</ref>

Notable people

• Mehmed Talaat (1874–1921), Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Arif Sami Agush (born 1953), Member of the Bulgarian Parliament; Parliamentary Group of Movement for Rights and Freedoms. His ancestor was an Ottoman feudal called Agush Aga. The Agush castle (konak) is situated in the village of Mogilitsa. He was born in Sandrovo, Bulgaria.
• Rita Wilson (born 1956 as Margarita Ibrahimoff), American actress and producer, married to actor Tom Hanks. Born in Los Angeles, California, to a Pomak father and a Greek mother.
• Hussein Mumin (born 1987), Greek footballer. Born in Passos, Rhodope, Greece.

See also

• Pomak language
• Pomak Republic
• Provisional Government of Western Thrace

Further reading

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• Kahl, Thede (2007): The presence of Pomaks in Turkey. In: Voss, C.; Steinke, K. (ed.): The Pomaks in Greece and Bulgaria - a model case for borderland minorities in the Balkans, p. 227-234. Munich: Biblion.
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• Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "The Human Rights of Muslims in Bulgaria in Law and Politics since 1878", Sofia, November 2003
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External links

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• Pomaknews Agency | Nezavisen Glas na Pomacite
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