- Anatolian Bulgarians
The Anatolian Bulgarians or Bulgarians of Asia Minor ( _bg. малоазийски българи, "maloaziyski balgari", or shortly, малоазианци, "maloaziantsi") were Eastern Orthodox
Bulgarians who settled in Ottoman-ruled northwesternAnatolia (today inTurkey ), possibly in the 18th century, and remained there until 1914.The main area of settlement lay to the south of the
Sea of Marmara betweenÇanakkale ,Balıkesir andBursa The existence of Bulgarian villages in Anatolia was noted by western travellers such as the Italian Dr Salvatori (1807), the Frenchman J.M. Tancoigne and the Briton
George Keppel (1829). Tancoigne describes his experience in Kız-Dervent (located farther east, betweenİzmit andİznik ) as follows:The Bulgarian presence in northwestern Anatolia was studied in more detail by the
ethnographer Vasil Kanchov who visited the area in the late 19th century. According to his data, there were 20 Bulgarian villages in Anatolia, for each of which he provided the number of Bulgarian houses. In Kız-Dervent, there were 400 Bulgarian houses, in Kocabunar — 350, in Söüt — 60, in Kubaş — 100, in Toybelen — 50, in Yeniköy (Ново село, "Novo selo") — 150, in Mandır — 150, in Alacabair — 50, in Killik (also "Ikinlik") — 50, in Simavla — 40, in Hacıpaunköy — 80, in Manata — 100, inBayramiç — 30 (minority), in Stengelköy — 60, in Çataltaş (also "Çataltepe") — 70, in Urumçe — 40, as well as an unknown number in Çaltik, Trama and Mata.The 1897 research of L. Iv. Dorosiev, partially based on data by his brother Yakim, a tailor in Balıkesir, lists 16 Bulgarian-inhabited villages, as follows: Kocabunar — 245 houses with 1,485 people, Söüt — 65 houses with 440 people, Novo selo (also "Yeniköy, Kızılcılar") — 65 houses with 425 people, Killik — 35 houses with 212 people, Toybelen — 125 houses with 712 people, Alacabair — 55 houses with 308 people, Taşkesi — 35 houses with 252 people, Mandır — 145 houses with 940 people, Hacıpaunköy — 60 houses with 344 people, Üren — 15 houses with 95 people, Kubaş — 20 houses with 115 people, Stengelköy — 55 houses with 312 people, Çataltepe — 80 houses, Urumçe — 45 houses, Yeniköy — 35 houses, as well as 50 houses in the town of
Gönen . This makes a total of around 6,720 people.After the
Liberation of Bulgaria , many Anatolian Bulgarians returned to their native land, with some settling inYagnilo andDobroplodno ,Varna Province ,Svirachi ,Oreshino ,Byalopolyane ,Ivaylovgrad inHaskovo Province exchanging their property with that of Turks from Bulgaria. [http://www.vn.government.bg/stranici/novini/2004/05/18-1.htm] In 1914, following theBalkan Wars , the vast majority of the Anatolian Bulgarians were deported to Bulgaria, leaving their property behind.References
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