#pomaks

Turks of Dövlen, Paşmaklı, Central Rhodopes, 1926.

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One of the often forgotten Turkish communities is the one in the Central Rhodopes. Since a large part of the population of this region consists of Pomaks, people tend to think that all people from Devin are Pomaks. Similarly, their Namecide in 1972 was often ignored and shadowed by the Pomak population namecide. But the Turks first lost their names in 1972, not 1984.

Stoyu Nedelchev Shishkov in his article "The newly liberated lands. Dyovlenska kaaza" published in the newspaper "Peace" in February 1913, wrote the following:

“This kaaza [Dövlen/Devin] consists of 33 villages: [listing]. The largest village is Tamrash, 400 houses, and the others are smaller, including some of 20 houses. All count about 4,000 houses [...] All villages are Pomak, except three: Grohotno [known as Grahotna in Turkish], Gyovren [Gövren in Turkish], Karabulak with 273 houses all. These villages belong to Yuruks, who had large summer pastures in the mountains.”

A few months after this publication, in August-September 1913, the local Muslims revolted, dissatisfied that they were within the borders of Bulgaria. The uprising was suppressed and many villages were set on fire. Eight villages were completely burnt down, including Grohotno and Gyovren.

The Cultural Association of the Pomaks in Greece’s northern city of Xanthi issued a damning statement recently, ahead of Sunday’s private visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to Western Thrace.

The Association said that Cavusoglu is not welcome in their region and declared him a ”persona non grata.”

The reason for this hostile reaction on behalf of the Pomaks is the fact that Cavusoglu and the Turkish government insist on calling the Greek Muslim minority of Western Thrace ”Turkish.”

”When we died for these lands, we did not know [speak] Turkish,” their statement says.

”Over the recent decades, the Pomaks and Roma of Thrace have been subjected to a cultural and linguistic genocide by Turkish settlers,” the damning statement continues, only to add that ”the minority is one and it is defined by the Treaty of Lausanne; it is Muslim and it consists of communities that have only one thing in common: Their religion!”

Who are the Pomaks

The Pomaks are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and mainly northwestern Turkey.

Approximately 220,000 Pomaks live in Bulgaria and are known there as ”Bulgarian Muslims.”

In Greece, their number is approximately 50,000 people, who live primarily in villages across Western Thrace known as ”Pomakohoria,” meaning the villages of the Pomaks.

The term ”Pomak” has also been used as a wider designation, including also the Slavic Muslim populations of North Macedonia and Albania, apart from these of Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

The Pomaks speak various Bulgarian dialects and those spoken in Greece and Turkey are referred to as the Pomak language, which the Greek authorities now try to preserve with minority schools in Western Thrace teaching it.

The community in Greece is commonly fluent in the Greek language, and a large number of them have a strong ethnic Greek identity despite their religious difference compared to Greece’s prevalent religion, Orthodox Christianity.

However, there is also an increasing number of individuals who adopt Turkish as their first language as a result of education and family links with the Turkish people.

Cavusoglu to Visit Greece Despite Tensions

The visit of Cavusoglu to Greece on May 31 has been scheduled to hold talks with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias, and has sparked negative reactions, mainly due to his intention to go privately to Western Thrace the day before.

The Turkish Minister confirmed his visit with the state broadcaster TRT on May 26.

Cavusoglu had said earlier this week that his talks with the Greek Foreign Minister also aim to prepare for a possible meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The visit comes more than a month after Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias held talks in Ankara where Cavusoglu and his counterpart had a war of words at a joint press conference.

The two Ministers argued in front of cameras during the press conference in a rare heated public exchange. They remained at odds over a number of issues, despite hopes that their meeting could have opened an opportunity to lessen tensions over maritime boundaries and energy exploration rights in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Bulgarian Pomaks

1970s

Προτάσεις για την Υπέρβαση της Θράκης, του Κοσμά Μεγαλομμάτη: Εξόρμηση, 5 Μαρτίου 1990; Πολιτικά Θέματα, 2-8 Μαρτίου 1990; Οικονομικός Ταχυδρόμος, Ιούλιος 1990

Proposals to transcend the problem in Thrace, by Cosmas Megalommatis: Exormisi (Sortie), 5 March 1990; Politika Themata (Political Matters), 2-8 March 1990; Oikonomikos Tahydromos (Economic Courier), July 1990

Предложения по преодолению проблемы во Фракии, автор Космас Мегаломматис: Exormisi (Вылазка), 5 марта 1990 г.; Политика Фемата (Политические вопросы), 2–8 марта 1990 года; Ойкономикос Тагидромос (Экономический курьер), июль 1990 г.

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Μικρό Εισαγωγικό Σχόλιο

Αυτό το μικρό κείμενο, το οποίο δημοσιεύθηκε πριν από 33 χρόνια, αποκαλύπτει όλη την άθλια πραγματικότητα και την οικτρή κατρακύλα του νεοελληνικού ψευτο-κράτους, δηλαδή ενός εσμού δουλικών, αμορφώτων, αξέστων και ηλιθίων αυτιστικών, τα οποία αυτοκτονικά αυτο-προβάλλονται ως ειδικοί σε θέματα για τα οποία είναι ανίδεοι, και των οποίων ο γελοίος νεοφιλελευθερισμός, ο παρανοϊκός πατριωτισμός, ο παράλογος διεθνισμός, ο γελοίος μοντερνισμός και ο διεστραμμένος δικαιωματισμός έχουν μόνον ένα κοινό παρονομαστή: την διάβρωση, την διάλυση και τε΄λικά την εξαφάνιση της χώρας. Με άλλα λόγια, όλοι τους αποτελούν ένα δικτατορικό καθεστώς το οποίο μισεί την Αλήθεια. Υπό αυτή την άποψη, η κατάσταση στην Θράκη επιδεινώθηκε στο μεσοδιάστημα και κανένας στην τυφλή Ελλάδα δεν έχει ιδέα για το τι πρέπει η χώρα να κάνει ώστε ενεργώς να εντάξει όλους τους κατοίκους της Δυτικής Θράκης στην εξέλιξη και διακυβέρνηση της χώρας, έτσι τερματίζοντας ξενικές επιρροές και αναμείξεις. Οπότε, οι όποιοι εχθροί και οι μη εχθροί της χώρας δεν έχουν καμμιά ανάγκη να κάνουν την παραμικρή κίνηση εναντίον της Ελλάδας, όπως οι ψευτο-πανεπιστημιακοί λούστροι των τηλεοπτικών καναλιών και των παναθλίων ιντερνετικών 'αναλύσεων' βλακωδώς διατείνονται και οι αποβλακωμένοι Νεοέλληνες συνεχώς τους ακούουν, χωρίς να αντιλαμβάνονται ότι είναι θύματα απατεώνων και ψευτών. Ουσιαστικά, κανένας δεν αποπειράται να κόψει κάτι το σάπιο. Αυτό πέφτει από μόνο του.  

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Brief Introductory Comment

This little text, which was published 33 years ago, reveals the miserable reality and the severe collapse of the neo-Greek pseudo-state, which is a realm of servile, uneducated, worthless and idiotic autistics, who self-destructively present themselves as experts on subjects in which they are ignorant. Those guys' ridiculous neoliberalism, paranoid patriotism, irrational globalism, ridiculous modernism, and perverse human-rightism have only one common denominator: the erosion, disintegration and forthcoming disappearance of the country. In other words, all of them make one dictatorial regime that hates the Truth. In this view, the situation in Thrace has worsened in the meantime, and no one in the blind country of Greece has any idea what the state should do to actively incorporate all the inhabitants of Western Thrace in the management and governance of the country, thus putting an end to foreign interference. Therefore, the enemies and the non-enemies of the country have no need to make the slightest move against Greece, as the local pseudo-academic rascals stupidly assert. They are all bribed to be incessantly vociferous on TV channels and to absurdly prattle on the web, diffusing bogus-patriotic nonsense and besotting the average Modern Greeks, who by constantly listening to them, become the victims of fraudsters and liars, without even understanding it. In fact, no one is trying to cut something rotten; it falls by itself.

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Краткий вводный комментарий

Этот небольшой текст, опубликованный 33 года назад, раскрывает печальную реальность и жестокий крах неогреческого псевдогосударства. Это место рабских, необразованных, никчемных и идиотских аутистов, которые саморазрушительно выставляют себя экспертами в предметах, в которых они невежественны. Нелепый неолиберализм, параноидальный патриотизм, иррациональный глобализм, нелепый модернизм и извращенное правозащитное поведение этих ребят имеют только один общий знаменатель: эрозия, распад и предстоящее исчезновение страны. Другими словами, все они составляют один диктаторский режим, ненавидящий Истину. С этой точки зрения, ситуация во Фракии тем временем ухудшилась, и никто в слепой стране Греции понятия не имеет, что должно делать государство, чтобы активно включить всех жителей Западной Фракии в управление страной и поставить прекращение иностранного вмешательства. Поэтому врагам и неврагам страны незачем предпринимать хоть малейшие шаги против Греции, как глупо утверждают местные псевдоакадемические негодяи. Их всех подкупили для того, чтобы они беспрестанно кричали на телеканалах и нелепо болтали в сети, распространяя фальшиво-патриотический бред и одурманивая среднестатистических современных греков, которые, постоянно их слушая, сами того не понимая, становятся жертвами мошенников и лжецов. На самом деле никто не пытается вырезать что-то гнилое; оно падает само.

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