Anatolian Bulgarians

There was a village named Bulgarlar (meaning "Bulgars"), now called Hamidiye, near Mihaliç (today Karacabey), settled in the 14th century by exiled Bulgarians.

Tancoigne describes his experience in Kız-Dervent (located farther east, between İzmit and İznik) as follows: We were pleasantly surprised by finding in that village women who would walk with their faces uncovered, and men whose manners contradicted the Asian ones entirely.

We also discovered dresses of the residents of the Danube's banks and heard a Slavic language in an area where we would regard it as absolutely foreign ...

The residents of that village are Christians, Eastern Orthodox.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.

In Kız-Dervent, there were 400 Bulgarian houses, in Kocabunar — 350, in Söğüt — 60, in Kubaş — 100, in Toybelen — 50, in Yeniköy (Ново село, Novo selo) — 150, in Mandır — 150, in Alacabayır — 50, in Killik (also Ikinlik) — 50, in Simavla — 40, in Hacıpaunköy — 80, in Manata — 100, in Bayramiç — 30 (minority), in Stengelköy — 60, in Çataltaş (also Çataltepe) — 70, in Urumçe — 40, as well as an unknown number in Çaltık, Trama and Mata.