Bulgarian millet
Bulgarian millet (Turkish: Bulgar Milleti) was an ethno-religious and linguistic community within the Ottoman Empire from the mid-19th to early 20th century.
[1] At that time the classical Ottoman millet-system began to degrade with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic identity and the term millet was used as a synonym of nation.
[6] The ideas of Bulgarian nationalism grew up in significance, following the Congress of Berlin which took back the regions of Macedonia and Thrace under Ottoman control.
[7] All Orthodox Christians, including Bulgarians, in the Ottoman Empire were subordinated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which was dominated by Greek Phanariotes by the end of the 19th century.
[8] During the late 18th century, the Enlightenment in Western Europe provided influence for the initiation of the National awakening of the Bulgarian people.
During the early nineteenth century, national elites used ethno-linguistic principles to differentiate between "Bulgarian" and "Greek" identity into the Rum millet.
At that time secular Bulgarian schools were spreading throughout Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia, aided by modern classroom methods.
The actions were carried out by Bulgarian national leaders and supported by the majority of the Slavic population in modern-day Bulgaria, Eastern Serbia, North Macedonia and Northern Greece.
The movement for union with Rome led to the initial recognition of a separate Bulgarian Catholic millet by the Sultan in 1860.
The Synod issued an official condemnation of ecclesiastical nationalism, and declared on 18 September the Bulgarian Exarchate schismatic.
The ideas of Bulgarian nationalism grew up in significance, following the Congress of Berlin which took back the regions of Macedonia and Southern Thrace, returning them under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
As a consequence, the Bulgarian nationalist movement proclaimed as its aim the inclusion of most of Macedonia and Thrace under Greater Bulgaria.
Soon, the Young Turks turned increasingly Ottomanist and sought to suppress the national aspirations of the various minorities in Macedonia and Thrace.
The effect of the Balkan Wars in 1912–1913 was the partition of Ottoman empire territories in Europe, which was followed by an anti-Bulgarian campaign in areas of Macedonia and Thrace, that came under Serbian and Greek administration.
As a consequence many Bulgarians fled from the territories of present-day Greece, North Macedonia and European Turkey to what is now Bulgaria.
Subsequently, the Ottoman Empire lost virtually all of its possessions in the Balkans, which put a de facto end to the community of the Bulgarian millet.
