Exposing Bulgarian Myths and Lies

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Is the 'Great Macedonia' map legit though?

In all honesty I have no idea what is legitimate in this photo, it's been thrown around so much and has had so many edits and photoshops I don't even know what the original is.

I can only assume the bottom photo is the original one, but that banner of a United Macedonia they are holding is probably legit if this isn't edited. That banner dates back decades before this was taken.

[tchaiku]

Best I got.

Is the 'Great Macedonia' map legit though?

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Best I got.

[tchaiku]

Does anyone know the original picture. (This one is phottoshopped.)

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Ivan Momchilov is considered by Bulgaria to be a national figure of the "Bulgarian National Revival" and a promoter of the "Bulgarian" language.

He was born in Elena in 1819, his father had something to do with the Greek Revolution.

The image attached shows two of his works:

The first, Writings of the Slavic Langauge was published in Belgrade in 1847 where Momchilov utilised the name 'Momchilovich'

The second, The Grammar of the New Bulgarian Language was published in Ruschuk (now Ruse) in 1868 under the name 'Momchilova'

I think this shows that for much of the church movement, the goal was the introduction of a liturgical Slavic language, the Bulgarian label came later.

Also love this because this supposed Bulgarian patriot Serbizes his name and refers to the language as 'Slavic' and even later when he publishes in "Bulgaria" and utilises a more "Bulgarian" name he still refers to the language as New Bulgarian. And they have the audacity to question our identity?!

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Saint Paisius of Hilendar is regarded as the one who intiated the development of the Bulgarian identity. He was born in Bansko and wrote his highly-regarded 'History of the Bulgarian Slavs' in 1762 which includes the famous paragraph:

"Oh, you unwise moron! Why are you ashamed to call yourself a Bulgarian and why don't you read and speak in your native language? Weren't Bulgarians powerful and glorious once? Didn't they take taxes from strong Romans and wise Greeks? Out of all the Slavic nations they were the bravest one. Our rulers were the first ones to call themselves kings, the first ones to have patriarchs, the first ones to baptise their people.(...) Why are you ashamed of your great history and your great language and why do you leave it to turn yourselves into Greeks? Why do you think they are any better than you? Well, here you're right because did you see a Greek leave his country and ancestry like you do?"

Should be noted this info is from English wikipedia and is likely full of misinformation but I find this man to be an interesting figure to study in relevance to both Bulgaria and Macedonia.

[Carlin]

Bulgarians in Italy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarians_in_Italy

In the early 7th century AD, groups of Bulgars, one of the ancient peoples that participated in the ethnogenesis of the modern Bulgarians, settled in the Italian Peninsula. The main migration was headed by Altsek, a Bulgar leader who initially joined the Avar Khaganate before switching allegiance to the Germanic Lombards. Altsek and his people arrived in the Exarchate of Ravenna, where Grimoald I of Benevento invited them to populate the Duchy of Benevento. According to the Gesta Dagoberti I regis Francorum, Altsek's Bulgars settled in what are today the communes of Isernia, Bojano and Sepino. Altsek remained the leader of the Bulgar-populated areas, bearing the title gastald.[3][4][5][6]

It is uncertain whether this Altsek can be identified with another Bulgar lord, Altsiok. According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, Altsiok deserted the Avar Khaganate in 631–632. Altsiok settled in Bavaria with 9,000 Bulgars under Frankish king Dagobert I. Altsiok is known to have moved to the Venetian March with his 700 remaining men after Dagobert I slaughtered most of his people.[3][4][5]

Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum writing after the year 787 says that in his time Bulgars still inhabited the area, and that even though they speak "Latin," "they have not forsaken the use of their own tongue."[7] In later times they had evidently become completely assimilated.

Human graves of a steppe nomadic character as well as horse burials dated to the second half of the 8th century AD attest to the presence of Bulgars in the Molise and Campania regions.[8] Toponyms containing the root bulgar and personal names such as Bulgari and di Bulgari continued to appear in medieval documents relating to the Italian Peninsula.

In the 17th century, Bulgarian Roman Catholics often visited Rome in their attempts to negotiate support for a Bulgarian uprising against the Ottoman Empire. Prominent religious and public leaders such as Petar Bogdan and Petar Parchevich spent time in the city. The first book printed in modern Bulgarian, Abagar, was published in Rome in 1651.[5]

[Amphipolis]

Incident recorded by Nicetas (in Alex. Is. fil. i. c. 5, p. 617, ed. Bonn) - A priest was taken prisoner, and he besought Asen in Vlach, "which was also his language" (δείται του Άσαν αφεθήναι, δ' ομοφωνίας ως ίδρις της των Βλάχων φωνής).

Yes, this is one of the sources that support the Vlach origins theory for the Asen Dynasty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asen_dynasty

[Carlin]

Incident recorded by Nicetas (in Alex. Is. fil. i. c. 5, p. 617, ed. Bonn) - A priest was taken prisoner, and he besought Asen in Vlach, "which was also his language" (δείται του Άσαν αφεθήναι, δ' ομοφωνίας ως ίδρις της των Βλάχων φωνής).

[Gocka]

I love this thread. Keep it coming guys.

[The LION will ROAR]

The Truth about Bulgaria – by A.T. Christoff - 1919

http://www.scribd.com/doc/151471480/A-T-Christoff-The-Truth-About-Bulgaria-pdf

Извадок од книгата „Вистината за Бугарија“ издадена во 1919 година.

Почетната страна 5, ја започнува со следниот вовед :
- Бугарите се туранска раса. слични на Татарите, Хуните, Печенезите и Фините... Тие беа орда на диви коњски јавачи, жестоки и варварски, кои вршеа полигамија, и владееја деспотски со своите Ханови...

....Нивното живеалиште беше меѓу планината Урал и реката Волга, кралството на Големата (Црна) Болгарија која постоеше до 13век.''

Во продолжение признава дека ордите кои го нападнале Балканот не биле многубројни, и во следните 2 века се претопиле со Словените

[TrueMacedonian]

http://birn.eu.com/en/84/10/2952/

Bulgaria: Patriotic Outrage Dominates EU Parliament Campaign
18 05 2007 By Albena Shkodrova in Batak

"Baleva - to the guillotine, impale the Judean German!" Thus read a banner worn by Volen Siderov of the Bulgarian far right party, Ataka, as he closed his campaign for election to the European Parliament.

The violent slogan referred to two researchers – Martina Baleva and Ulf Brunnbauer of the Institute for East Europe at the Free University of Berlin – whose scientific attempt at a new read of a minor historical event three weeks ago provoked the biggest nationalistic scandal in Bulgaria since the end of the Soviet regime.

EU parliament hopeful, Siderov, has sought to exploit the political, media and public anger that has ensued, and win a seat on Sunday, when the first such elections since Bulgaria joined the bloc last January will take place. Calling the historians “moral monsters”, he last night won the roaring approval of more than 1000 of his supporters.

In Batak, the remote town Siderov chose for his last public gathering, twelve per cent of the local population voted for Ataka in the last general election held in 2005. This is three per cent more than the national average, which was 8.93 per cent and ensured his party 21 deputies in the current national assembly of 240 members.

The portraits of key figures in Bulgaria's liberation movement, who fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century, made a suitable background.

Songs from that epoch, filled with anti-Turkish sentiment, galvanised the crowd, which was waving black standards and national flags, anti-Turkish signs and posters calling for Bulgarians to "regain" their country from the ethnic Turkish minority.

"There is only one party in this country whose goal is to stop the building of minarets in Bulgaria, the speaking of Turkish language in public buildings and the oppression of Bulgarians", Siderov said in his address to the crowd.

His 30 minute-long speech had little to do with the EU.

Siderov hopes to gain votes as a result of a surge of Bulgarian nationalism sparked by the recent media and political scandal over a historical study about the history of Batak.

During the Bulgarian uprising against Ottoman rule in April 1876, more than 6000 people were killed in Batak, some 130 kilometers southeast of Sofia.

The massacre remains a symbol of Bulgarians’ suffering under Turkish rule.

Last month Baleva and Brunnbauer announced they had completed research on the collective memory of Batak.

The two historians asserted that many Bulgarian intellectuals, whose descriptions of the events have been treated as primary sources, were in fact inspired by the biased and romantic account of the events by US journalist Januarius MacGahan and Polish painter Antony Pyotrovsky.

The Baleva and Brunnbauer report was interpreted by many Bulgarian media outlets as a “denial of the Batak massacre” and dismissed as a “criminal mockery” of the “national sanctuary, Batak”.

While the two historians said they never thought to deny that atrocities had taken place in Batak, the majority of Bulgarian media maintained that the two were doing just that. One newspaper, the national daily Monitor, even suggested that Turkey had financed the research.

Bulgaria’s president, Georgi Purvanov, also a historian, said he would deliver a public lecture on Batak to “put an end to attempts aimed at distorting Bulgarian history”.

The events triggered an unprecedented nationalistic outpouring, which can be overheard in every coffee shop in the country.

“You simply can’t say that black is white!”, an elderly man exclaimed, as he exited a small chapel next to the old Batak church. “This is blasphemy!”

The church of Batak, where many people died in 1876, has suddenly become one of the most visited tourist spots in the country, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency reported last week.

In the space of twenty minutes on the afternoon of May 17, a normal working day, eight families entered this usually deserted place to have a glimpse of the well, dug with bare hands by desperate mothers during the April Uprising events.

The Batak dispute has also influenced the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, which has been at pains to underline its pro-Bulgarian position.

The party took an active part in a campaigning last week for use of the Cyrillic alphabet and announced that Bulgarian Turks helped Bulgaria’s song to reach the final of the Eurosong contest in Finland.
The DPS has also backed efforts aimed at resolving the fate of the Bulgarian nurses, sentenced to death in Libya in a high profile AIDS case.

But the idea that someone from abroad tries to deprive them of their national pride is hateful to most Bulgarians. “They paid them a million or two [to do this]!”, shouted Vanyo, an elderly man from Batak.

He was repeating what the national history museum’s director, Bozhidar Dimitrov, and other Bulgarian historians have said publicly, in comments on Baleva’s and Brunnbauer’s research.

“I would also say such a thing, if someone gave me a million”, Vanyo added, half jokingly. “The trouble is there is no one to give you a million!”, laughed his neighbours, sitting on the bench in front of their house and counting the busloads of Ataka supporters arriving from across the country.

But it is not only Siderov who has been trying to exploit the case. President Purvanov, who remains closely connected to his Bulgarian Socialist Party, was also here a day earlier, on May 16. He arrived to mark the anniversary of the April Uprising and participate in a discussion on Batak’s history.

“It was nice, there were fireworks!” a Batak woman commented. “We’ll go again tonight!”

She says she still hasn’t decided who she will vote for on Sunday. But many people of her age have: last night Siderov managed to bring out a contingent of elderly people who visibly outnumbered the locals.

“Dogan [the Turkish party’s leader] should go!”, they shouted enthusiastically for several hours. Although it remained unclear what this had to do with the EU parliament.

http://birn.eu.com/en/1/130/3576/

Historian Files Complaint Against Hate Speech
11 07 2007

Martina Baleva, one of the co-authors of a controversial historical research project, submitted a Balkan Insight analysis as part of a complaint she lodged against one of Bulgaria’s private television channels, SKAT, Deutsche Welle reported on their website at the end of June.

The complaint asked that measures be taken against SKAT, which announced a 1000 leva (500 euro) award to those who can provide Baleva’s personal address and a recent photograph. The complaint was sent to the Bulgarian National Council for Electronic Media and forwarded to all government institutions and political parties and to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

The research project, “Batak as a Bulgarian Place of Remembrance”, co-authored by Berlin’s Free University Professor Ulf Brunnbauer and doctoral student Martina Baleva, examined the role of the fine arts in the creation of national conscience myths.

Bulgarian media and political figures exploded in April with accusations that the project was trying to revise key events of Bulgaria’s history and deny the 1876 Batak massacre. The press conference to introduce the project, planned for May, never took place.

In the analysis “Bulgaria: Patriotic Outrage Dominates EU Parliament Campaign” from May 18, Balkan Insight reported that a banner worn by Volen Siderov of the Bulgarian far right party, Ataka, as he closed his campaign for election to the European Parliament read "Baleva - to the guillotine, impale the Judean German!". The full text of the article can be seen at http://www.birn.eu.com/en/84/10/2952/.

The Balkan Insight analysis will also be used by Baleva in the complaint she plans to lodge against the Ataka party for its public incitement to murder, Deutsche Welle reported.

[George S.]

What do we mean by bulgarian if no bulgarians exist they were tartars & they adopted the macedonian language.So many theories on slavs abound that it is a joke comparing them.
On the slavs they say that we macedonians adopted the slav language,alphabet etc When i consider it be the other way round the slavs adpted the macedonian ways of language & customs..
Also religion came to macedonia first orthodox & it was spread throghout europe by macedonians who created the cyrillic script cyril & mrthodius.

[Onur]

Refering old church slavonic as "old Bulgarian" is so absurd but ironically, this term is used by many. If OCS is "old Bulgarian" then how we should refer to the language of Asparuh, Kubrat and others, "older Bulgarian than the old Bulgarian"???!!! cuz it`s a fact that the Bulgarian elite and considerable part of their people wasnt speaking a slavic language b4 early 10th century.

So, if we consider that fact, OCS can only be their "new" language not the "old" one. But the ones who prefered to call OCS as old Bulgarian totally ignores their pre-christianity era, most likely they do that purposely.

Bulgarians didn't born with slavonic language but they have been assimilated with it and Bulgars had history b4 they migrated to the Balkans and adopted the slavonic tongue. The proof for this is the Volga Bulgars who still speaks their original Turkic language today, attested for more than millenia. There is a travelogue of an Arab embassador named Ibn Fadlan in Khazar empire, dated as early 10th century and he clearly states that people around Volga calling themselves as Bulgars and they are speaking Turkic just as the Khazar rulers. This Arab embassador is the one who converted volga Bulgar Khan and his family to islam.

[George S.]

Pretty good find on the slav history.