The Myth of Ethnic Conflict: Chap 13 - Diplomatic Institute

486 Maria Todorova
despite its very restricted influence, merits attention. It asserts that
the Pomaks are in fact descendants of the first Muslims in the Balkans,
who arrived on the peninsula shortly after the birth of Islam
and gradually adopted the language and customs of their Bulgarian
neighbors. This theory of an alleged “Arabic” origin of the Bulgarian
Muslims comes directly from Muslim missionaries sent from Saudi
Arabia, Libya, and Pakistan. 47 It is exclusively with their financial
support that the Qur’an has been published in Bulgarian in new
editions and is circulating in enormous numbers. 48
Lastly and most recently, there has been a political attempt to
emancipate the designation “Pomak” from its derogatory connotations
and declare the existence of a Pomak ethnic minority. In April
1993 a new party was registered, the Democratic Labor Party, which
was founded at the end of 1992. 49 Its leader, a political entrepreneur
by the name of Kamen Burov, is the mayor of the village Zhîltusha
in the Eastern Rhodopes, himself of Bulgarian Muslim descent. 50
Despite Burov’s expectations of support from the majority of the
Pomaks, the status of the party is still unclear. However, it has received
considerable attention from the press, not least because of the
specter of (real or perceived) American involvement.
Burov was sent to the United States to attend a seminar on
ethnic diversity. It is there that he was apparently converted to the
idea of a Pomak ethnic minority and, according to him, received the
assurances of American and UN administrators to help him with the
recognition of such a minority, something considered to be an important
step in the democratization of the country: 51
People in the United States were surprised when all of us introduced
ourselves as Bulgarians. They openly asked us how Bulgaria
has managed to create a country of only Bulgarians. I
introduced myself as a Bulgarian citizen of Muslim descent. The
Americans were interested in how our origins differ from those
of the Turks, and the question of the Pomaks arose. In America
nobody is irritated at somebody else’s self-identification. The Bulgarian
parliament should not tell me who I am. I have a soul, and
it cannot be obliterated. I feel a Pomak, and nobody can frown on
me for my ethnic self-identity. 52
Upon his return to Bulgaria, Burov founded his party and immediately
sought American backing: