BULGARIAN-SPEAKING MUSLIMS - Lalev

Turkey in 1877, partially in support of its Orthodox Slavic brethren’s struggle for independence and
partially in fulfillment of its own ambitions for dominance in the Balkans. The Treaty of San Stefano
of March 1878 concluded the Russian-Turkish War and created a large Bulgarian nation-state in the
heart of the Peninsula.
The combination of a strong Bulgaria and potent Russian presence in the region, however,
did not square well with the interests of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Italy.
This new nation-state, under profound Russian influence, incorporated territory that stretched from
the Danube River to the north to the Aegean Sea to the south, dwarfing all its neighbors except
Ottoman Turkey. Responding to a general sense of urgency, Otto von Bismarck, First Chancellor of
Germany, convened a congress in Berlin in 1878, where the powerful of the day duly partitioned
Bulgaria, reducing it to a hapless principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Most of
southern Bulgaria, better known as Eastern Rumelia, became a semi-independent province under
Ottoman authority, while Macedonia (west of Eastern Rumelia) was restored to direct sultanic rule.
By partitioning the country, the Berlin Congress portended disaster for Bulgaria. So powerful was the
sense of loss among the Bulgarian nation that in coming years it stimulated the emergence of an
aggressive nationalism. Bulgaria’s neighbors Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro felt similarly hurt by
the standing Berlin Treaty. 12
As the party most aggrieved by the Berlin agreement, Bulgaria was the first to act against it.
In September 1885, the Bulgarian Principality unilaterally proclaimed its unification with Eastern
Rumelia. Because none of the western Great Powers took direct action to enforce the Berlin decision,
they implicitly validated the unification. Unable to reverse the course of events on its own, Turkey
had formally recognized united Bulgaria by 1908. This development notwithstanding, the emerging
Balkan nation-states still felt victimized by the Berlin Congress of 1878. They all had aspirations to
territories remaining within the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarians desired Thrace, the Greeks coveted
Aegean islands, and the Serbs and Montenegrins aspired to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina and northern
Albania respectively. All four, however, harbored ambitions to dominate Macedonia, a fertile region
12 Hall, 1-21; Crampton, 23-95.
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