MINNE OCH MANIPULATION - Centre for European Studies - Lunds ...

the mass consciousness. Even the attempts for relatively modest changes in the
terminology and assessment of the period are either rejected, or are immediately
misused for campaigns aiming to “defend Bulgarians and the Fatherland”. Despite
the significant achievements of modern Bulgarian historiography, the canon of
self-victimization and hero-making is constantly reiterated (Ivanova 2009). Few
attempts have been made to infuse the National Narrative with the new
achievements of the historiography of the Ottoman period. The problem remains –
almost all other historical myths and contradictions can be discussed in a calm and
academic manner in Bulgaria, except the Ottoman period. An artificially fueled
fire against contemporary “revisionist historians” reflects a “national instinct”,
which will not – again – allow academic reassessment of the period between ХVth
and the ХІХth centuries.
The exceptionally long-lived mythology of the “heavy Turkish yoke” has its
origin mainly in common perceptions among Bulgarians about their history. The
use of expressions such as “yoke” and the persistent substitution of “Ottomans” by
“Turks” remain tangible evidence of one of the most difficult to solve problems in
our modern historiography. One can list a number of topoi that re-produce this
mythology again and again, most significant of them being the expression “the
forceful Islamization of the Bulgarian population. “
Bulgaria belongs to the countries where a comparatively large number of
people were converted to Islam. The converted population, called Bulgarian
Muslims, or Pomaks, lives in a compact geographical area in the Rhodopes
Mountains. During the period 1913-1989 Bulgarian Muslims have survived by
changing their names from Turkish ones to Bulgarian ones and vise versa four
consecutive times! The topic of the violent character of the conversion process
was strongly politicized and exploited many times to serve political and state
interests.
Let us look into the sources that have given birth to the story of “the forceful
Islamization of Bulgarians” in the Rhodopes Mountain area. The sources are
relatively few and comprise marginal notes made in Old-Bulgarian manuscripts
(pripiski), all of them made public after 1870 or later, that is, almost two centuries
after the occurrence of the events they describe in detail. The most significant
among these sources is the narrative of priest Methody Draginov from the village
of Korova, situated in the Chepino River valley (the location of the present town
of Velingrad). The narrative was “discovered” and published in the famous
“Geographical, Historic and Statistical Description of Tartar-Pazardjik Kaaza”
printed in Vienna in 1870 by Stefan Zachariev, a Bulgarian intellectual and patriot
born in Pazardjik. Priest Methody’s text describes in detail the horrible violence of
the Ottomans during the Islamization of the population in the villages in the
Chepino River valley. Later, two different versions of the narrative were found:
“The Chronicles of St. Peter’s Monastery in Pazardjik” and “The Belovo
Chronicles”. In 1879 story by Lamanski’s entitled “The Second Destruction of
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