Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book, I now realize, has been the product of my own life between two motherlands. A native of Bulgaria, in 1992 I found myself studying history and archaeology in Greece. This experience informed my personal transition from the intensely optimistic early years of postsocialism to the unsettling realization that change after communism would be slow and ambiguous. I still remembered the disturbing images of the Turks in Bulgaria forcefully fleeing the country in early 1989 because of pressures from the communist regime, and I could not comprehend why in 1990, after the fall of communism, noisy demonstrations would call for the continued restriction of their religious and cultural traditions. When the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared independence in 1991, the Bulgarian government was the first one to recognize this political act, but politicians and ordinary Bulgarians alike adhered to paternalistic ideas of how the relationship between the two neighbors should develop. In Greece the government denied the right of the new country to call itself Macedonia, and national leaders organized huge rallies claiming exclusive Greek ownership of the legacy of ancient Macedonia and Alexander the Great. Meanwhile, the conflict between the constituent republics of Yugoslavia escalated by the week, leading to wars in Croatia and Bosnia that overshadowed the previously optimistic international broadcasts from the region. Nationalism seemed to have engulfed the Balkans for good. To further complicate my personal dilemma of how to handle being a Bulgarian in Greece, I had to swallow the fact that, in many of my classes, important events of Bulgarian history were interpreted differently and often negatively. As my universe of national heroes was being shattered and the world around me was falling apart, nothing seemed to be left from the blissful calm of my childhood spent in the oblivion of late socialism. x | Acknowledgments The company of my smart, sensitive, and witty friends, and the guidance of my generous and broad-minded professors, muted the noisy rhetoric of everyday nationalists. Faced with the debunking of my myths, I gained an understanding of the experiences of people living outside a dominant culture. As part of the “generation of democracy,” the high school students graduating immediately after 1989, many of my friends left Bulgaria for various countries across the world, and I constantly heard stories of personal triumph, family sacrifice, disappointment, accommodation, and perseverance. At the same time Greece was full of illegal Bulgarian labor migrants , and, on the long bus rides home during my breaks, I listened to their stories of risky border crossings, long hours of hard work, tense encounters with authorities, misunderstandings with employers, and the lingering desire to see their families and simply “go home.” In addition to heartbreaking personal tragedies, there were also accounts of successful adaptation, financial gain, and the resourceful handling of difficult circumstances. Every so often I heard about a distant “Greek grandmother,” inevitably inferring that the person was actually Greek, even if the locals did not recognize it. Back in Bulgaria I paid attention to the situation of other “others”; Turks, Bulgarian Muslims, Roma, and foreigners from all corners of the world all offered moving insights on being treated as “strangers within.” Ultimately I decided to pursue my graduate studies in the United States. But when I first arrived in the country in 1998, the escalating conflict in Kosovo had again turned attention to the Balkans and generated much discussion about the “burdens of history” in the area. I was determined to find a topic that not only would explain the nationalistic outburst of hatred in the area but one that would also refute the clichés of “primordial animosities” circulating around me. And when I returned to Bulgaria and Greece, searching for this topic in archives and libraries, I came across a small minority group, the Greeks of Bulgaria; forgotten, neglected, irrelevant for the history of the two countries but happily adaptive, wittily resourceful, and consciously “in between” cultures and traditions, they seemed to provide answers to the questions that most concerned me. Inevitably my personal experiences and scholarly pursuits have led me to redefine where my own loyalties lay. Almost twenty years after I first arrived in Greece and twelve years after I came to the United States, I am still seeking answers. On the one hand, I constantly remind myself that I am Bulgarian. On the other, I know that my nationality is seldom relevant for my choices. Yet, if I am to relinquish my Bulgarianness, I would feel immensely...