A prelude of Ottoman genocides: The tragedy of Thracian Bulgarians

2026-03-11 - 17:14

Thrace is a historical region in the southeastern Balkans, bounded by the Maritsa River, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Sredna Gora mountain range. Today, the area is divided between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, which control Northern, Eastern and Western Thrace, respectively. From the 15th to the early 20th century, the region was part of the Ottoman Empire, under whose rule a multicultural and multiethnic environment flourished. According to estimates published in the second half of the 19th century by the French newspaper Courier de l’Orient, Thrace was inhabited by 372,476 Bulgarian Orthodox, 190,568 Muslims, 147,984 Greek Orthodox, 13,710 Jews and 10,440 Armenians. However, over the last two centuries, the rise of nationalism, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the establishment of new nation-states, the persecution of ethnic minorities and the homogenizing policies have transformed the region, significantly reducing the multicultural nature of Thrace. While Bulgarian and Greek portions of the region have partly retained their original ethnic communities — with sizable Turkic, Pomak and Roma minorities still living there — the Turkish portion lost all its indigenous Christian and Jewish communities during the first half of the 20th century. Eastern Thrace, in particular, became the theater of what can probably be described as the first systematic operation of ethnic cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, carried out by the administration led by the Committee of Union and Progress. These events resemble a disturbing prelude to the genocides that were later perpetrated against Armenian, Greek and Assyrian communities. In fact, in 1913, Constantinople dispossessed, slaughtered or expelled the entire Bulgarian population of Eastern Thrace. Such actions aimed to erase an inconvenient presence and secure Turkish control of the region. The history of this tragedy began in October 1912, when the Balkan League — a military alliance composed of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia — attacked the Ottoman Empire, provoking the First Balkan War. The Christian armies rapidly advanced across Ottoman-held territory, expelling the Ottoman forces from the European continent except for Constantinople and its surroundings. Bulgaria — which was already in charge of Northern Thrace since 1885 — captured large territories, conquering part of Macedonia, Western Thrace and part of Eastern Thrace. During the conflict, regular armies and irregular troops committed atrocities and abuses against Muslim minorities, often forcing them to flee to the Ottoman Empire. Many of their villages and towns were burned, to prevent their return. The humiliating defeat, the crimes perpetrated by the enemy and the arrival of muhacirs sparked outrage throughout Ottoman territories, fueling a desire for revenge. In January 1913, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) — a pan-Turkist, nationalist and constitutional revolutionary organization also known as the Young Turks — carried out a coup d’état against the government appointed by the Sultan Mehmed V, replacing it with a new national unity government. The new administration was determined to resume hostilities in order to regain at least part of the lost provinces. The situation proved favorable, as the Balkan states appeared to be divided after the war. In fact, they could not agree on the partition of former Ottoman territories and were unable to overcome their disagreements. Serbia, Greece and Romania sought to expand at Bulgaria’s expense, while the Turks desired to recover Thrace. The ground was fertile for an anti-Bulgarian coalition, which took shape in June 1913. That month, Montenegro, Greece and Serbia attacked the Bulgarian Tsardom, starting the Second Balkan War, which was later joined by Romania and the Ottoman Empire. The following month, the Ottoman army resumed hostilities against Bulgarian forces, rapidly advancing in Eastern Thrace. The first city to be recaptured was Rodosto (Tekirdağ), where returning muhacirs and irregular troops sacked non-Muslim properties, killing many Christian residents. Wealthier citizens could pay to save their lives, but people from the lower classes had less luck. The pogrom caused 19 deaths, while 81 inhabitants were reported missing. A few days later, the same scenario was repeated in Malgara (Malkara), where 12 Armenians were killed, eight disappeared and 87 homes were burned. What initially appeared to be a local pogrom driven by revenge against Christian communities — many of whom had previously supported the Bulgarian occupiers — quickly evolved into a state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing. In the countryside, Muslim forces burned entire hamlets (villages), slaughtered their inhabitants, raped women and expelled the survivors, erasing numerous Thracian Bulgarian communities. Some might argue that these actions were not part of a planned policy of ethnic cleansing but rather acts of revenge against Christians who had previously sided with the invaders. Nevertheless, evidence on the ground disputes this theory. The Ottoman authorities not only controlled the region but also regulated the degree of violence applied against its inhabitants. For example, on July 22, Turkish troops marched into Adrianople (Edirne), the largest city in the area, populated by 47,000 Turks, 20,000 Greeks, 15,000 Jews, 4,000 Armenians and 2,000 Bulgarians. Despite local fears, Muslim soldiers did not commit bloodshed, nor did they carry out the sacking of Christian properties. This episode does not prove an Ottoman commitment to order and multiculturalism; on the contrary, it reveals the calculated logic behind their operations in Eastern Thrace. In urban areas — where the attention of foreign diplomats and journalists was intense — Turkish authorities restrained the use of violence in an attempt to reassure Western public opinion. On the contrary, in rural areas, forceful evictions, ransacking, abuses and massacres were widespread, since European countries were less aware of developments there. Moreover, all Bulgarian communities were targeted, even if they had not previously aided the Christian occupiers. Desire for revenge was not the only motivation behind such operations and probably cannot be regarded as the main reason. The intellectuals and politicians affiliated with the Young Turks regarded the Christian subjects — especially those who lived in border areas — as disloyal and potentially treacherous. In other words, they were viewed as a fifth column ready to assist enemies and support anti-Turkish irredentism, facilitating Ottoman contraction. This is the same logic that prompted — and still prompts — violence against Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Yazidis and Kurds. Ethnic, religious and linguistic heterogeneity has been and continues to be associated with separatism, irredentism and foreign interference, which were among the main causes of the dissolution of the empire built by the Sublime Porte. The Ottoman government tried to formalize the ethnic cleansing by signing a treaty of mutual population exchange with Sofia. In September 1913, the two sides reached the first agreement: according to the terms of the entente, Bulgarian communities living near the border (from 1 to 15 kilometers) were to be transferred to Bulgaria, while Muslim communities on the other side of the border were to face a similar fate. According to these provisions, 46,764 Thracian Bulgarians and 48,570 Bulgarian Muslims were to be affected by the resettlement. In reality, the vast majority of these Bulgarians had already been evicted from their homes; therefore, the treaty attempted to formalize a situation that was already taking place de facto. Indeed, the Ottoman authorities were establishing facts on the ground, forcing the enemy to accept the de-Bulgarization of Eastern Thrace. While talks were still ongoing, the Turks deported Bulgarian communities even if they lived far from the frontier. The Ministry of Internal Affairs encouraged voluntary migration where possible by offering free shipping and removing administrative obstacles. Nevertheless, it did not hesitate to resort to violence where necessary: if Bulgarians refused to leave the country, they faced harassment, threats, attacks and even murders. Ottoman authorities wanted to terrorize them and make their lives impossible in order to convince them to depart. In many boroughs, the regular army entered and ordered the population to pack and leave the country within 24 hours, allowing them to collect only the bare essentials. This fate befell communities such as Karahadır, Kaliçli, Urumbeyli, Korudere, Madsura, Tatarköy, Karamasli, Skopo and Sinekli. The abandoned properties and goods were later taken by Muslim settlers, which in several cases consisted of Balkan muhacirs. One of the worst atrocities of this campaign was committed in Bulgarköy (currently known as Yenimuhacir), where the local population was suspected of treason. In the summer 1913, the Kurdish cavalry entered the village, stole the Bulgarians’ livestock and pillaged homes. One week later, all male inhabitants age 16 or older were gathered under a pretext and executed. However, some local men were hiding to save their lives. The Turks adopted a crafty stratagem: they spread posters across the hamlet, reassuring the local population that order had been restored. When the news reached the inhabitants, many made the tragic mistake of leaving their shelters. They were then massacred without mercy. Moreover, during these weeks many women faced harassment and sexual violence. This mass killing claimed between 400 and 500 civilian lives. Before the Balkan wars, there were 78 Bulgarian-majority villages in Eastern Thrace and 34 mixed settlements where Bulgarians lived. In the early 20th century, there were at least 80,000 Bulgarian Orthodox in the area, representing a significant minority. After the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire, a few thousand Bulgarians were still living in Turkish Thrace, most of whom resided in urban centers such as Adrianople or Çatalca. The only rural village that continued to host a Bulgarian community was Kurfallı: according to the Turkish census of 1934, 400 Bulgarians were living there. They left for Bulgaria in 1935, after the signing of a population exchange agreement by Sofia and Ankara. The ethnic cleansing of Thracian Bulgarians foreshadowed the wider genocidal policies that would later be inflicted on Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians. In both cases, the Ottoman authorities targeted communities seen as disloyal or inassimilable, using displacement, violence and terror to reshape the demographic landscape. These episodes reveal a recurring pattern in late Ottoman policies: eliminating perceived internal threats to secure the state’s control and homogenize its population.