Living in the Ottoman Realm. Empire and Identity, 13th to 20th Centuries

(Grace) #1
Stephanov | 271

loose confessional (mainly Eastern Orthodox), linguistic (South Slavic), and cultural marker
became ethnic and national after the 1877–1878 Russo-Ottoman War. Therefore, I prefer to use
the term “Bulgar” (the Ottoman designation) for the earlier period.
. Burmov, Spomenite mi, 23.
. Gyurova, Vuzrozhdenski Putepisi, 67–70.
. These communal designations are based loosely on faith, language, and customs.
. This is a Balkan folk practice of animal sacrifice for one’s health. It was and still is
shared by Muslims and Christians.
. Yo a n n o v i c h , Novi bulgarski pesni, 14–15 (translation mine).
. “Greek Affability,” 85.
. The Bulgarian text of the speech appears in Georgov, “Materiali po nasheto vuzrazh-
dane,” 45 (translation mine).
. Lyberatos, “The Application of the Tanzimat.”
. The document of fiscal responsibility already contains the following organic metaphor
for the community: “We are all in common obliged, as one body in one soul.... We are all
obliged as a Body to sympathize and care for the other, as the body cares for its parts; likewise,
the parts shall help and protect the Body.” Such organic metaphors gradually became inte-
grated into calls for mobilization of one’s own group, thereby leading directly to ethnonational
consciousness. Ibid., 115 (emphasis added).
. Letter from the townspeople of Razgrad, Tsarigradski Vestnik [Tsar City Newspaper],
June 23, 1851, p. 4.
. Belchev, Pesnopoyche, 87–88 (translation mine).

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