The neglected history of the Eastern Balkans: the clashing nationalist plans of the Bulgarians and the Greeks 1864-1913

During the mid-nineteenth century, the Bulgarian irredentists increasingly began to view the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as a body that restrained the basic religious entitlement of the ethnic Bulgarian adherents. The nationally conscious Bulgarians thus believed that a separate Bulgarian Church would liberate the Bulgarian populace from the Greek domination of spiritual life. The birth of the Bulgarian Exarchate was the most crucial step in the “ethnicization” of religious life in the Eastern Balkans. From that point on, the conflicting legitimacy race amongst the Bulgarians and the Greeks gained significant momentum. This type of nation-state model fueled xenophobia amongst the nationalist designers as their envisioned nation-state excluded outsiders. This work systematically uncovers the complexity of the overlapping power struggles of the Greeks and the Bulgarians amidst the power-declining Ottoman Empire. As the title of this paper hints, instead of focusing specifically on the experiences of the Greeks and the Bulgarians with the power-declining Ottoman Empire, I looked further into how the nation-state projects of the two Eastern Balkan neighbors contradicted each other’s aspirations. The various primary and secondary source accounts that I consulted will testify that nation-builders were staunchly against a likely pan-Balkan or a pan-Orthodox structure. Therefore, this piece sheds light on how and why the nation-builders were rather more inclined towards a nation-state model. In this manner, the reader will easily grasp the non-friendly atmosphere of the antithetical nationalist endeavors. By conducting this thorough effort, I aim to provide a thriving ground for future publications that will further expand on this contentious topic for the sake of accurate history. I expect that the divergent approach I provide will become a breakthrough in Balkan historiography.M.A.Includes bibliographical reference