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Topic: Pomaks

	Pomaks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Pomak presence further gained strength through the 18th century, while the last waves of conversions in the Balkans took place in the early 19th century.
		The Pomaks in the Rhodopes appear then to have benefited from a large measure of autonomy, with an agha, a hereditary chieftain, governing from the mountain village of Tamrash.
		Pomak auxiliaries played a leading role in the massacres of Batak and Perushtitsa, among the worst made during the quelling of the uprising.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Pomaks (2193 words)

	Pomaks
		Pomaks, who live in the provinces of Xanthe[?] and Rhodope in Greece, are probably the descendants of Agrianes[?], a Thracian tribe of Rhodope Mountains[?].
		Pomaks were converted to Islam during the period of Ottoman Empire.
		Now Pomaks carry a semi-nomadic[?], agricultural or pastoral life, and study in Turkish schools in Xanthe[?] and Komotine[?].
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/po/Pomaks.html (268 words)

	Pomaks
		Pomaks, who live in the provinces of Xanthi and Rhodope in Greece, are probably the descendants of Agrianes, a Thracian tribe of the Rhodope Mountains.
		Pomaks were converted to Islam during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
		Pomaks are also Bulgarian descendants of Christians who converted to Islam under the Ottomans.
	www.starrepublic.org /encyclopedia/wikipedia/p/po/pomaks.html (318 words)

	Report
		Pomaks, along with Turks and Muslim Roma living in Thrace, are officially recognized as a religious Muslim minority, in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and formally enjoy the corresponding rights, though they have been treated as Turkish and not Pomak speakers by the authorities.
		For Greeks, Pomak is a derivative of the Ancient Greek word ‘Pomax’ (‘drinker’) which reflects the Thracians’ known habit of drinking; and Achrjani is a derivative of the ancient Thracian tribe of ‘Agrianoi’ (Seyppel, 1989:48).
		For Bulgarians, ‘Pomak’ comes from either the Turkish term ‘Pomagach’ (‘helper’), reflecting the social position of Pomaks in the Ottoman period, or from the Bulgarian ‘Pomochamedanci’ (‘Islamized’); as for Achrjani, it is supposed to come from Old Bulgarian ‘Aagarjani’ (‘infidels’) (Seyppel, 1989:47).
	www.greekhelsinki.gr /english/reports/pomaks.html (1817 words)

	Edward Hugh Net
		Pomak. Previous research on the area indicates that this mountain population is to a high degree “closed” in its local network (Karamihova 2002).
		The second Pomak community, in Madrid, is a result of the intensive emigration of Satovcha residents to Spain through three-month Shengen visas. A strong tendency of permanent emigration occurs.
		According to the second hypothesis, Bulgarian Pomaks leave the country because of political uncertainty. They feel that sufficient guarantees have not been given to them by the Bulgarian state and society for observing their human rights. This uncertainty is generated by the recent history of state discrimination against the Muslims in the 1980s (Brunnbauer 2001).
	www.edwardhugh.net /margyshomepageApomacproject.html (1969 words)

	Bulgaria - Pomaks (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		Because the Ottoman Turks showed little interest in Pomak lands, and because the Pomaks were converted rather late, most of their traditional Bulgarian customs remained intact.
		Unrest flared in 1989 when Pomaks from the Gotse Delchev area in southwest Bulgaria were refused passports that would have enabled them to emigrate with the Turks.
		Some Pomaks in southwest Bulgaria were subjected to a second name change because the names they received the first time were not definitely Bulgarian.
	www.country-data.com /cgi-bin/query/r-1913.html (232 words)

	2001/04/04 20:07 The Balkans' Hidden Minorities: Greece's Vlachs and Bulgaria's Pomaks
		Bulgarians believe Pomaks to be ethnic Bulgarians who were forced to convert to Islam during Ottoman rule, and their main argument is the fact that Pomaks speak a variant of the Bulgarian language.
		This process was aided by appointing Pomaks in administrative and economic positions to the detriment of the Turkish population.
		As for the Pomaks in Bulgaria, the situation is again more complicated due to the economic situation of the country in general and of this group in particular.
	www.aimpress.ch /dyn/trae/archive/data/200104/10404-003-trae-ath.htm (2258 words)

	Ulf Brunnbauer
		In Bulgaria the Pomaks live in compact settlements in the districts of Smolyan, Blagoevgrad, Pazardzhik and Kurdzhali, that is in the Mesta valley and the Rhodope Mountains.
		Since it is a fact that the Pomaks speak Bulgarian as their mother's tongue their main thrust has been to prove that either the language is not Bulgarian or that it was imposed forcefully only in the 20th century - before that time the Pomaks had been speaking Turkish.
		The Pomaks had allegedly come with the Proto-Bulgarians from the steppes of Central Asia and were a warlike people; whereas the Achryane were descendents of people from Syria who had been settled in the Rhodopes during the 8th century.
	www-gewi.kfunigraz.ac.at /csbsc/ulf/pomak_identities.htm (5917 words)

	A victory for the Greek Pomaks
		Our fellow-countrymen Pomaks of Thrace are probably the most characteristic case of a population group in Greece, which has suffered the cruel consequences of the Greek state's indifference and the irresponsible governmental actions during the last decades.
		However during the last years a resistance effort started from young Pomaks, mostly of a higher educational level, who strive, with the recording of their language, their songs, traditions and customs, to reverse the tide of their advancing turkification.
		He committed himself to invite Pomak representatives in the European parliament, to set out themselves their problem in its true dimensions in front of the responsible committees of the European parliament.
	www.e-grammes.gr /2001/07/pomaks_en.htm (675 words)

	Controversy in Greece over nomination of Pomak for Prefect
		The Turks, Pomaks and Roma that form the so-called “muslim” minority in Greece were always treated by the Greek state as a potential Turkish trojan horse against the stability and integrity of Greece.
		The Pomak language belongs to the southern Slavic group and is close to Macedonian and Bulgarian.
		According to political observers various state policies towards the Pomaks - until 1995 they needed a special permission to leave their villages and travel inside Greece - have made this Muslim Slav community an easy target for Turkish claims that all members of the “muslim” minority in Greece are Turks.
	www.florina.org /html/2006/pomak.html (544 words)

	The Nationalism Project: Book review of Parallel Cultures
		Pomaks are Muslims who speak Bulgarian and live in the high-mountain regions of the Rhodope mountains and in some central regions of the Balkan range.
		This difference appears to be tolerated and even celebrated, as Pomaks have a unique place in folk tradition ‘both as a rich reservoir of authentic an extremely colourful folklore and as one of the main ‘heroes’ (or ‘anti-heroes’) in folklore tales and songs’.
		Determining the numbers of ‘Pomaks’ appears to be impossible, when some identify themselves as Turks due to their religion and other as Bulgarians because of their language.
	www.nationalismproject.org /books/bookrevs/lord.html (3203 words)

	The Unreached Peoples Prayer Profiles
		Although most of the Pomaks live in Bulgaria, about 30,000 live across the border in the Greek provinces of Thrace and Macedonia, and others are found in Romania.
		Traditionally, Pomak marriages are arranged between the families of the prospective bride and groom.
		The Pomaks are virtually all Muslim, and their religion makes up an integral part of their ethnic identity.
	www.global12project.com /2004/profiles/clusters/8082.html (917 words)

	828
		The Muslim Pomaks number about 220,000 of Bulgaria's population of approximately eight and one half million, the vast majority of whom are Eastern Orthodox Christians.
		The Pomaks also constitute a minority within Bulgaria's Muslim community of more than a million, most of whom are ethnic Turks who settled in the Balkans during the five centuries of Ottoman rule.
		The Pomaks, who live in the remote and economically challenging Rhodope and Pirin Mountains of southern Bulgaria, are largely the descendants of Christian Slavs converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule.
	www-rcf.usc.edu /~elguindi/RvuPomak.htm (1823 words)

	CER \| A History of Oppression
		The first theory states that Pomak is derived from the term pomagach (helper) in connection to an alleged collaboration with the Ottoman government in order to maintain land rights.
		It is also suggested that Pomak collaborators led the 1876 massacre in the mountain village of Batak, where nearly five thousand people were hacked to death or burnt alive.
		Failure to accept the Slavicized version of their Arabic names, Pomaks, Turks and Roma were either killed outright, sent to forced labor camps such as Belene on the Danube or deported.
	www.ce-review.org /01/19/jacobs19.html (1900 words)

	FAQ server : Bulgaria (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		'Pomaks' is the name of pretty large group of people who live mainly in Rhodopi mountains (southern Bulgaria, close to the border with Greece).
		This is the way we know that 'pomaks' used to be slavic christian people before they became muslims.
		'Pomaks' were pretty isolated from the rest of the bulgarian society for centuries.
	www.cs.columbia.edu /~radev/cgi-bin/faqserver.cgi?pomaks (435 words)

	Kemal Gözler, Pomaks of Lovec / S. Draganova
		The Pomak Villages of the Region of Lovech, 15th-16th cc.
		Ottoman tahrir defters; Pomak villages of the region of the Bulgarian town Lovech
		Kemal Gözler draws the conclusion that a considerable number of the male Muslim inhabitants of the pomak villages in the region of Lofça were ‘son of Abdullah’: 42 percent in 1516, 72 per cent in 1545, and 21 per cent in 1579.
	www.anayasa.gen.tr /pomaks-draganova.htm (1411 words)

	Saudi Aramco World : Islam in Greece (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		Their name is generally believed to derive from pomagaci, or "helper," for they often served as auxiliary troops for the Turks after their conversion in the 14th century.
		Pomak women are also more conservative than their Muslim counterparts in the lowlands.
		It involved a young Pomak boy and his girl who wished to marry, but had been forbidden to do so by one of the grandfathers.
	www.saudiaramcoworld.com /issue/197604/islam.in.greece.htm (1013 words)

	READING ROOM 3: Raw deal for the Pomaks - Features news (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		THE country’s Pomaks, Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, may have been spared the forced assimilation campaigns of the past, but members of this poverty-stricken minority continue to feel disenfranchised, scorned and view apparent state indifference to their plight as discrimination.
		Another reason for Pomaks not restoring their Muslim identities is that many of the younger generation fear it will disadvantage them in the job market.
		Now he and many other Pomaks feel there is no political representation for Bulgarian Muslims and some hope that after EU accession it will be possible for the community to have an ethnically-based party to defend their interests.
	www.sofiaecho.com /article/reading-room-3-raw-deal-for-the-pomaks/id_11428/catid_29 (1312 words)

	IHRC - Briefing: Bulgaria’s Muslims: From Communist assimilation to tentative recognition
		Geographically, Pomaks, Turkish Muslims and Roma Muslims are concentrated in The Rhodpe Mountains, the southern boarder region with Greece.
		Pomaks were denied the right to practice Islam or use their Islamic names, exposed to constant harassment and persecution by the police and security services.
		Turkish Muslims and Pomaks further complained that the procedures for restoring their Islamic names are excessively burdensome and difficult to accomplish.
	www.ihrc.org.uk /show.php?id=684 (1475 words)

	ZAWAJ.COM: Wedding Customs Around the World
		The inhabitants of the town of Ribnovo are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, sometimes referred to as "Pomaks," or "people who have suffered." The Pomak Muslims are estimated to number approximately 250,000, dwelling mainly in the Rhodope Mountains of South Bulgaria and North Greece.
		Pomaks are not allowed to buy land or even to travel outside the country.
		Pomak women are renowned for their excellent weaving abilities.
	zawaj.com /weddingways/ribnovo.html (839 words)

	Cultural Rights In The Age Of The 'War On Terror'
		Today the Pomak region is among the poorest in the country with some of the highest rates of unemployment.
		The possibility of an ethnic Arab Pomak identity forms the basis for the rising influence of Wahhabism, and the growing number of calls for a return to the “true” Muslim faith among Pomaks.
		Many Pomaks fear that they are once again being forced to assimilate—but this time it is the Muslim Turks rather than the Christian Slavs who are interested in Pomak political support, and who want the Pomaks to accept Turkish leadership in Bulgaria.
	www.cceia.org /resources/publications/dialogue/2_12/section_2/5146.html (1468 words)

	Cultural Survival
		Estimates of the size of the Pomak population in Bulgaria at present range from 100,000 to 270,000.
		The Pomaks are a culturally marginal group who are officially defined as "Muslim speakers of Bulgarian." There is a widespread view that the Pomaks are of Bulgarian origin.
		In Bulgaria, the Pomaks and the Gagauzes are not considered ethnic groups and have not been counted separately in most censuses.
	www.cs.org /publications/CSQ/csq-article.cfm?id=1270 (1747 words)

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