Transformation of Identity among Slavic Muslim Pomaks in Bulgaria and Georgian Muslim Ajarians in Georgia: A Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT

This article comparatively analyses the identity transformation of Pomaks and Ajarians, two Muslim minorities living with Orthodox majorities. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted in Bulgaria and Georgia, it is argued that minorities who share more commonalities with the titular community have great difficulty with integrating into the national identity. That is, Pomaks and Ajarians, whose religious affiliations differ from the titular community, are more discriminated against than other minorities. This article also discusses how state policies such as name changes and conversions directed to both minorities have had a vital impact on their identity transformation. It further discusses the varying forms of boundary maintenance. Pomaks adopted various identities due to their interactions with different groups unlike Ajarians, who adopted only the Georgian identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Pomaks
• Ajarians
• Bulgaria
• Georgia
• identity transformation

Acknowledgments

Some of the data collected for the unpublished PhD dissertation named ‘Muslim Minorities of Bulgaria and Georgia: A Comparative Study of Pomaks and Ajarians’ is used in this article in addition to other field research data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

[1] In neither country, Pomaks and Muslim Ajarians constitute a distinct ethnic census category. Estimations can be made only after some cross-table calculations between religion, mother tongue, and minority or ethnicity. In the 2021 census, of 6,519,789 people in Bulgaria, 638,708 identified themselves as Muslim. Totally 107,777 people identified themselves as parts of both the Bulgarian ethnic group and Muslim (National Statistical Institute, Ethno-Cultural Characteristics…, 2021, (https://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/pressreleases/Census2021-ethnos_en.pdf, p. 10 (accessed 26 July 2023)) and 25,719 people literally wrote Pomak and Bulgarian-Mohammedan as their ethnic group in ‘other’ category (National Statistical Institute, Population by Ethnic Group as of 07.09.2021, https://infostat.nsi.bg/infostat/pages/reports/query.jsf?x_2=2110 (accessed 26 July 2023)). In the 2014 census, the Georgian population was 3,713,804 and the Georgian Muslim population in Ajaria was 132,852. If Georgian Muslims in Guria, Samtskhe-Javakheti, and Tbilisi are included, the figure increases to about 150,000–160,000 after cross-table counts (Geostat Census—Demographic and Social Characteristics, 2014 General Population Census, 2016, http://census.ge/en/results/census1/demo (accessed on 10 February 2023).

[2] H. İnalcik, ‘Bulgaria’, in H. A. R. Gibb, J. H. Kramers, E. Levi-Provençal, J. Schacht, B.Lewis, Ch. Pellat (eds), The Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition, Brill, Leiden, 1986; Ch. Quelquejay, ‘Batumi’, in H. A. R. Gibb, J. H. Kramers, E. Levi-Provençal, J. Schacht, B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat (eds), The Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition, Brill, Leiden, 1986.

[3] E. Radushev, ‘Conversion to Islam as a Social Process (Reflections of a Bulgarian Historian)’, Bulgarian Historical Review, 3–4, 2008, pp. 3–20.

[4] P. Sugar, 1996. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1804, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1996.

[5] S. Raichevsky, The Mohammedan Bulgarians (Pomaks), National Museum of Bulgarian Books and Polygraphy, Sofia, 2004; S. Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Centuary, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1971.

[6] M. Yıldıztaş, Osmanlı Arşiv Kayıtlarında Gürcistan ve Gürcüler [Georgia and Georgians in Ottoman Archival Records], YTB, Istanbul, 2012.

[7] F. Barth, ‘Introduction’, in F. Barth (ed), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1969, pp. 10–11.

[8] M. Todorova, ‘Identity (Trans)Formation among Bulgarian Muslims’, in B. Crawford and R. D. Lipschutz (eds), The Myth of ‘Ethnic Conflict’: Politics, Economics, and ‘Cultural’ Violence, University of California, California, 1998, pp. 471–510; P. G. Papadimitriou, ‘(Trans)forming Group Identities Among the Rhodopes’ Pomaks in the First Decades of the 20th Century. A Historical Perspective’, Balkan Studies, 45(1–2), 2004, pp. 209–235.

[9] M. Apostolov, ‘The Pomaks: A Religious Minority in the Balkans’, Nationalities Papers, 24(4), 1996, pp. 727–742; M. Neuburger, ‘Pomak Borderlands: Muslims on the Edge of Nations’, Nationalities Papers, 28(1), 2000, pp. 181–198; U. Brunnbauer, ‘The Perception of Muslims in Bulgaria and Greece: Between the “Self” and the “Other”’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 21(1), 2001, pp. 39–61; A. Eminov, ‘Social Construction of Identities: Pomaks in Bulgaria’, Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 6(2), 2007, pp. 1–25; F. Myuhtar-May, ‘Pomak Christianization (Pokrastvane) in Bulgaria during the Balkan Wars’, in M. H. Yavuz and I. Blumi (eds), War and Nationalism The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913, and Their Sociopolitical Implications, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2013, pp. 316–360.

[10] R. S. Brooks, ‘Step-Mother Tongue: Language and Ethnicity among Bulgarian Pomaks’, Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 46, 2002, pp. 27–45; A. Boboc-Cojocaru, ‘The “Other Within” in the Balkans—The Case of Pomaks’, in I. Boldea (ed), Studies on Literature, Discourse and Multicultural Dialogue, Editura Arhipelag XXI, Târgu-Mureş, 2013, pp. 334–346; L. O. Osterman, Movements for Islamic Revival and Ethnic Consciousness Among Rural Bulgarian Muslims in the Post-communist Period, NCEEER Working Paper, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, Washington, 2014.

[11] S. Zviadadze, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being Muslim and Georgian: Religious Transformation and Questions of Identity among Adjara’s Muslim Georgians’, Region, 7(1), 2018, pp. 23–42.

[12] T. Liles, ‘Islam and Religious Transformation in Adjara’, ECMI Working Paper, 57, 2012.

[13] M. Pelkmans, ‘Religion, Nation and State in Georgia: Christian Expansion in Muslim Ajaria’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 22(2), 2002, pp. 262–63.

[14] E. Karagiannis, ‘The Pomaks in Bulgaria and Greece: Comparative Remarks’, Euxeinos, 8, 2012; Brunnbauer, op. cit.; Apostolov, op. cit.

[15] M. Pelkmans, ‘Religious Crossings and Conversions on the Muslim-Christian Frontier in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan’, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 19(2), 2010, p. 116.

[16] K. Popova, ‘Politics of the Socialist State to the Muslim Population in Georgia and Bulgaria (Adjara and Blagoevgrad District) (in Bulgarian)’, Balkanistic Forum, 1, 2010, pp. 11–19; M. Angelova and M. Piskova, ‘Sister Cities: The Touch between Cultures and/or the Exchange of Delegations Blagoevgrad—Batumi, 1964–1989 (in Bulgarian)’, Balkanistic Forum, 1, 2010, pp. 283–313.

[17] The fieldwork in Georgia is conducted by both authors, whereas the fieldwork in Bulgaria is conducted by the first author.

[18] S. Esmeir, ‘A World Compared, Destroyed, and Connected’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 33(3), 2013, p. 278.

[19] Two interviews from a previous fieldwork in Georgia conducted by the authors in 2015 were also used.

[20] Barth, ‘Introduction’, op. cit.; F. Barth, ‘Enduring and Emerging Issues in the Analysis of Ethnicity’, In H. Vermeulen and C. Govers (eds), The Anthropology of Ethnicity: Beyond ‘Ethnic Groups and Boundaries’, Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 15–16.

[21] R. Jenkins, Social Identity, Routledge, London, 2014, pp. 18–19.

[22] J.M. Law, Name Change and Identity Redefinition: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, PhD Thesis, Alliant International University, 2003, pp. 14–15; M. Bursell, ‘Name Change and Destigmatization among Middle Eastern Immigrants in Sweden’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(3), 2012, pp. 471–487; J. Clifton, ‘What’s in a Name? Names, National Identity, Assimilation, and the New Racist Discourse of Marine Le Pen’, Pragmatics, 23(3), 2013, pp. 403–420; J. Panagiotidis, ‘Germanizing Germans: Co-Ethnic Immigration and Name Change in West Germany, 1953–93’,Journal of Contemporary History, 50(4), 2015, pp. 854–874.

[23] T. Scassa, ‘National Identity, Ethnic Surnames and the State’, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 11(2), 1996, pp. 169, 171.

[24] Law, op. cit., pp. 14–15.

[25] Panagiotidis, op. cit., p. 857.

[26] A. Schimmel, Islamic Names, University Press, Edinburgh, 1995, p. ix.

[27] D. Austin-Broos, ‘Anthropology of Conversion: An Introduction’, In A. Buckser and S.D. Glazier (eds), The Anthropology of Religious Conversion, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Md, 2003, p. 2.

[28] A. Aydingün, P. Köksal, and A. Kahraman. 2019. ‘Conversion of Ajarians to Orthodox Christianity: Different Narratives and Perceptions’, Europe-Asia Studies, 71(2), 2019, p. 310.

[29] V. Karpov, E. Lisovskaya, and D. Barry, ‘Ethnodoxy: How Popular Ideologies Fuse Religious and Ethnic Identities’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(4), 2012, p. 642.

[30] A. Joyce, ‘“Dying out”: Conversion and the Complexity of Neighbourliness on the Polish Belarussian Border’, History and Anthropology, 28(1), 2017, p. 125.

[31] O. Roy, Holy Ignorance When Religion and Culture Part Ways, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, p. 33.

[32] Ibid., pp. 93–94.

[33] M. Gnolidze-Swanson, ‘Activity of the Russian Orthodox Church among the Muslim Natives of Caucasus in Imperial Russia’, Caucasus and Central Asia Newsletter, 4, 2003, pp. 15–16.

[34] M. Pelkmans, ‘Religion, Nation and State in Georgia’, op. cit., pp. 262–63.

[35] J. Gerhards and S. Hans. ‘From Hasan to Herbert: Name‐Giving Patterns of Immigrant Parents between Acculturation and Ethnic Maintenance’, American Journal of Sociology, 114(4), 2009, pp. 1102–1128.

[36] Interview with a senior researcher at the Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, 14 August 2018.

[37] M.K. Kobaidze, ‘Minority Identity and Identity Maintenance in Georgia’,Lund University, Dept. of Linguistics Working Papers, 47, 1999, pp. 149–168.

[38] Interview with an Ajarian man of religion, Khulo, 16 August 2018; Interview with a Georgian/Ajarian scholar at the Niko Berdzenishvili Institute at the Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, 20 August 2018.

[39] Interview with an Ajarian former Mufti, Batumi, 13 August 2018.

[40] F. Myuhtar-May, Identity, Nationalism, and Cultural Heritage under Siege: Five Narratives of Pomak Heritage—From Forced Renaming to Weddings, Brill, Leiden, 2014, p. 324.

[41] A. Eminov, Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria, Hurst&Company, London, 1997, pp. 101–111.

[42] Дружба Родина, Дружба Родина- Спомени за бъдещето, ТАНГРА ТанНакРа, Sofia, 2009, p. 41.

[43] H. Hristov, Pages from Bulgaria’s History: A Study of the Islamised Bulgarians and the process of National Identification, Sofia Press, Sofia, 1989, pp. 69–70.

[44] M.C. Neuburger, The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2004, p. 151.

[45] R. J. Crampton, Bulgaria, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, pp. 432–433.

[46] Ö. Turan, ‘Pomaks, Their Past and Present’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 19(1), 1999, pp. 69–83; Neuburger, The Orient Within, op. cit., pp. 154–161.

[47] Crampton, op. cit., p. 276.

[48] Neuburger, The Orient Within, op. cit., p. 156.

[49] I. Merdjanova, Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism, Oxford University Press, New York, 2013, p. 26.

[50] Karagiannis, op. cit., p. 21.

[51] Interview with a Pomak man of religion, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[52] Interview with a Pomak white-collar worker, Sofia, 18 September 2018; Interview with a Turkish staff at Muftiate, Sofia, 13 September 2018.

[53] Interview with an elderly Pomak in a village (V) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[54] Eminov, Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities, op. cit., pp. 104–106.

[55] What is meant by Georgianisation is the Christianisation/conversion of Ajarians.

[56] S.E. Cornell, Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2001, pp. 163–164.

[57] T.K. Blauvelt and G. Khatiashvili, ‘The Muslim Uprising in Ajara and the Stalinist Revolution in the Periphery’, Nationalities Papers, 44(3), 2016, pp. 359–379.

[58] Neuburger, The Orient Within, op. cit., p. 156.

[59] E. Ivanova,‘Islam, State and Society in Bulgaria: New Freedoms, Old Attitudes?’ Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 19(1), 2017, p. 37.

[60] Interview with a Pomak white-collar worker, Sofia, 18 September 2018; Interview with a Pomak man of religion, Sofia, 5 September 2018; Interview with a Pomak post-graduate student, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[61] Interview with a Turkish researcher, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[62] Interview with a Turkish academician, Sofia, 6 September 2018.

[63] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 16 September 2018; Interview with a Pomak white-collar worker, Sofia, 18 September 2018.

[64] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[65] Interview with a Pomak white-collar worker, Sofia, 18 September 2018.

[66] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad province, 15 September 2018.

[67] Interview with a Pomak white-collar worker (Muftiate), Sofia, 3 September 2018.

[68] Interview with a Pomak man of religion, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[69] Interview with a Turkish writer, Sofia, 12 September 2018.

[70] H. Tajfel and J.C. Turner, ‘The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior’, In J.T. Jost and J. Sidanius (eds), Political Psychology: Key Readings, Psychology Press, New York, 2004, p. 280.

[71] I. Cambazov, Bulgaristan’da Başmüftülük Tarihi (1878–1944) [The History of Grand Muftiate in Bulgaria]. Vol. 1. Başmüftülük Yayınları, Sofia, 2013, p. 445.

[72] Interview with a Pomak teacher in a village (O) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018; Interview with a Turkish writer, Sofia, 12 September 2018.

[73] Interview with a Pomak man of religion, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[74] Interview with an elderly Pomak in a village (V) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[75] Interview with a Pomak researcher in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[76] The view of pre-Ottoman Islamisation of Pomaks is based on the Muslim tombstones, which supposedly belonged to the pre-Ottoman period. Thanks to the local Pomak historians and scholars like Mehmed Dorsunski, this view has some supporters in the community (Myuhtar-May, Identity, Nationalism, op. cit., p. 107). This assertion of Pomak interviewees may be interpreted as a counter-argument of the claim about Pomaks’ forced conversion by the Ottomans. This implicitly means that Pomaks already embraced Islam before the Ottomans came.

[77] Interview with a Pomak researcher in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[78] Interview with a Pomak and a Turk functionary in Muftiate, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[79] Interview with an elderly Pomak in a village (V) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[80] Interview with a Pomak NGO representative, Smolyan, 17 September 2018.

[81] It was a Smolyan-based NGO, but according to the testimony of a representative of the NGO, European Institute-Pomak carries its activities outside Bulgaria due to various hardships experienced in Bulgaria.

[82] Interview with a Pomak activist affiliated with European Institute-Pomak, based in a European country, via social media, 3 December 2018.

[83] Interview with a Turkey-based NGO-affiliated Pomak, Istanbul, 30 August 2018.

[84] According to monitoring cycles and opinions of the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe and reports of Bulgaria, Pomaks are not accepted as a national minority and their identity has been categorically denied by Bulgarian authorities on the ground that they are not distinct from the Bulgarian majority based on the so-called objective as well as subjective criteria (Council of Europe, Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities-Fourth Opinion on Bulgaria, 2020, https://rm.coe.int/4th-op-bulgaria-en/16809eb483 (accessed 10 February 2023)).

[85] Interview with a Pomak researcher in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[86] Interview with a Pomak researcher in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[87] Veda Slovena is a selection of folk songs from Rhodopes collected by Bulgarian teacher Ivan Gologanov and published by Stefan Verkovic in Belgrade in the second half of the 19th century. The collections’ authenticity is a controversial issue and has its own supporters and opponents. It is generally considered a fabrication in Bulgaria.

[88] Interview with a Pomak researcher in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018.

[89] Eminov, Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities, op. cit., p. 102.

[90] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 16 September 2018.

[91] Interview with a Pomak tradesman in a village (O) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 16 September 2018.

[92] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 16 September 2018.

[93] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 16 September 2018.

[94] Interview with a Pomak white-collar worker, Sofia, September 18, 2018; Interview with a Pomak school teacher in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 17 September 2018.

[95] Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 15 September 2018; Interview with a Pomak man of religion in a village (N) in Rhodopes, Blagoevgrad, 16 September 2018.

[96] M. Pelkmans, ‘Religious Crossings’, op. cit., p. 116.

[97] Interview with two Ajarian men of religion, Batumi, 20 August 2018.

[98] Interview with an Ajarian Businessman/Translator, Batumi, 15 August 2018.

[99] Pelkmans, ‘Religion, Nation and State in Georgia’, op. cit., pp. 249–273; Aydingün, Köksal, and Kahraman, op. cit.

[100] Pelkmans, ‘Religion, Nation and State in Georgia’, op. cit., p. 269.

[101] Interview with an expert from the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, Tbilisi, 28 May 2015.

[102] P. Köksal, A. Aydıngün, and H.E. Gürsoy,‘Religious Revival and Deprivatization in Post-Soviet Georgia: Reculturation of Orthodox Christianity and Deculturation of Islam’, Politics and Religion, 12(2), 2019, p. 332.

[103] Zviadadze, op. cit., p. 35.

[104] Aydingün, Köksal, and Kahraman, op. cit., 310.

[105] Talk with a taxi driver, Batumi, 22 August 2018.

[106] Interview with a Georgian Muslim resident, Mokhe, 17 August 2018.

[107] Interview with an Ajarian former Mufti, Tbilisi, 26 May 2015.

[108] Interview with a Georgian Muslim man of religion, Chela, 17 August 2018.

[109] Interview with a retired blue-collar Georgian Muslim, Akhaltsikhe, 23 August 2018.

[110] R. Baramidze, ‘Ethnic Georgian Muslims: A Comparison of Highland and Lowland Villages’, Caucasus Analytical Digest, 20, 2010, pp. 13–15.

[111] M.E. Pelkmans, Uncertain Divides: Religion, Ethnicity, and Politics in the Georgian Borderlands, PhD Thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2003, p. 56.

[112] P. Manning, Strangers in a Strange Land: Occidentalist Publics and Orientalist Geographies in Nineteenth-Century Georgian Imaginaries, Academic Studies Press, Boston, MA, 2012, p. 150.

[113] Zviadadze, op. cit., p. 36.

[114] M. Pelkmans, Defending the Border: Identity, Religion, and Modernity in the Republic of Georgia, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2006, p. 140.

[115] Interview with a Georgian researcher, Oxford (the UK), 26 November 2018.

[116] Interview with a Georgian historian, Oxford (the UK), 12 November 2018.

[117] A. Aydıngün, ‘The Ethnification and Nationalisation of Religion in the Post-Soviet Georgian Nation-State Building Process: A Source of Discrimination and Minority Rights Violations?’, The International Journal of Human Rights, 17(7–8), 2013, pp. 816.

[118] Interview with a Georgian researcher, Oxford (the UK), November 26, 2018.

[119] Ibid.

[120] T. Mitchell, ‘Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe’, Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-and-eastern-europe/ (accessed 10 February 2023).

[121] Ibid.; D.M. Barry, ‘The Relationship Between Religious Nationalism, Institutional Pride, and Societal Development: A Survey of Postcommunist Europe’, Journal of Developing Societies, 36(1), 2020, p. 83.

[122] Interview with a Bulgarian Turkish scholar from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 18 September 2018.

[123] Karpov, Lisovskaya, and Barry, op. cit., pp. 642–643.

[124] Interview with a Pomak post-graduate student, Sofia, 5 September 2018.

[125] Pelkmans, Defending the Border, op. cit., p. 140; D. Trankova, ‘Turkish and Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria’, In A. Georgieff and D. Trankova (eds),The Turks of Bulgaria History, Tradition, Culture, Vagabond Media, Sofia, 2012, p. 36.

[126] D.B. White and A.P. White. 2017. ‘“Grandma, What’s Your Name Now?”: Life-Narratives, Portraiture, and Reclaiming Identity in the Balkans’, Bulgarian Studies, 1, 2017, p. 93.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) [BIDEB, 2214-A] and by Middle East Technical University [grants BAP-07-03-2015-016 and BAP-07-03-2017-001].