![[Pomak Nation]](../images/b/bg-pomak.gif)
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 October 2009
Last modified: 2012-01-06 by rob raeside
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There is a large minority nation in the Balkans which is mostly overlooked
and neglected, even if they used to have an independent and recognized state of
their own not so long ago. Minahan doesn't count them at all among many nations
of One Europe. They number @ 500 000 - (150 000-200 in Bulgaria, 35 000 in
Greece, some in Macedonia, and a large diaspora in Turkey -@ 300 000), speak
dialects of Bulgarian and Turkish and maintain a strong and distinct identity.
Their homeland is in the Rhodope Mountains. Bulgarians and Greeks consider them
mostly converted to Islam Slavs. The Turks, on the other hand, like to believe
they are descendants of ancient Cumans who accepted Islam from the early Muslim
missionaries.
When the Bulgarian Principality was created in the
aftermath of the Russo-Turkish war, the Congress of Berlin 1878 established, at
British insistence, an autonomous, but largely independent province of Eastern
Rumelia with the Christian governor who was, nominally only, appointed by the
Ottoman Sultan. The Pomaks rebelled against the Bulgarian-dominated Eastern
Rumelia and established, with the British help, an independent Pomak Republic of
Tamrash which lasted until the military coup brought Eastern Rumelia into the
Bulgarian State in 1886. The territory of the Republic was then reincorporated
into the Ottoman Empire.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 24
June 2008
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 October 2009
The Tamrash Pomak Republic used the flag of three horizontal bands of red-green-black.
This flag is still considered as a flag of the Pomak Nation to this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Tamrash
http://www.pomaklarinsesi.tr.gg/
http://pomaklar.azbuz.com/readArticle.jsp?objectID=5000000002024069
http://slavia-slavialand7.tripod.com/
Chrystian Kretowicz, 24
June 2008
![[Pomak Nation]](../images/b/bg-pomak1.gif)
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 October 2009
One of the Turkish websites shows the flag in different arrangement:
red-black-green.
http://alcannes.azbuz.com/readArticle.jsp?objectID=5000000001862385
Chrystian Kretowicz, 24 June 2008
![[Pomak Nation]](../images/b/bg_pomak2.gif)
image by Chech Explorer, 3 December 2011
I have just published the flag of the Pomaks here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomak,
based on information on the Encyclopedia of the Stateless nations:
http://books.google.com
Chech Explorer, 3 December 2011
