The Greek-Bulgarian Schism and the Conflict between Charilaos Tricoupis and Joachim III. – Etudes Balkaniques, 2006/1, р. 101-125. (original) (raw)
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The article examines the Greek-Bulgarian Church dispute in the late 19th century, focusing on the conflict between two key figures: Patriarch Joachim III and Greek Prime Minister Charilaos Tricoupis. It argues that this conflict influenced Greek policy orientation amid nationalistic aspirations among Bulgarians for an independent Church and nation within the Ottoman Empire. By analyzing this schism, the piece elucidates its effects on Greek political trends and the socio-religious landscape of the Balkans.
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This article offers a comparative approach to two antagonistic national ideas, the Greek and the Bulgarian. It highlights one of their converging aspects, which was adopted by members of the Greek Orthodox and the Bulgarian communities after the Crimean War (1853-1856). Espousing the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire and the perpetuation of the status quo in the Balkans, they opposed the political principle of Balkan nationalism, as well as the concomitant irredentist aspirations of the Greek nation-state and the revolutionary plans of the proponents of Bulgarian political emancipation. Moreover, each side employed similar arguments, albeit in the context of a different national perspective: the Bulgarians considered this option to be the best way to safeguard their Bulgarianness against the assimilatory efforts of the Greeks, while the Greeks believed it was the only possible option that would protect their ethnic identity against the threat of Pan-Slavism. In this way, the former instigated by Stoian Chomakov condemned the armed uprising in Crete in 1866 and declared obedience to the Sultan, whereas the latter sharply deprecated the unification of the Bulgarian Principality with the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia in 1885, in a series of articles published in the newspaper Neologos. The advocates of non-aggressive nationalism combined with pro-Ottoman manifestations belonged to the political and economical elite of their respective communities and were closely affiliated with the Ottoman state. In other words, they related their social status and economic prosperity to the fate of the Empire. The paper aims to draw the profile and compare the views of the Bulgarian and Greek Ottomans, focusing on the cases of the Bulgarian national leader Stoian Chomakov on the one hand and the Greek newspaper Neologos on the other.
2014
The 19 th century in southeastern Europe is usually referred to as the age of nationalism. As has already been said, the traditional Ottoman millet system, in which religious communions existed inside the dominant Muslim state, was replaced step by step by independent national states. Serbia, Greece, Romania, Montenegro and Bulgaria appeared on the map of Europe during the 19 th century. The armed struggle of these nations followed a preliminary period of awakening of national consciousness. The historical memory of the medieval kingdoms of Serbia and Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire contributed to this process. For the Greeks the more recent memory of Byzantium fanned by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and their dominant position among the Orthodox populations of the empire paved the way for nationalism. Inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution and romantic European philhellenism, as well as by the material resources of the Greek diaspora in Russia, this historical memory developed into the Great idea (Megali idea), i.e., uniting all Greek lands into one kingdom. The revolution of 1821 and the formation of an independent Greek state was the first step in that direction.243 The situation with the Bulgarians was different. Up to 1393 the Patriarchate of Tyrnovo was the spiritual centre for Bulgarians. During the Ottoman period, the Archbishop of Ohrid was the head of the Bulgarian people, but in 1767 his seat was subsumed under that of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.244 The national self-consciousness of the Bulgarian people was by the end of the 18 th century in decline; the Bulgarian language was used in remote areas only, while the townspeople readily adopted the Greek language and culture. After the publishing of Istorija Slavenobulgarskaja (The History of the Bulgarian Slavs) by Monk Paisii, the nationalistic revival of the Bulgarian people began.245 Bulgarian nationalism was to a great extent
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