You share border with Ukraine after all.
Last summer I worked for a while in a town close to the Turkish border and I had the chance to meet a lot of young natives from Tsarevo, Kiten and Primorsko and I noticed that a good amount of them (over 40%) belong to the East Med race. I might exaggerate, but almost all of the East Med people there have light eyes or hair and look quite similar to Cretans to me.
This is what I am talking about
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...58613146ac912f
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...2c0c79aee4335e
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...b624e172aebda7
https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/...c0&oe=55563F7A
https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/...ed&oe=5563076C
If these people are East Meds then I like east meds
This is also what I have noticed about the Strandzha coast.
Though I'd say those (except for the last guy) are Pontid or Alpine-Med rather than East Med. But I can see the resemblence with some Greeks.
I think the Bulgarians who resemble most Northern Greeks are from SW Bulgaria, places like Petrich and Sandanski. Still there are people with very Slavic appearance that can be seen among Greeks with lower frequence
Even the darker types from both sides of the border look similar
I'd think that they are brothers and sisters, especially the last 3.
Those people are Eastern Thracian highlanders, their ancestors come from the Turkish part of Strandzha.
Btw I think that they would look foreign outside Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece and probably Romania.
Depends which Northern Greeks I think.
Petrich and Sandanski might be similar to Epirotes and West Macedonians (this is what I suppose, I'm not sure as I haven't been in either places).
Kazanlak, Stara Zagora, Plovdiv, Chirpan, Haskovo are quite similar to Central and East Macedonians (been in both places).
East Thracian Bulgarians maybe are similar to Thracian Greeks.
Thessalians...those posted by Faklon look like some people I know from Smolyan (the town not the region) and also to Chech Pomaks. Also Sarakatsani.
By the way I remember when Archduke said that NE Bulgarians are the lightest and most Slavic looking.
They have high frequency of Northeast Euro types but also high frequency of people who look Turkish (I speak about ethnic Bulgarians).