Originally Posted by
feuerfrei
Northern Greeks definitely are not Bulgarians in denial. Almost one million Bulgarians lived in what is now Greek Macedonia and Thrace until 1922. About half of them were resettled in Bulgarian Thrace, Rhodope mountains and the Black sea coast. The other half remained in Greece, where they suffered atrocities from the Greek government for long years. They were so feared to identify as Bulgarians and spoke in Bulgarian only in their homes. This was until 1945. After that, Bulgarian communist government forgot about those Bulgarians in Greece and the Greek state calmed down and started to assimilate them in peaceful way - making them go in Greek schools, interethnical marriages, and so on. Today, the younger generations are not aware at all that they may have Bulgarian blood. They feel Greeks, speak in Greek and have Greek friends. With an exception of Bulgarians in Kastoria, Florina and Edessa regions, who still have Bulgarian identity, and Bulgarian immigrants since the dawn of democracy, nobody else identifies as Bulgarian in Greece. Then why are they Bulgarians in denial, because they have Bulgarian grandmother? According to this logic, a significant number of Bulgarians living on the Black sea coast are Greeks in denial because there were many Greeks living there in the past. But those people are Bulgarians and feel like one, it doesn't matter that they may have 12,5 or 4,75 percent of Greek blood.