As a whole, do Romanians and Bulgarians pass better in Denmark or Armenia?

[Tooting Carmen]

Imo compared to how much both this forum and other anthrofora make a fuss about the putative darkness and exoticness of Greeks, Italians and Iberians, the darkness and exoticness of many Balkan people is largely overlooked. In fact, many Romanians and Bulgarians have a pan-Black Sea look and fit quite well in the Caucasus - certainly more than in any Germanic country, at any rate.

[Aspar]

The Romanians and Bulgarians are not so fancy, thanks God!!!
Otherwise, there would have been million of threads by Sikeliot, weather they are closer to Turks or Greeks or Russians or are are they more western or eastern looking and things like that...

[Tommie]

[Kivan]

Neither. But about facial features, i would say Denmark.

[ovidiu]

This supposed to be a troll thread? In the case in northern/northwestern Romanians certainly Denmark without a doubt.

As for the south/southeast regions.. well, neither. It's hard to say. Some individuals may swing one way or the other but probably still more with other Europeans. I'd say out of any Caucasus people Georgians are the closest in similarity to the East Balkans if you really had to pick one, and even they are rather distant/different. Armenians even more so overall, as they can overlap with Iranians.

That being said there are a surprising amount of quite European Armenians I've encountered.

I don't know about Bulgarians, I'd think more or less the same applied. I think they may lean slightly more toward the area, particularly Georgians, from what I seen.

Edit- after looking up more pics of Armenians in crowds, they look rather different or foreign... here are ones that are particularly so. There were a few in other pics that were not as much

Spoiler!

(lol)

not to mention Kim Kardashian

There was a small minority of Armenians who were active as traders/merchants in Romania in the past I believe, and they were mostly seen as distinct, often lumped into the same category as Jews, rightfully or not.

And no offense meant to anyone but I think some of them may even be taken as Roma in the Balkans.

The more "woggy" elements in the east Balkans, for lack of a better word, don't strike me as West Asian/Caucasus-like as much as like Greek/south Euro. We don't really have Armenoids, Asian Alpinids, Mtebids, Iranids, Anatolids, Cappadocids, or what not. And true East Meds aren't as common as Pontids. Plus Armenia doesn't touch the Black Sea so I don't think it offers the best comparison... Though I get the point of this was to be extreme

[The Blade]

Danish people:

Armenians:

You don't need to be an expert or to have travelled a lot to know that on group level both Bulgarians and Romanians resemble neither of the groups you mention in your poll.
However, the so-called pan-Black Sea look you rate is actually due to the rare existence of Balkan and Mediterranean types in Caucasus, not the opposite. Armenoids don't exist in Bulgaria. Armenians in particular, I must say, are among the least Europoid people of the Caucasus. Usually to me they look either similar to Jews of the Middle East or to our local Gypsies.
Georgians have much more people passable in Balkans although they largely differ from us.
Turks have absorbed the most Balkan looks due to slave trading (ever heard the word enichari?) during the time of the Ottoman Empire. And I really don't like terms like "light Bulgarians", "light Balkanites", etc., as if we are some borderline Europeans or extremely dark people.
I will quote and translate some data about researches on Bulgarian people:
"Според статистика от 20 век, българите са между 9-12% от рус тип, 42–47% от тъмен тип, а 43–46% са междинен (светлокоси и тъмнооки или обратното)."
"Генетично, днешните българи са по-тясно свързани със някои балкански популации (македонци, сърби, румънци, черногорци), отколкото с останалите европейци. Според автозомни анализи, съседните гърци имат по-голяма генетическа дистанция спрямо българите, отколкото народи като чехи и словаци, а съседните турци още по-голяма. Според различни митохондриални анализи българите са най-сходни с поляци, чехи или унгарци."
First quote means the following:
"According to statistics from the 20th century (depending on the region) between 9-12% of Bulgarians are blond with light eyes, 42-47% are brunette with brown eyes and 43-46% are of transitional type (brunette with light eyes or blond with brown eyes)."
This corresponds to other analysis of the population stating that about half of Bulgarian people have light eyes and blondism accounts to roughly 20% of the total population.
Second quote translation:
"Genetically modern Bulgarians are most closely related to other Balkan groups (Macedonians, Serbs, Romanians, Montenegrins) and after that to other Europeans. Autosomal analyses show that neighbouring Greeks are more distant to Bulgarians than nations like Czechs and Slovaks are, and Turks are even more distant to Bulgarians than Greeks are. Mitochondrial analyses show that Bulgarians are closest to Polish people, Czechs and Hungarians."
Basically, Bulgarians (and I claim the same for Romanians) are closely related to West Balkan groups and are also much closer to Central Europeans than to Greeks (Turks being even more distant).

While I realize the genetic distance to Danes for both Bulgarians and Romanians, I would certainly place these Balkan groups as closer to Danish people than to inhabitants of Caucasus (especially to Armenians).
Voting for Denmark.

[Tooting Carmen]

Danish people:

Armenians:

You don't need to be an expert or to have travelled a lot to know that on group level both Bulgarians and Romanians resemble neither of the groups you mention in your poll.
However, the so-called pan-Black Sea look you rate is actually due to the rare existence of Balkan and Mediterranean types in Caucasus, not the opposite. Armenoids don't exist in Bulgaria. Armenians in particular, I must say, are among the least Europoid people of the Caucasus. Usually to me they look either similar to Jews of the Middle East or to our local Gypsies.
Georgians have much more people passable in Balkans although they largely differ from us.
Turks have absorbed the most Balkan looks due to slave trading (ever heard the word enichari?) during the time of the Ottoman Empire. And I really don't like terms like "light Bulgarians", "light Balkanites", etc., as if we are some borderline Europeans or extremely dark people.
I will quote and translate some data about researches on Bulgarian people:
"Според статистика от 20 век, българите са между 9-12% от рус тип, 42–47% от тъмен тип, а 43–46% са междинен (светлокоси и тъмнооки или обратното)."
"Генетично, днешните българи са по-тясно свързани със някои балкански популации (македонци, сърби, румънци, черногорци), отколкото с останалите европейци. Според автозомни анализи, съседните гърци имат по-голяма генетическа дистанция спрямо българите, отколкото народи като чехи и словаци, а съседните турци още по-голяма. Според различни митохондриални анализи българите са най-сходни с поляци, чехи или унгарци."
First quote means the following:
"According to statistics from the 20th century (depending on the region) between 9-12% of Bulgarians are blond with light eyes, 42-47% are brunette with brown eyes and 43-46% are of transitional type (brunette with light eyes or blond with brown eyes)."
This corresponds to other analysis of the population stating that about half of Bulgarian people have light eyes and blondism accounts to roughly 20% of the total population.
Second quote translation:
"Genetically modern Bulgarians are most closely related to other Balkan groups (Macedonians, Serbs, Romanians, Montenegrins) and after that to other Europeans. Autosomal analyses show that neighbouring Greeks are more distant to Bulgarians than nations like Czechs and Slovaks are, and Turks are even more distant to Bulgarians than Greeks are. Mitochondrial analyses show that Bulgarians are closest to Polish people, Czechs and Hungarians."
Basically, Bulgarians (and I claim the same for Romanians) are closely related to West Balkan groups and are also much closer to Central Europeans than to Greeks (Turks being even more distant).

While I realize the genetic distance to Danes for both Bulgarians and Romanians, I would certainly place these Balkan groups as closer to Danish people than to inhabitants of Caucasus (especially to Armenians).
Voting for Denmark.

As a side note, I do agree that Bulgarians and Greeks look strikingly different, relative to the fact they are neighbouring European countries. Bulgarians have a lot more genuinely Slavic types and considerably more light hair and eyes than do Greeks.

[Sikeliot]

As a side note, I do agree that Bulgarians and Greeks look strikingly different, relative to the fact they are neighbouring European countries. Bulgarians have a lot more genuinely Slavic types and considerably more light hair and eyes than do Greeks.

"Strikingly different" is an overstatement. Greeks look no less like Bulgarians than they do Sicilian.

[Tooting Carmen]

"Strikingly different" is an overstatement. Greeks look no less like Bulgarians than they do Sicilian.

I'm not saying they don't overlap, but compared to what is usually the case between two neighbouring European countries the differences are quite marked. Anyway, let us not digress too much please.

[Sikeliot]

I'm not saying they don't overlap, but compared to what is usually the case between two neighbouring European countries the differences are quite marked. Anyway, let us not digress too much please.

I do not think the difference is nearly as stark as you think, considering that the Greeks who look clearly differentiated from Bulgarians are islanders who are not geographically near Bulgaria nor even really "Balkan" genetically.

People in Thessaloniki for instance do not look that different to Bulgaria.