Greeks in Bulgaria

Greeks in Bulgaria (Bulgarian: гърци Gǎrci) constitute the eighth-largest ethnic minority in Bulgaria (Greek: Βουλγαρία Voulgaria). They number 1,356 according to the 2011 census, but are estimated at around 25,000 by Greek organizations and around 28,500, including the Sarakatsani, the Greek students and the Greek citizens living in Bulgaria, officially by Greece. Today, Greeks mostly live in the large urban centres like Sofia and Plovdiv, but also in the coastal zone.

Historically, the presence of a Greek population in what is today Bulgaria dates to the 7th century BC, when Milesians and Dorians founded thriving Greek colonies on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, often on the site of earlier Thracian settlements. Maritime poleis like Nesebar (Μεσημβρία Mesembria), Sozopol (Απολλωνία Apollonia), Pomorie (Αγχίαλος Ankhialos) and Varna (Οδησσός Odessos) controlled the trade routes in the western part of the Black Sea and often waged wars between each other.

Prior to the early 20th century, there was a small Greek minority in Southeastern Bulgaria, living largely between Varna to the north, Topolovgrad to the west and the Black Sea to the east, with a scattered rural population in the inland regions of the Strandzha and Sakar mountains. The Greek-inhabited places in Strandzha and Sakar were the town of Topolovgrad and 9 villages: Oreshnik, Kapitan Petko Voyvoda, Sinapovo, Chukarovo, Golyam Manastir, Malak Manastir, Sharkovo, Malko Sharkovo, and Mamarchevo. However, a large part of this population, the so-called Kariots, is regarded by ethnographers (including Konstantin Josef Jireček) as having been only Greek-identifying, but of Bulgarian origin; (see Grecomans). Greek communities also existed in Plovdiv, Sofia, Asenovgrad, Haskovo and Rousse, among others. In 1900, the Greeks in Bulgaria numbered 33,650.

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