Ethnicity in Transition: the Karakachans in Bulgaria

Zhenya PimpirevaInstitute of Ethnology and Folklore StudiesBulgarian Academy of Sciences

Ethnicity in Transition: the Karakachans in Bulgaria

Abstract: Two basic periods can be distinguished in the ethno-cultural development of the Karakachans in Bulgaria up to the 1990s – nomadic and sedentary (after their mass settling down). Transition to sedentari-zation changed Karakachans’ everyday culture and the boundaries between them and the dominant Bulgar-ian ethnos, with which they are lastingly bound together. Their transformation into settled down dwellers occurred under the conditions of communism with all the restrictions concerning property rights and free expression of ethnic identity. The democratic changes in Bulgaria after 1989 led to radically new condi-tions in the development of the Karakachan community and to changes in their identity, constructed now by new institutions. The possibility of association in non-governmental organizations, of studying the mother tongue, of free expression of identity and faith, of restoration of the connections with Greece, etc., have resulted in new trends and directions for the Karakachan ethnicity.

Keywords: ethnicity, iden ti fi ca tion, nomadic life, sedentarization, ethnicity in post-communist period

The Karakachans are known under different names on the Balkan Peninsula. They are called Karakachans in Bulgaria and Sarakatsans in Greece. The group identifies itself by different names: when speaking Karakachan, they call themselves Vlahi (sing. Vlahos), which they translate into Bulgarian as Karakachani (sing. Karakachanin). Upon mention of the ethnonym Vlahos, Vlahi, they promptly proceed to stress that they are different from the Vlachs and have nothing to do with them. Or, as they themselves say, “we are Vlahi in Kara-kachan, Karakachani in Bulgarian and Sarakatsani in Greek”.

Linguists refer the Karakachan dialect to the group of the northern dialects of modern Greek. Specifically and to a greater extent than in the other Balkan languages and dialects, in the dia-lect of Karakachans a substrate ingredient can be identified (Asenova 1978). Communication with the surrounding populations among which the Karakachans are scattered has determined knowledge of a second and third language. In the traditional period, Bilingualism was characteristic only of men, but the trend was to expand the circle and, following the settling down, all Karakachans became affected. In the foreign language environment, the Karakachan speech has been preserved and simplified under the influence of Bulgarian (Asenova 1976, 1984). At the same time, the areas of its usage have been significantly constrained (Asenova 1976, 1984).

In terms of religion, the Karakachans are Orthodox Christians. In the nomadic period their access to Christian churches and contact with priests was difficult due to the remoteness of their settlements from other villages and towns. In their traditional culture, we find many pagan be-liefs, customs and traditions that are combined in a unique way with the Christian worldview and holidays. After settling down for life, their contacts with the Orthodox Church became permanent.

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Zhenya Pimpireva Ethnicity in Transition: the Karakachans in Bulgaria 2524 Zhenya Pimpireva Ethnicity in Transition: the Karakachans in Bulgaria 2524

Until the middle of the 20th century, the Karakachans were scattered in many parts of the Balkan Peninsula (Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia), but today they live in Greece and Bulgaria only. In Bulgaria, compact groups of the populace inhabit areas of the Balkan Mountain Range (in the city of Sliven, the villages of Samuilovo, Golyamo Chocho-veni, Borov Dol, the towns of Kotel and Karnobat, the village of Gorno Sahrane, the towns of Kazanlak, Karlovo and Sopot, the villages of Enina, Kran, Shipka and elsewhere), Moun-tain Rila (the towns of Samokov and Dupnitsa), and Northeastern Bulgaria (the towns of Berkovitsa, Varshets, Montana and Vratsa).

It is difficult to establish the exact number of Karakachans over the years, since they were dispersed across the Balkan Peninsula and migrated in summer and winter. Besides, they were often confused with other population groups, especially with the Aromanian Vlachs, who are also nomadic shepherds. In some cases, politics also contributed to the confusing statistics. The official data on the number of Karakachans in Bulgaria, according to the cen-suses, are as follows: in 1905 – 6,128; in 1910 – 7,251; in 1920 – 6,412; in 1956 –2,085; in 1992 – 5,144.1 According to the Cultural and Educational Association of Karakachans in Bulgaria in 1994, the Karakachans numbered 14,000–15,000 in 1994. A sociological survey from 1992 estimated the Karakachan populace at 12,000 to 15,000 people.

At the start of the 20th century, the Karakachans were typical nomadic shepherds.2 They grazed their sheep only on natural pastures, which were in different places in the two main seasons, often at a considerable distance from each other. Horses and sheep were of primary importance, since they provided almost all the food, clothing, furnishings and transporta-tion. The Karakachan sheep and horse are among the earliest breeds, and are ideally suited to the nomadic way of life. The main trades of the Karakachans – sheep-breeding and dairy-farming – had several specific characteristics.

Nomadic sheep-breeding left a mark on the entire culture of the Karakachans. They did not have permanent summer and winter villages and organized temporary settlements. The Karakachans lived in kalivia – make-shift huts of branches and foliage. The entire belongings of any family, be it wealthy or poor, could be loaded on several horses. They spent a consid-erable part of their life on the road. During their movement, every night women would put up something like a tent – a chatura, a shelter consisting of a rug woven specially for the purpose, stretched on a simple wooden skeleton. The diet, mostly made of milk and dairy products, and also the ways of preparing food, also were determined by the Karakachan livelihood and lifestyle. The same applied to the Karakachan clothing, which was one of the major distinctive features that immediately set the group apart: the dark male costume and, in particular, the general silhouette and peculiar elements of the traditional female costume, such as the characteristic headgear (a dark red woolen kerchief with loose ends), knitted socks with intricate patterns, a rich underskirt gathered at the waist by a broad belt, with a small trapezium-shaped apron at the lower end creating the impression of a low waistline.

The specificity of the social and economic life of the Karakachans was best manifested in the organization of the Karakachans camp (kompania, badzhyo, odzhak). For the Karakachans, who were scattered among other ethnic groups, camps were the only territorial communi-ties, which were largely independent and isolated from one another, as well as from the other sedentary ethnic populations. The Karakachan camp was a nomadic community

1 Regarding the number of Sarakatsans in Greece in 1950, Hadzhimihali (1957) indicated 10,604 families.2 Without going into a detailed bibliographical survey, I feel obliged to mention here several basic works

devoted to the Sarakatsans in Greece, e.g.: Hoeg (1925); Hadzhimihali (1957); Campbell (1974); Kavadias (1965) etc. On the Karakachans in Bulgaria, see the monograph of V. Marinov (1964), who made his observations at a time when they were still living as nomads, and Pimpireva’s research (1998) on their transition to a sedentary life.


Photo 1. Reconstruction of a traditional dwelling (chatura) used during the movement of Karakachans from winter to summer pastures and back, 17th Festival of Karakachans in Bulgaria, July 2008 in area of Karandila near Sliven. Photo: Zhenya Pimpireva

Photo 2. The Karakachan family. Photo made in 1945 in the town of Berkovitsa. Reproduction: Zhenya Pimpireva


which, regardless of the specific aspects of its temporary existence, variable composition and specific dependence on the respective territory, bore some resemblance to a local (neigh-bour) community of a sedentary populace. This nomadic community organized the whole economic and social life of the Karakachans prior to the establishment of the sedentary life-style (Pimpireva 1998: 21–28).

The fall of the Ottoman Empire was followed by substantial changes in the sociopolitical system on the Balkan Peninsula, which ultimately limited the nomadic way of life of the Karakachans and led them to the adoption of a partially sedentary lifestyle.3 These tenden-cies continued and expanded in the further development of the Karakachans. In the period before the wars of 1912 to 1918,4 however, the Karakachans preserved their typically no-madic way of life and customs almost intactly. Dispersed among the surrounding sedentary population of a different ethnic identity, they led a very isolated form of life in a camp, where the entire economic and social life of the Karakachan families was concentrated. Ex-istence outside the camp was impossible, and this ultimately led to the emergence of the sedentary lifestyle. Contacts with the sedentary population in this period remained con-fined to the economic sphere and, above all, trade.

This period saw the beginning of the division of the Karakachan ethnic group into two parts: nomadic Karakachans and sedentary Karakachans, who changed their traditional en-vironment and culture as a result of their new way of life and livelihood.

The changes, begun after Bulgaria’s Liberation from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, inten-sified, influencing the ethno-cultural development of the Karakachans after World War I. The Karakachan community changed along with the rest of the Bulgarian society. Differen-tiation within the Karakachan nomadic community intensified, with new forms of hired labour appearing, and individual families becoming more independent. The Karakachans activated and diversified contacts with the sedentary non-Karakachan populace, as a result of which the different ethnic groups got to know each other better. The intensity of this proc-ess varied for the two different parts of the Karakachan group – the nomadic and the seden-tary – with the latter eventually dominating in number. As Karakachan children started at-tending Bulgarian schools, and men began working on Bulgarian farms and serving in the army, more and more Karakachans got to know Bulgarians and their culture from personal experience. Mutual familiarization, activation and expansion of the relations narrowed the gap between the Karakachans and the Bulgarian population, which helped surmount cer-tain prejudices; however, the opposition between “us the Karakachans” and “them, the oth-ers, the peasants, the Bulgarians”, remained.

Despite the changes before the 1940s, the majority of Karakachans remained nomads.5 Still, the process of adopting a sedentary lifestyle as a result of the changes in the Karakach-an community itself, as well as in the society as a whole, had started already after the Libera-tion. The Bulgarian state directly interfered after World War II, with the Council of Minis-ters’ Decree, dated 15 March 1954, binding the Karakachans to settle in a permanent place of residence. Some of the families settled down and took advantage of certain benefits under the decree, such as free acquisition of up to 0.4 hectares of land, privileged purchase of building materials, rent-free tenure of land from the state including forest stock (100

3 On the Karakachans’ transition to a sedentary lifestyle in Bulgaria, see Markowska (1962: 226–239); Ma-rinov (1964: 117-125); Pimpireva (1998: 131–145); in Serbia – Žunić (1958: 100-107); in Greece – Bauermann (1964: 194-214); Kavadias (1965: 397–406).

4 Bulgaria fought in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and the First World War (1915–1918).5 In Greece, the Law of 1933 obliged all nomads to register in settlements chosen by them, with all the ensu-

ing rights and obligations of sedentary dwellers (Hammond 1976: 49; Kavadias 1965: 403; Bauermann 1964: 211).


Postanovlenie 1954). The 1954 Decree changed the life of just one part of the Karakachans, while others remained nomads until the end 1950s, when all their sheep were confiscated under the national policy of abolishing private property in Bulgaria. Deprived of property, the families had no choice but to settle and look for other jobs. The specificity and problems associated with the sedentarization of the Karakachans were a consequence of the nationali-zation and collectivization conducted by the ruling communist party as well as of the rela-tively stronger pressure from the state.

If during the pre-World War II period the majority of Karakachans settled in the country-side, in the 1960s they started moving into towns. Their motives varied: in most cases it was reluctance and incompetence to work the land, as well as the opportunity to settle in a group on the outskirts of towns, thus forming their own neighbourhood; access to better job and education opportunities etc. were also important (Markowska 1962).

The abandonment of the traditional livelihood and the confiscation of herds destroyed the former social-professional structure of the Karakachans. New social groups and profes-sions developed in their community. For a certain time after settling down, the Karakachans sought employment in agriculture for lack of any other training, working mostly in live-stock breeding and forestry. At first, women stayed at home, raising children. Karakachan women were also confined to the family because of the language barrier; however, as they learnt Bulgarian, the traditional division of labour eventually disappeared, and they started going to work. The settled way of life tangibly increased opportunities for education and training, and the range of the professions practiced by the Karakachans expanded.

Becoming a sedentary population coincided with the time when the Communist Party organized final liquidation of private property in Bulgaria. This instituted the ethno-cultural and social boundaries within which the ethnic community of the Karakachans was con-structed during the socialist period. The transition to a sedentary lifestyle had changed the

Photo 3. The end of traditional Karakachan wedding with wedding flag flambura and dowry to the bride. Reproduction of an old photo: Zhenya Pimpireva


organization of everyday culture, which interacted and adapted to the patterns of the Bul-garians, settled in the villages and towns. The cabin was replaced with a house, the Kara-kachan nomadic community with a neighbourhood, the natural environment with urban structures.

Upon the replacement of the nomadic lifestyle by a sedentary one, the nomadic commu-nity was destroyed. In the nomadic period, it played a crucial role in the reproduction of the ethnic culture. In the changed situation, such reproduction took place only within family and kinship groups. Simultaneously, the formation of compact Karakachan neighbourhoods in various cities of Bulgaria became a prerequisite for integration into the local communities. The Karakachan dialect was used in communication within the community, and above all in the family, while undergoing influence from Bulgarian in its particular dialects. Bilingual-ism, known in some social groups in the nomadic period, now became ubiquitous and the Bulgarian language began to be used in the family environment (Pimpireva 1998: 131-144).

With the transition to the sedentary life, the relationship the Karakachans had with the dominant ethnic Bulgarians also changed. The intensification and diversification of con-tacts, which had begun in the nomadic period, began to affect all areas, including social life, in accordance with the long-lasting connections with Bulgaria. The spatial separateness and isolation, associated with particular traditional livelihoods and lifestyles, had ended. The Karakachans became part of a settled community, whether in compact or dispersed settle-ments. The level of mutual understanding and acceptance between the Karakachans and the Bulgarians rose.

The ruling Communist Party did not pursue national minority treatment policies with respect to Karakachans. This fact precluded the establishment and maintenance of a na-tional identity and prompted different individual strategies of coping with the situation, with most Karakachans not talking about their origin. They were no exception to the policy of the dominant communist ideology imposed on other ethnicities as well, producing con-flicting extremes “from internationalism to nationalism, from protecting and strengthening of the ethnic (but not the religious) identity of minority communities to gross violations of their ethnic culture, religion and language” (Kanev 1998: 86).

For the construction of the Karakachan community under socialism, perception of the border between Bulgaria and Greece was crucial. Behind it, not only relatives of some Kara-kachans remained, but over there was where the majority of them once lived, as part of the past nomadic entirety. The new identity involved a distinction between ‘Bulgarian’ and ‘Greek’ Karakachans, who now led very different lives on both sides of the ‘Iron Curtain’, with almost no opportunities for contact.

Under the communist regime and conditions of the sedentary life, maintenance of the Karakachan identity required preserving the memory and nostalgia for the nomadic past, keeping the notion of an undistorted relation to religion (seen as extremely significant given the restrictions imposed by the totalitarian state), nourishing the traditional family values and patriarchal spirit even in a situation of socialist modernization and emancipation. Si-multaneously, the identity of Karakachans under socialism was associated with their rapid adaptation to different lifestyles and work, with business initiative carried out outside the realm of public service, with the pursuit of higher education. Thus at the end of the 1980s, within the Karakachans’ collective identity three levels could be observed: on defining them-selves as Karakachans, they would explain that they had a Greek origin, furthermore iden-tifying themselves as “the most pure Greeks” and then adding that they were “Bulgarian Karakachans”, because they were living in Bulgaria, where their children were born, they themselves were born and, often, their ancestors as well.

The changes in Bulgaria after 1989 in terms of human rights, freedom of speech, press freedom, freedom of assembly and religion rights, created conditions for addressing and


solving of the problems of ethnic minorities. The new Constitution of the Republic of Bul-garia of 1991 guaranteed the right for everyone to observe their own culture in accordance with their ethnicity, freedom of religion, and to study and use their own native language (Article 36, paragraph 2; Article 54, paragraph 1). Removed were the legal and political ob-stacles to the creation of cultural associations of ethnic communities, which made possible the registration of organizations of Turks, Armenians, Gypsies, Jews, Vlachos and others. The guaranteeing of the rights to establish non-political associations of ethnic communities also provided the opportunity for the Karakachans in Bulgaria to found their cultural and educational organization in 1990, which became a permanent and determinant factor in their further ethno-cultural development.

This present work is based on the results of an ethnographic field study of Karakachans from the settlements in different regions of Bulgaria, where compact groups reside (Sliven, Kazanlak, Karnobat, Berkovitsa, Varshets, Samokov, Dupnitsa etc.). Of particular impor-tance have been observations of Karakachan gatherings. Each year, Karakachans coming from different regions of Bulgaria, as well as many guests from Greece, meet together. The program, the statutes and other documents of the organization of these meetings are out-lined in a range of sources. In the period 1998 – 2000, the cultural and educational organiza-tion of the Karakachans issued a bulletin “Flambura”6, which listed information and dis-cussed issues related to the development of the Karakachans in Bulgaria as an ethnic community. Materials from central Bulgarian dailies have also been taken into account here, as they came out mainly around the time of the gatherings. Sociological data and comments on some of the problems are provided using the empirical sociological research on the Kara-kachans in Bulgaria published in 1992 (Kertikov et al. 1992).

At the end of 1990, the cultural and educational association of the Karakachans was cre-ated in Bulgaria, with its headquarters in Sliven. Its foundation was followed by the estab-lishment of regional associations in villages where more significant groups of Karakachans lived (Druzhestvo 1990). Their numbers multiplied, reaching 20 by the end of the 1990s. Included were most of the Karakachans as well as family members of mixed marriages.

The Karakachans’ Association in Bulgaria declared the following objectives in its pro-gram of 1991: establishing contacts among the Karakachans in the country and beyond; studying and promoting of the historical past, traditions, language and folklore wealth of the Karakachan community; democratization and humanisation of the civil society and pro-motion of universal moral values; and, finally, “Going towards a united Europe, a native of that land, who has acknowledged it as home, regardless of ethnic origin, language, ideas and religion, is obliged to work for the unity of the Bulgarian nation and to respect the con-stitutional rights of every citizen” (Programa 1991).

The Karakachan respondents reached in 1992 (Kertikov et. al. 1992) perceived the activi-ties of their organization in several ways. In the first place they would put the activities for the revival of the ethnic identity, for organizing the study of Greek, providing access to Greek universities and establishing closer contacts with similar organizations in Greece. Secondly, the respondents identified the need for the association to support the economic interests of its members. There were also many people who believed that the association was required to publish its own newspaper. In 1995, the association was renamed as the Federation of Cultural and Educational Associations of the Karakachans in Bulgaria (FCEAK), as it is known today.

Since its inception, the organization of the Karakachans in Bulgaria maintained and de-veloped various contacts with the Sarakatsani Federation of Greece, founded in 1968. Mu-

6 After the name of an important requisite of the wedding ritual – the wedding banner.


tual visits to festivals and performances of amateur groups, organization of summer camps for children in Greece, publication of brochures, books, textbooks and other resources were just some aspects of the joint activity. The Sarakatsani Federation of Greece was not only involved in the formation and support of the overall activity of FCEAK in Bulgaria, but set the pattern in which it was to be built and developed.

In an effort to be remembered and to obtain help to solve the problems of the community in Bulgaria, FCEAK maintained contacts with representatives of both the Bulgarian and the Greek central and local government (Bletsov 1998: 1). It initiated Bulgarian-Greek meetings of women’s organizations, lawyers, journalists and other groups. From the first years of its existence, the organization also sought to establish in the public domain the image of the Karakachans as a bridge of cooperation and friendship between the two neighboring Balkan countries (Konstantinov 1997).

Language is an important marker of ethnic identity, playing a decisive role in the unifica-tion of a community and in distinguishing it from others. Its loss is seen as a means of eth-nicity change. This idea explains why organizing the study of Greek was a priority for the Federation of Karakachans in the first years. This activity was possible in the course of de-mocratization of the Bulgarian state and the guaranteed rights to mother tongue education. The Law on Education and Decrees of the Bulgarian government from 1991 and 1994 regu-late that up to 4 hours of mother tongue education can be offered in schools as an optional subject to children of different ethnic origin from 1st to 8th grade (“Darzhaven vestnik”, Issue 73, 09.09.1994).

The teaching of Greek was introduced in 1993 for the Karakachan children in the Sliven district “New Village”, in Kazanlаk and other settlements (Karakachani iskat 1994). How-ever, there were problems with “providing accommodation, determining the most appro-priate form of education, supplying appropriate textbooks” (Shtereva 1998: 2). The problem with teachers was solved by making use of who was available. Initially, the task was taken up by members of the association, regardless of their teaching qualifications, who had mas-tered one dialectal variant in their family and were then self-educated. Subsequently, with the assistance of the Greek state and the organization of the Sarakatsani in Greece, the teach-ers were included in summer seminars and underwent longer-term fellowships in Thessalo-niki and Athens, receiving degrees in teaching Greek. Another means of providing language teaching to children were summer camps in Greece, where, apart from the language, chil-dren learned traditional songs, dances and customs. Children also learned and improved their Greek language during visits to Greece as members of dancing and singing groups, hosted by Greek families. In the early 1990s, many Karakachans had the desire to learn Greek, especially spouses from families with mixed marriages and Bulgarians. The reason often was the opportunity to visit and stay to work in Greece.

The Federation began the language training programme for children at a time when the use of the Karakachan dialect was severely limited – mainly to the elderly. Language learn-ing, an important part of ethnic socialization, previously carried out only in the family, now involved the associations; in many cases the language courses were actually the only availa-ble option. In contrast with the past, when children were learning the Karakachan speech as a dialectical variant in the family, they now study the literary variety. Obtaining knowledge of the Greek language and culture not only strengthens the feeling of belonging to the com-munity of Karakachans, but also promotes the knowledge of Greece as a defined fatherland. Thus a sense of connection and contact with it is fostered, which in the period of socialism had been interrupted or severely limited. By providing opportunities for Karakachan girls and boys to learn Greek for free at Greek universities, an important step has been made.

Among the democratic freedoms which the Karakachans acquired after 1989, there was the right to religious freedom. Throughout the period of socialism, religion was highly re-


stricted and controlled for the entire population of Bulgaria. Despite the restrictions, adher-ence to the Christian dogma and participation in church rituals before 1989 characterized a wide range of Karakachans. This behavior, defined as religiosity, was highlighted as a specific feature of their ethnic identity and self-identification after and especially before 1989. A symptomatic fact in this regard was the initiative of the Federation of Karakachans in Bulgaria to build a church in the village of Golyamo Chochoveni, a settlement with a pre-dominantly Karakachan population (Karakachani dadoha 1996). The erection of the “St. George” church was completed thanks to donations by the Karakachans in Bulgaria and with the support of the Federation of the Sarakatsani in Greece and other Greek NGOs (Presconferentsia 2000). The sanctification of the temple was a central event of the Ninth National Festival of the Karakachans in Bulgaria in 2000.

Since 1989, FCEAK has played a very significant role in the process of identity construc-tion. It “owns and rules the new concept of ‘karakachanstvo’, and this power has been exer-cised through membershp lists: to be a member of the association means to be recognized as a “‘karakachanin’” (René 2002: 84). Since 1989, the ethnic identity of the Karakachans has been affacted by the impact of changes in Bulgaria related to the processes of democratiza-tion of society and the development of a market economy.

Under the new conditions, the Karakachan identity retains the three levels identified for the previous period, but a change in priority can be felt. In the first place now comes the Greek origins, with the Karakachans identifying themselves as descendants of a “very an-cient people”, “the oldest nation in Europe”, “the purest and most ancient Greeks” (Kara-kachanite 1996). In situations of individual contact the options can vary. According to the definition of M. P. René, “you could only be Bulgarian, Greek or Karakachan, but you could be all the three simultaneously; different combinations are possible, depending on the degree of involvement in the association, the place occupied by the individual in the community, his relationship with figures in the Greek Federation of Sarakatsani, etc.” (René 2002: 84).

The opportunities for permanent connections with Greece, the absorption of the Greek literature and language by more Karakachans thanks to the organized language training, as well as the close interaction with the Federation of Sarakatsani in Greece, set a new direction in constructing the Karakachan identity. More Karakachans learn about different versions of the origin and historical development of the former nomadic herders. A good illustration of this new element in the formation of their ethnic identity in the modern times is the state-ment from the interview with FCEAK’s President for the “Kontinent” newspaper from 09/09/1994: “In the recent years – said the President of FCEAK – when we have had access to literature, we have found what ‘karakachanin’ means” (Miloev 1994a). This new informa-tion does not replace, but adds to the traditional knowledge and explanations of the past legends, songs, stories and more.

The study and promotion of the past, of the cultural specifics and traditions, and of the folklore heritage, are essential for the activities of the Karakachan associations because all this is the capital of the community, which must be stored and used for the construction and maintenance of the Karakachan identity (Mermekliev 1998; Sedlarska 1993). The interest the Karakachans show in their origins and historical development has been very strong, even painful, especially in the first years after 1989. In the first years of the gatherings, confer-ences were also held with the participation of political and public figures from Bulgaria and Greece. Regardless of the topics to which these conferences were dedicated (origin, history, anthropology, modernity, lifestyle), the vision was to present in Bulgaria the Karakachan community with its culture and ancient history and to explicitly highlight the Karakachans’ relationship with Greece. Not only the talks given but the entire program of the gatherings aimed at showing the past and training about the past, which is important for maintaining identity: “The feast serves […] for restoring the foundational past. By referencing the past,


the identity of the remembering group is grounded. With the memory of history and by restoring the founding figures, the group assures its identity” (Assmann 2001: 51).

In the process of society modernization, the Karakachan cultural traditions have been lost as practice, but preserved as knowledge, and to this aspect particular importance is at-tached. The associations use traditions as a resource for recovering and moulding ethnicity. The reconstruction of elements of the traditional culture, representative of the community, is carried out with the support from the associations and with the help of the community’s elderly. The restored traditional culture is represented by amateur folk groups, thus demon-strating ‘Karakachan’.7 Any association has at least one amateur group in which children learn and present traditional songs, dances, and customs. These groups are given special attention (Angelov 1998: 3). Children’s and youth groups and also adult groups become something of a calling card of the community and the associations. Their participation is a must at festivals and other celebrations. The performances demonstrate to Karakachans themselves, and to the whole Bulgarian society, how ancient and unique the Karakachan culture is. Professional musicians and choreographers often work with the groups, but in the recovery of Karakachan traditional songs and dances adults from the community are also included. Thus amateur art builds a connection between the generations, as the partici-pants, who are usually children and young people, present restored elements of the tradi-tional Karakachan culture. The Karakachan annual fairs are an exceptional incentive for the folk groups to become engaged. Besides the annual fairs, they stage their performances at the festival “Flambura”,8 held annually in the town of Sliven. Their local festivals also pro-vide spaces for expression: e.g. Karakachans from Samokov gather in Borovets, those from Dupnitsa – in the area of Vangelova Cheshma in the Rila mountains, etc. I should note here the great interest in the performances of the Karakachan amateur groups in the National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa in 2005, 2010 as well as at the Festival of Ethnic Groups, held in Nessebar in 2004.

FCEAK, in Bulgaria and in Sliven, organize fairs annually. They become significant events in the community. On their occasion, Karakachans from all over the country and from different generations gather and socialize, together with their guests from Greece (Sedlarska 1993a; Gencheva 1994; Petkov 1994; Miloev 1994; Nedelcheva 1996). During each festival, traditional culture of the former nomadic herders is presented and promoted. This is a time when the Karakachans most intensely attract onto themselves attention of the Bulgarian society and institutions and also engage the public opinion with the problems of their ethnic community. The importance of the fairs for FCEAK has been accurately pic-tured in the statement made at a press conference on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the organization: “The role of the fair is much stronger and more important than many declarations and conventions. Learning about the ancient origin of the Karakachans, about their great history, contacting their folklore originating from prehistoric times, one cannot but look in a new way, with respect and admiration, towards these people. Moreover, the fathers and grandfathers of today’s Karakachans carried through the centuries and preserved in hard times their language, culture and Greek identity” (Preskonferentsia 2000).

The location known as “Karandila”, near Sliven (a city that has the largest number of Karakachan residents), is a natural landmark and it offers convenient transportation, hotels and holiday facilities for accommodating the participants and guests. The original idea was to organize such gatherings every two years, but since 1994 they have been held annually. In

7 On the importance of visualization for maintaining identity, see Dichev (2002: 36–57).8 See note 6.


search of the optimal variant for the timing of the festival the organizers initially set the days around August 15 (Feast of St. Mary, a cult of particular importance in the traditional culture of Karakachans); later that date was changed several times and now the fair takes place in the first weekend of July.

After the prolonged restriction of the opportunities for expressing their ethnic identity under the totalitarian state, the Karakachan gathering provides a place for its intense dem-onstration. The Greek language is comparable to, or even dominant over, the Bulgarian one during the festival, unlike in the daily life, where the mother tongue is only used in the fam-ily, and not by all the members. Translations from and to Greek and Bulgarian accompany any statement, welcoming address, etc. Outside the formal program, communication is also primarily ‘Karakachan’.

Karakachan performances of traditional songs and dances and presentations of tradi-tional wedding customs, calendar holidays and nomadic lifestyle, are the most attractive parts in the program. The impression of having been taken back to another time is rein-forced by people walking in traditional Karakachan female and male costumes, often di-rectly taken from dowry bags. The cultural program of the fairs has been changing with time – in recent years the organizers have to select which of the amateur groups to include in the program, while at the beginning there were not enough groups. The participation of folk groups from Greece has increased. According to the information published in the news-paper “Trud”, at the Fifth Festival there were 3,000 attendees, with 1,000 from Greece; of the nine amateur groups four were from Greece. The original repertoire, which only included works from the Karakachan traditional folklore, has been expanded with the introduction of instrumental accompaniment, alien to the tradition, as well as performances of songs and dances from various regions of Greece.

Photo 4. Participants in the 17th Festival of Karakachans in Bulgaria, July 2008 in area of Karandila near Sliven. Photo: Zhenya Pimpireva


The annual gatherings, when the attention of the Bulgarian and Greek society and media is focused on Karakachans, become the best place and time to communicate ideas and to present the problems of the community. The guiding principle of every fair is to demon-strate Karakachans as the bridge of cooperation between Bulgaria and Greece. If in the first year this idea was mentioned only in the speeches of Karakachans, recently there is no wel-coming address by the representatives of the local and central government which does not include this note. At the 2004 festival, in his welcoming address the foreign minister said: “Our country has always given Europe an example of ethnic coexistence and one element of this partnership are you, the Karakachans. You are the living bridge between the two friend-ly countries – Bulgaria and Greece. You are an integral part of the ethnic diversity, which counts among the most valuable contributions of Bulgaria in the new Europe”.

Part of the understanding of the identity of the Karakachans in Bulgaria and its transfor-mations was revealed in the economic situation after 1989. In the time of radical economic changes and the transition to a market economy, the Karakachans experienced many diffi-culties. The unemployment level among the Karakachan active population, was an indicator of the impact of the economic crisis on the community. Unfortunately there are no statistics about its rate at the time. In 1994, in an interview for the newspaper “Kontinent”, the then President of the Society of Karakachans pointed out that the unemployment rate in the com-munity was 90%. This estimate was probably excessive and the goal was to raise the aware-ness of the problem rather than to offer accurate information. Most likely, the unemploy-ment rate did not differ from the general indicators for the area, as there were no major differences in education, training, employment attitude of the Karakachans as compared to the rest of the population.

Photo 5. Participants in the 17th Festival of Karakachans in Bulgaria, July 2008 in area of Karandila near Sliven. Photo: Zhenya Pimpireva


Among the primary economic problems of the Karakachans was the issue of compensa-tion for the sheep and horses forcibly confiscated during the 1950s, a task that actively en-gaged FCEAK (Vasileva 1996; Karakachanite iskat 1998; Trifonova 1998). With the help of older members of authority in the community, the association made lists of owners and specified the number of cattle taken away in 1958. Approximately 1,050 eligible owners ap-plied for about 176,000 sheep. In the opinion of the Federation there was no single approach to solving this problem, and it was put in the hands of local officials. The compensation re-ceived was assessed only as moral (Preskonferentsia 2000). The agrarian reform after 1989 was associated with the restoration of land ownership, but it also created tension among the Karakachans. They were not able to obtain land, despite their continuing work at the former collective farms. Karakachans were not given any real compensation for the confiscated ani-mals. The proposed solution was for municipalities to provide them with farmland free of charge, as well as to amend the Land Law regarding the use of pasture, fodder, pens and more.

Looking for a way out of the economic difficulties caused by the ongoing transition to a market economy, the Karakachans in mass started seeking seasonal work in Greece in the sphere of agriculture, construction and other industries requiring low-skilled and hard physical labor. Greece became the № 1 destination of economic emigration (Valchinova 1998: 216; René 2002: 85), and the associations became checkpoints helping to quickly and securely obtain a Greek visa. Among the Bulgarian citizens applying for a Greek visa in the early 90s of the 20 century, Karakachans were prioritized because of their declaration of Greek origin on account their membership in the Karakachan cultural and educational as-sociations. Each organization had selected at a general meeting a person authorized to take care of the visa documents for its members on the list: “Being a member of the association means to be recognized as ‘karakachanin’ and being ‘karakachanin’ today means being able to work in Greece” (René 2002: 84). The situation lasted until 2001, when Bulgaria began implementing the Schengen agreements and eliminated visa requirements, thus ending the brokering activities of the associations in this regard.

In the early 90s of the 20 century the labour migration of Karakachans to Greece was a mass phenomenon and a preferred option. In an interview for the newspaper “Kontinent” at the festival in 1994, the President of FCEAK provided information that 80% of the Kara-kachans worked in Greece for a period (Miloev 1994: 3). Today, the Karakachans prefer seasonal and temporary migration and no longer take advantage of the offers by the Greek state for them to settle in the border areas of Greek Thrace and take up pastoralism. Staying there is seen as a temporary option for coping with the economic difficulties caused by the transition in Bulgaria. But these migrations between the two countries have changed the organization in families, family circles and even the rhythm of life of the neighborhood (René 2002: 85). Over time, the number of Karakachans engaged with seasonal labour grad-ually decreased because of their dissatisfaction with the hard and casual work, often irrele-vant to their education and previous work experience. Moreover, it was uncomfortable liv-ing away from family and home. At the beginning of the 21 century, the labour migration of the Karakachans to Greece changed its nature and scope, and continued to play a role in the construction of their identity.

Studies of the contemporary migration and mobility of the Bulgarian Karakachans were started in 2011, with Nacho Dimitrov’s doctoral thesis in the Department of Ethnology of Socialism and Post-Socialism at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies of the Bul-garian Academy of Sciences. The research focuses on the following issues: direction, param-eters and methods of organizing labour migration; the role of identifying markers for select-ing the direction; assistance in contacts with other communities and generally at work and at places of residence while living in a foreign environment; the image of the other in the


relationships Karakachans – Bulgarians, Karakachans – Greeks, ‘Bulgarian Karakachans’ – ‘Greek Karakachans’; trends in the construction of representative identities in the context of labour migration; and many other areas.

During the traditional nomadic period, the ethno-cultural development of the Karakach-ans was linked to the family and to the nomadic community in which the tradition had been formed, kept and later changed. Being territorially small (with the Karachans such were the only ones), the commnities played the decisive role in the ethno-stabilizing processes and, further, in the reproduction of the ethnic culture. With the enclosed and isolated life in the different Karakachan communities, with them being so broadly spread, and with the lack of permanent connections, changes in the traditional culture were slow and did not affect the culture as a system. It was characteristic for their ethnical identity to sharply differentiate from the population surrounding them. In the two-sided ‘we/they’ relationship, there was a special meaning to the opposition between nomadic and sedentary, breeders and farmers – an opposition in which a language barrier and contrastive origins could be summarised.

The permanent restriction of the movement of many Karakachans in Bulgaria at the be-ginning of the 20th century, the changes in the Bulgarian society, the social-economic devel-opment of the Karakachan community itself – all these factors led to a brand new direction in the Karakachan ethno-cultural development. New trends developed when the system of the nomadic sheep-breeding was taken down, as a result of which in the 50-60s of the 20th century the Karakachans became sedentary citizens. The confrontation nomadic vs. seden-tary disappeared, mutual acquaintance between Karakachans and Bulgarians increased: in everyday culture the Karakachan came to accept the models of the sedentary Bulgarian population in the city аnd in the countryside from the period of the socialism, the Kara-kachan dialect started to be used only inside the family, with bilingualism spreading throughout the entire population. Self-identification during this period can be characterized by 3 steps: Karakachan, Greek in language and origin, Bulgarian Karakachan.

The most recent changes in Bulgaria since 1989 have led to new developments in the Karakachan community. There has been a direct impact of the policy changes with regard to the respecting of democratic rights and freedoms, removing of the barriers to religious prac-tices, studying the mother tongue and freely expressing ethnic identities. In socio-economic terms, the processes have been taking place in the context of radical reforms, economic crisis and related poverty and unemployment problems, with a need to adapt to the new eco-nomic realities. The economic crisis is a factor inducing greater cohesion and a sense of com-mitment to the ethnic community because in an uncertain environment the Karakachans look for support in their ethnic environment, among the people connected with a common origin and historical experience, stereotypes, values, etc. Since its inception in 1990, the FCEAK association has played a very important role in the ethno-cultural development. The organization has not only brought together the community, but also actively participated in the construction of the Karakachan identity under the new conditions. And, in addition to the family but on another level, it has carried out ethnic socialization. Today, after a long socialist period of the their identity being hidden (or silent about), the cultural and educa-tion associations have made the Karakachans visible as an ethnic community and legiti-mized them through their activities in both the Bulgarian and the Greek spaces.

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Biographical note: Dr. Zhenya Pimpireva is Associate Professor in Ethnology of So-cialism and Post-Socialism Department at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her major research areas are ethnic com-munities and intercultural relations, and everyday culture in the socialist and post-socialist period.

Ethnicity in Transition: the Karakachans in Bulgaria

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