NATIONALISM AND POWER POLITICS ON BALKAN

ABSTRACT

Before the Ottomans the Bulgars were the most important Turkic community on Balkan. They were also the only ones who formed a state. Bulgaria stayed as a toponym also when those people were disappeared. Meanwhile, were they assimilated and with whom is total another question. In any case four century passed without any sign or mention of them as a crowd. Just in the era of romantic nationalism those ancient people were found in history and were used for building a new nation. Those tendencies however were intermixed with politics of the superpowers.

Keywords: Balkans, Turkic people, Nation building, Misusing history, Nationalism, Panslavism, the Other.