Eastern Rumelia
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Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia (Bulgarian: Източна Румелия, Iztochna Rumelija; Ottoman Turkish: Rumeli-i Şarkî; Modern Turkish: Doğu Rumeli, Greek Ανατολική Ρωμυλία, Anatoliki Romylia) was an autonomous province (vilayet) in the Ottoman Empire from 1878 to 1908, however it was under Bulgarian control from 1885. The capital was Plovdiv (Filibe). Today, Bulgaria's share of Rumelia has a population of more than 2.5 million.
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[edit] History
Eastern Rumelia was created as an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. It encompassed the territory between the Balkan Mountains, the Rhodope Mountains and Strandzha Mountain, a region known to all its inhabitants - Bulgarians, Greeks and Ottoman Turks - as Northern Thrace. The artificial name, Eastern Rumelia, was given to the province on the insistence of the British delegates to the Congress of Berlin. Some twenty Pomak (Bulgarian Muslim) villages in the Rhodope Mountains refused to recognize Eastern Rumelian authority and formed the so-called Tamrashka Republic.
According to the Treaty of Berlin, Eastern Rumelia was to remain under the political and military jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire with significant administrative autonomy (Article 13). The head of the province was a Christian Governor-General appointed by the Sublime Porte with the approval of the Great Powers.
The eastern provinces of Anatolia were called by the Ottomans as Rum while the western provinces as Rumelia. These names were taken by the Ottomans since they had a long history of being under the Roman Empire.
[edit] Governors-general
The first Governor-General was the Bulgarian prince Alexander Bogoridi ("Aleko Pasha") (1879–1884) who was acceptable to both Bulgarians and Greeks in the province. The second Governor-General was Gavril Krstevic (Γaврил Kръcтeвич) (1884–1885), a famous Bulgarian historian. Before the the first Governor-General, Arkady Stolypin was the Russian Civil Administrator from October 9, 1878 to May 18, 1879.
During the period of Bulgarian annexation Georgi Stranski was appointed as a Commissioner for South Bugaria (September 9, 1885 - April 5, 1886), and when the province was restored to nominal Ottoman sovereignty, but still under Bulgarian control, the Prince of Bulgaria was recognized by the Sublime Porte as the Governor-General.
- Alexander Bogoridi "Aleko Pasha" (May 18, 1879 - April 26, 1884)
- Gavril Krstevic "Gavril Pasha" (April 26, 1884 - September 18, 1885)
- The Prince of Bulgaria (April 17, 1886 - October 5, 1908)
- Alexander of Bulgaria (April 17, 1886 - September 7, 1886)
- Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (July 7, 1886 - October 5, 1908)
[edit] Annexation
After a bloodless revolution on September 6, 1885, the province was annexed by the tributary Principality of Bulgaria. After the Bulgarian victory in the subsequent Serbo-Bulgarian War, the status quo was recognized by the Porte with the Tophane Act on March 24, 1886. With the Tophane Act, Sultan Abdülhamid II appointed the Prince of Bulgaria (without mentioning the name of the incumbent prince Alexander of Bulgaria) as Governor-General of Eastern Rumelia. The Pomak Republic was reincorporated in the Ottoman Empire. The province was nominally under Ottoman rule until Bulgaria became officially independent in 1908. September 6, Unification Day, is a national holiday in Bulgaria.
The large Greek population of the region was largely exchanged in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and World War II. Several thousand Bulgarians of Greek descent still inhabit the region, notably, the Sarakatsani (Σαρακατσάνοι), transhumant shepherds.
[edit] Postage stamps
The province is remembered today by philatelists for having issued postage stamps from 1880 on. The first issue consisted of several kinds of overprints on stamps of Turkey, including "R.O.", a pattern of bars, and "ROUMELIE / ORIENTALE". These overprints are uncommon and extensively counterfeited.
Stamps of the contemporaneous Turkish design appeared in 1881, differing from Turkish stamps by having the French inscription "ROUMELIE ORIENTALE" in small letters along the left side. A second issue of this design, with changed colors, was issued in 1884. Most of these types are quite common.
On September 10, 1885, the existing Rumelian issues were overprinted with two different images of the Bulgarian lion, and then with the lion in a frame and "Bulgarian Post" in Bulgarian (Cyrillic letters). As with the first overprints, these are uncommon, with prices ranging from US$ 6 to $ 200, and counterfeits are widespread. From 1886 on, the province used Bulgarian stamps.
