Western Thrace: Attempts on assimilating the Turkish minority

An article published by National Geographic about Pomaks in Greece (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2018/09/pomak-women-gender-greece-pictures/) shocked the minority. 

It is obvious that this article is written with politic purposes. Taking into consideration that there are nearly ten different theories about the origin of Pomaks, it would not be an objective approach to claim directly that Pomaks are ethnically Slavic, Muslim in religion and Greek citizens but not refer to any fact about Turkishness ignoring a wide history.

The majority of the Pomak community identify themselves as Pomak Turks and do not use the word Pomak as an ethnic name. In this manner, the name Pomak is supposed to be a name to define a Turkic community such as Cuman Turks, Pecheneg Turks, Hun Turks, Uygur Turks, Kazak Turks, Tatar Turks etc.

Another important point is that there are various facts which verify their Turkishness. For example, Pomaks believe that they are descendants of the Huns, Avars, Cuman-Kipchak, and Pecheneks who were spread to the Balkans before the Ottoman conquest. Thus, surnames such as Kumanoglu, Hun, Manav and Pecheneg are commonly seen all around the Western Thrace.

Last but not least, the article is based on Greece’s assimilation policy which rejects the Turkish ethnic name and points to the religious identity, claiming that the minority had been turkificated by the Ottoman State. Even if Pomaks have Slavic or any other origin, we should remember German sociologist Max Weber’s definition of ethnic groups as Sinisa Malesevic cites:

“‘Those human groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration; conversely, it does not matter whether or not an objective blood relationship exists’. So what is crucial here, first, is that ethnicity exists only on the basis of particular group belief – if there is no group shared belief there will be no ethnic group. Secondly, ethnicity is rooted in a single but omnipotent belief - the belief in common descent. And finally, although this belief in common ancestry is for the most part fictional it is reinforced and reconfirmed on the grounds of cultural of physical similarity or on the basis of shared collective memory.”