Bulgarians

Bulgarians are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring region, who share a common culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, while in North Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Albania, Romania, Hungary and Greece they exist as historical communities.

Etymology

Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understood and difficult to trace back earlier than the 4th century AD, but it is possibly derived from the Proto-Turkic word *bulģha and its derivative *bulgak. Alternative etymologies include derivation from a compound of Proto-Turkic *bel and *gur, a proposed division within the Utigurs or Onogurs.

Citizenship

According to art. 25 of Constitution of Bulgaria, a Bulgarian citizen shall be anyone born to at least one parent holding a Bulgarian citizenship, or born on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, should they not be entitled to any other citizenship by virtue of origin. Bulgarian citizenship shall further be acquirable through naturalization. About 85% of Bulgaria's population identified themselves as ethnic Bulgarians in 2021 Bulgarian census, the rest being mostly Turks and Roma.

Ethnogenesis

Modern-day Bulgarians descend from peoples of vastly different origins and numbers, and are thus the result of a "melting pot" effect.
The main ethnic elements which blended to produce the modern Bulgarian ethnicity are:

Thracians – a native ancient Balkan Indo-European people who left a cultural and genetic legacy. Approximately 55% of Bulgarian autosomal genetic legacy is of Paleo-Balkan and Mediterranean origin and can be attributed to Thracian and other indigenous Balkan populations predating Slavs and Bulgars;
Early Slavs – an Indo-European group of tribes that migrated from Eastern Europe into the Balkans in the 6th–7th century CE and imposed their language and culture on the local Thracian, Roman and Greek communities. Approximately 40% of Bulgarian autosomal make-up comes from a northeastern European population that admixed with the native population in the period between 400 and 1000 CE;
Bulgars – a semi-nomadic Turkic tribal federation, possibly from Central Asia, which settled in the northeast of the Balkans in the 7th century CE, federated with the local Slavic and Slavicized population, organised early-medieval Bulgarian statehood and bequeathed their ethnonym to the modern Bulgarian ethnicity, while eventually assimilating into the Slavic population. Approximately 2.3% of Bulgarian genes originate in Central Asia, corresponding to Asian tribes such as the Bulgars, Avars, Cumans and other Turkic tribes, which settled on the Balkans during the Middle ages, with admixture peaking in the 9th century CE;

The indigenous Thracians left a cultural and genetic legacy. Other pre-Slavic Indo-European peoples, including Dacians, Celts, Goths, Romans, ancient Greeks, Sarmatians, Paeonians and Illyrians also settled in what later became the Bulgarian lands. The Thracian language was still spoken in the 6th century, probably becoming extinct afterwards, In a later period the Bulgarians replaced long-established Greek/Latin toponyms with Thracian ones, which might suggest that Thracian had not been completely obliterated then.
Some pre-Slavic linguistic and cultural traces might have been preserved among modern Bulgarians. Scythia Minor and Moesia Inferior appear to have been Romanized, though the region became a focus of barbarian re-settlements during the 4th and early 5th centuries AD, before a further "Romanization" episode during the early 6th century. According to archeological evidence from the late periods of Roman rule, the Romans did not decrease the number of Thracians significantly in major cities. By the 4th century the major city of Serdica had predominantly Thracian populace based on epigraphic evidence, which shows prevailing Latino-Thracian given names, but thereafter the names were completely replaced by Christian ones.
The early Slavs emerged from their original homeland in the early 6th century, and spread to most of the eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, thus forming three main branches: the West Slavs in eastern Central Europe, the East Slavs in Eastern Europe, and the South Slavs in Southeastern Europe. The latter gradually inflicted total linguistic replacement of Thracian, if the Thracians had not already been Romanized or Hellenized. Most scholars accept that they began large-scale settling of the Balkans in the 580s based on the statement of the 6th century historian Menander speaking of 100,000 Slavs in Thrace and consecutive attacks of Greece in 582. They continued coming to the Balkans in many waves, but also leaving, most notably Justinian II settled as many as 30,000 Slavs from Thrace in Asia Minor. The Byzantines grouped the numerous Slavic tribes into two groups: the Sclaveni and Antes. Some Bulgarian scholars suggest that the Antes became one of the ancestors of the modern Bulgarians.
The Bulgars are first mentioned in the 4th century in the vicinity of the North Caucasian steppe. Scholars often suggest that the ultimate origins of the Bulgar is Turkic and can be traced to the Central Asian nomadic confederations, specifically as part of loosely related Oghuric tribes which spanned from the Pontic steppe to central Asia. However, any direct connection between the Bulgars and postulated Asian counterparts rest on little more than speculative and "contorted etymologies". Some Bulgarian historians question the identification of the Bulgars as a Turkic tribe and suggest an Iranian origin. Other Bulgarian scholars actively oppose the "Iranian hypothesis". According to Raymond Detrez, the Iranian theory is rooted in the periods of anti-Turkish sentiment in Bulgaria and is ideologically motivated. Since 1989, anti-Turkish rhetoric is now reflected in the theories that challenge the thesis of the Bulgars' Turkic origin. Alongside the Iranian or Aryan theory, there appeared arguments favoring an autochthonous origin.
In the 670s, some Bulgar tribes, the Danube Bulgars led by Asparuh and the Bulgars, led by Kuber, crossed the Danube river and settled in the Balkans with a single migration wave, the former of which Michael the Syrian described as numbering 10,000. The Bulgars are often not thought to have been numerous, becoming a ruling elite in the areas they controlled. However, according to Steven Runciman a tribe that was able to defeat an Emperor-lead Byzantine army, must have been of considerable dimensions. Asparuh's Bulgars made a tribal union with the Severians and the "Seven clans", who were re-settled to protect the flanks of the Bulgar settlements in Scythia Minor, as the capital Pliska was built on the site of a former Slavic settlement.
During the Early Byzantine Era, the Roman provincials in Scythia Minor and Moesia Secunda were already engaged in economic and social exchange with the 'barbarians' north of the Danube. This might have facilitated their eventual Slavonization, though the majority of the population appears to have been withdrawn to the hinterland of Constantinople or Asia Minor prior to any permanent Slavic and Bulgar settlement south of the Danube. The major port towns in Pontic Bulgaria remained Byzantine Greek in their outlook. The large scale population transfers and territorial expansions during the 8th and 9th century, additionally increased the number of the Slavs and Byzantine Christians within the state, making the Bulgars quite obviously a minority. The establishment of a new state molded the various Slav, Bulgar and earlier or later populations into the "Bulgarian people" of the First Bulgarian Empire speaking a South Slavic language. In different periods to the ethnogenesis of the local population contributed also different Indo-European and Turkic people, who settled or lived on the Balkans.

Bulgarian ethnogenetic conception

The Bulgarians are usually regarded as part of the Slavic ethnolinguistic group. However the controversial issue of their ethnogenesis is a popular subject in the works of the nationalist scientists. The fierce debates started in the 19th century and the questionable proportions of the presumed Thracian, Bulgar, and Slavic ancestry, have depended on the geopolitical situation of the country and on ideological and political predilections. These supposed proportions have been changed several times during the 20th century, emphasizing usually the Slavic part of Bulgarian ancestry, related to the traditionally strong Russophilia in the country. However, during the 1970s Thracology was especially supported by the communist authority, as an attempt to underline the indigenous influence into the Bulgarian ethnogenesis. After the fall of Communism, the spiritualized image of the Thracians began to fade. Following the cooling of relations with Russia and the country's EU accession, the opinion on significant Bulgar genetic impact was launched among nationalist circles that lately have downplayed the country's Slavic ancestry. From a limited group of Turkic equestrian nomads, the Danubian Bulgars were reinterpreted by them as a numerous Aryan people, with a unique culture.

Genetic origins

According to a triple analysis – autosomal, mitochondrial and paternal — of available data from large-scale studies on Balto-Slavs and their proximal populations, the whole genome SNP data situates Bulgarians in a cluster with Romanians, Macedonians and Gagauzes, and they are at similar proximity to Serbs and Montenegrins.
Bulgarians, like most Europeans, largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, descended from populations associated with the Paleolithic Epigravettian culture; Neolithic Early European Farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago; and Yamnaya Steppe herders who expanded into Europe from the Pontic steppe in the context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago.