https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BulgariaA former part of the Eastern bloc. Historically quite close to Russia. One of those countries which is named after the people who conquered it and then adopted the local culture (the Bulgars were Turkic people who invaded from the East but unlike the Magyars or, for that matter, the Romanians, they took up the local Slavic language). While a fairly powerful kingdom in the Early Middle Ages it has usually been the pawn of other, more powerful states: Primarily, as already mentioned, Russia. It was long part of the Ottoman Empire although the Muslim part of the population is fairly small due to Post Ottoman ethnic cleansing but is not insignificant either (8% Turk in 2011). Bulgaria fought on the losing side in both world wars due to its irredentist claims over what is now Macedonia and parts of Greek Macedonia that could access the Aegean, or in other words, the usual late 19th/early 20th century geopolitical nonsense. Now it has many of the problems of the Post-Communist East, in particular a population that is declining rapidly from low birth rates and emigration. In 1990 it had a population of about 9 million, in 2014 it reached 7.2 million and by 2050 it is expected to reach as low as 5.5 million.
Below is an ethnographic map of South Eastern Europe from 1877 (It says 'Turkish Europe' although not all that region was part of the empire then):
Note the lack of homogeneous areas
Anyway I'm going to be away the next few days so consider this a break until Friday or Saturday.
