Raymond Detrez uses the example of Bulgaria to show that during the Ottoman ‘occupation’ the process of Europeanization wasn’t interrupted, but, conversely, was started. Unlike other Balkan countries, such as Greece and Serbia, Bulgaria remained under Ottoman rule until the end of the nineteenth century. During this period, the Ottoman powers decided to reform the structure, bureaucracy and laws of the empire. The reform movement of the Tanzimat aimed to make a ‘civil society’ out of the Ottoman Empire. Almost all of their aims were highly influenced by Western ideologies and ideas. The Tanzimat, on behalf of the Sultan, supported civil rights and religious tolerance in the empire . During the nineteenth century the Tanzimat had to cope with the rise of nationalism in Europe, as well as in the Empire, and at the same time was influenced by it. This ethnic nationalism, which was an imported European construction too, was adopted by the Tanzimat after 1878 and was used in the Kemalistic movement of Atatürk – the first leader of Modern Turkey.

This process of Europeanization within the Ottoman Empire gave an impulse to the national awakening of the Balkan people, such as the Bulgarians. The idea that Bulgaria, as well as other nations from the Balkans, were under a ‘Turkish or Asian yoke’ appeared at a time when the Ottoman empire invested in regional economies and supported civil rights. Detrez concludes that the process of national awakening of Bulgaria coincided with the awaking of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Although Western influences were introduced by Greek and Habsburg traders too, it was not without the Ottomans that Bulgaria could get in contact with ‘European’ political institutions, culture and strategic alliances. The Ottoman occupation didn’t estrange Bulgaria from Europe as much as some historians think it did. With the same right one could say that the Ottoman occupation contributed to the integration of the Balkans into Europe.
(...)

Het volledige artikel is te lezen in Donau 2007/01.