The
modern times with their dynamics have inevitably brought
the European standards and culture to the large Turkish
territory. It can be seen everywhere but mostly in the
major cities, in the external look of the buildings,
in the shops, in the style of dressing, in the day-to-day
life, etc. It exists at the same time together with
the marks of the traditional Islamic culture (more often
in the villages and in the small towns of the East and
South East regions).
The
Turkish cuisine is well known with the abundance of
choice of seafood (especially in the coastal areas).
Included in the menu predominantly are the shish kebab
and the other kinds of roast meat (among them the dunner
kebab is most popular - slices of meat, put on a vertically
rotated pick). Rice is something typical for the Turkish
cuisine, served as a garnish or with the main dish (the
pilaf for example). Rice is the ingredient in some sweet
dishes too. Other typical meals are the filled peppers,
the sarmi and the patladjans, as well as many kinds
f soups (the patcha, the tripe soup, the kurban, etc.),
the mezes, the pasta and the sweets, the dried fruits
and the nuts… Coffee and tea are favourite too.
The Turks in Bulgaria
"The
vast majority of the Bulgarians consider now the Turks
as being either the legacy of a distant and tragic past
or today's compatriots from an ethnic religious minority
that has often been a source of troubles and political
tension10".
The
religion. ". . . the Islam on the Balkans and particularly
in Bulgaria has always been a syncretic one, different
from the other pure forms of this school of thought.
Adapting itself to the Bulgarian soil, the Islam has
bit by bit created some specific religious forms, making
it to be not too hostile and alien to the local Christian
people". "The Turks in Bulgaria" bear
a century-old cultural tradition. They consider themselves
as being mostly "European Muslims" and are
alien to every form of religious fanaticism".
As
the Muslim faith prescribes, the Turks in Bulgaria are
abiding by the strict traditions, customs and day-to-day
rituals11.
"The
Turkish community has a very clear and uniform understanding
about its ethnic origin and religious integrity . .
. If a different identificational approach still exists
. . . it refers to the civil (patriotic) identity12".
Those
are people basically calm and somewhat sluggish. They
are a "yavash" (inactive, slow) people. Restlessness
is not inherent characteristic of theirs. This could
be due mostly to the closed character of their ethnic
societies, which keeps unchanged their traditional style
of living.
At
the same time they are hospitable and love having guests.
On such occasions they will show an explicit warmness
and cordiality. When seated around a table they love
eating, drinking or just chatting.
They
are very hard working and greatly respect their work.
They will be always grateful if their labour is appreciated.
The
Turks in Bulgaria are strongly bound to and very much
love their families. They will enjoy talking about the
troubles and problems their families have. They will
be glad to speak about their children. They love kids
and have two, three or more children as a rule. The
higher rates of birth are certainly due to some backward
living standard.
The
Turks in Bulgaria have in general a strong feeling for
family affiliation. This is most characteristic in the
small villages. Everyone will see when a family member
is missing. Family relations and relatives are there
very close. Among the members of the different families
there is a great mutual respect. Such feelings might
be sometimes a motivation for a vendetta.
In
their lifestyle the Turks in Bulgaria are mostly conservative.
Some of them are still less educated. This is most typical
of the women, who as a rule must be primarily bound
to set up home (women will get married early). After
they can feel better and comfortably, as tradition prescribes.
Those
people have a strong sense of honour and dignity. The
friendship for them is very important, but they will
prefer to keep their close contacts and bosom friends
inside their own community.
In
their relationships they are sensitive and sentimental
and could become very touchy to a hostile tone or to
an arrogant or rude attitude.
What are the Greeks like? The Greeks in Bulgaria
Just
like every other people from the South and by the Sea,
the Greeks have a flaming and jovial temper. But they
will be quick-tempered and very easily burst into anger.
They are self-respecting.
The
Greeks are prone to part quickly with the old-fashioned
ideas, leaving the door open for the new coming things.
They are alien to conservatism, but will respect the
traditional values of their families. There are some
among them that still believe a humiliation can be "washed"
by blood only.
The
Greeks enjoy talking about politics and are very opinionated
thereof. This quality of theirs is as popular as their
firm belief that every Greek was born to be a trader.
Career
and glory seekers. Everyone is fighting for better positions
within their own political party. Party leaders look
for ministerial seats every time. Being a Minister for
just a day, one will be addressed to as "Mister
Minister" until the end of their days13.
They
hanker after the quick rise in the job hierarchy. They
love feeling "important" and being respected
more than their social status really deserves14. They
will not stay indifferent towards the praises towards
them, their families and relatives.
In
general the Greeks know the ancient Hellenic culture
and will never miss a chance to show their knowledge
about15. They welcome every interest that one might
have in their own history. But they get angry, if one's
ideas are better than their own.
They
have a national feeling that is well developed and could
even turn into chauvinism sometimes. This is mostly
valid for the Athenians - they claim Athens is the most
beautiful city in the world.
They
can rarely be persuaded.
The
Greeks are outgoing. They are very easy to make contact
with and only a couple of days later they will come
to you calling you "an old friend of mine"
in the most familiar way. But they know what the price
of friendship is. If a Greek really trusts a friend,
he would be ready to do anything for him.
The
"peacock complex" is something in their blood
- they feel quite normal when bragging about their "close"
acquaintances and high connections, Ministers, MPs or
prominent intellectuals. Very often nothing is behind
such phony phrases.
The
Greeks can easily promise something and just forget
about on the next day. They will after that only try
to justify the things promised and undone. They are
more honest in their business contacts.
They
are great money-lovers. The frequent econo-mic crashes
made them disillusioned with their own national currency.
That is why they always try to invest their savings
in gold. They can make their bills very well and are
very pragmatic in their day-to-day expenses.
Corruption
is omnipresent, with all walks of life in this country
- everybody is taking bribes or "bakshish".
When
endangered, they react emotionally, rather than rationally.
Very
big attention is being paid to one's appearance. Greek
women would enjoy wearing smart, but stuffy clothes.
Their houses are tastefully furnished and clean, but
with some commonness too.
Getting
married in Greece is a serious problem. The dot is very
popular and even obligatory in some places, as being
a sign of decency and nobleness. In some cases the young
girls are doomed to stay unmarried or get married older
because of failure to provide the dot demanded. This
would be the reason why there are betrothals that last
for years there. Many unequal (difference of age) marriages
could be seen there16.
In
such cases many of them tend to "transform"
the girls' dot in good education studies, preferably
abroad.
The
mother will often be the strongest arm of the family
- she deals presumably with the problems and is the
policy maker of the family. Nevertheless, the "head"
of it is formally the man.
There
is not a large Greek community in Bulgaria at present.
The December 1992 census data show some 8 000 people
stating Greek as their mother tongue. In Bulgaria "the
Greeks were and still are predominantly urban people,
mainly oriented to business and mediation activities".
Today there are still regions in Bulgaria, where the
Greek communities and elites "unbeatably hold the
dominating position, which only develops in the Bulgarian
Renaissance society the reaction to reject anything
that until recently was called "the Greek yoke".
In
their history the Bulgarians often associated the word
"Greek" with the word "salesman"
or "savant, literate". But for some of the
contemporary Bulgarians the word "Greek" is
associated with "Byzantine", synonym for perfidy
and treacherousness.
The Bulgarians
Shaping
the social-psychological characteristics of the genuine
Bulgarian is a tough job. If accomp-lished correctly,
one will have to take into consideration the specific
interpretations of the different history periods.
Attempts
to draw the Bulgarian's profile are often supposed to
point out the specific periods of the Bulgarian history.
One of the most often used categories thereto is "before
the Ottoman domination and after that". The period
"after that" still remains incompletely surveyed.
Especially when talking about the time after the year
1944.
In
the period before the Ottoman invasion there had been
times of great upsurge in the country's development,
time of highest national spirits and social impulses.
This period was marked with many brilliant examples
of political boldness and statecraft. Most of these
e patterns of the national character degraded or vanished
forever after the country fell under the Ottoman domination.
Many new negative traits appeared instead that are still
alive in the Bulgarian character. However, there's one
thing that was most typical of the whole history of
our people - the great amount of troubles and the tough
will of the Bulgarians to fight and overcome them.
Among
the qualities, acquired during the second major period
of our history, there could be asserted features as
the lack of historical audacity and courage. During
those times fear filled the Bulgarian national character.
The Bulgarian policies were penetrated by a kind of
acquiescing sentiment that was in no way the result
of some racial or genetic malformation, but was molded
as a sustainable national quality by the historical
fate, by the blood itself, the pain and the lack of
other historical chances.
By
strange caprice of history, it was namely the inferiority
complex and the adaptive reactions which saved the Bulgarians
from the total extermination and secured their long
lasting historical presence on the Balkans. These features
are a kind of specific and relevant reaction of every
single individual and of the social communities as well.
The survival of our people depended on their capacity
to comply with the realities of life and to adequately
face the objective processes.
The
survival and the self-conservation go well together
with the industriousness, which is another important
trait of the Bulgarian character.
The
"lack of chances in history" has largely contributed
to the appearance of other specific qualities of the
Bulgarian character as nihilism and its queer antithesis
- megalomania. Both happen to be the roots of the "philia"
and the "phobia" that put their mark on large
periods of the Bulgarian political history.
The
Bulgarian national nihilism appears to be the legacy
of the grave historical hardships and tragedies lived
by our people, of the painful slavery, of the missed
chances to recover the losses. The megalomania is rooted
in our history, being mostly bound to the bright hope
for the new Renaissance era of the Bulgarian existence
and expectations. Nihilism has a persistent and stable
place in our souls, while megalomania breaks out sometimes
as a brief and spontaneous reaction to different negative
social-psychological factors.
A
deep imprint on the psychology of the Bulgarians was
made by the collision between the tradition and the
modern trends. The traditions had always been an expression
of the century-old developed patriarchal conservatism,
based mostly on the specific conditions of life. The
new trends of the world development, coming in from
the West in the late 19th and during the first years
of the 20th century, led to the "Bulgarization"
of many new ideas and achievements, when interpreted
through the Bulgarian traditional ways. These were times
when the Bulgarians were trying to join the European
progress and prosperity. They were "copying"
and imitating, but this "copying" left sustainable
marks in their character. One of them is that the Bulgarians,
are still lagging behind. For that reason the lack of
national self-reliance was very noticeable at many moments
of our history. But once again, just like out of spite,
our predecessors proved themselves as widely open to
the forthcoming future. Because of that we are always
eager to learn and understand what other people's achievements
are.
The
favourable geographical position of the Bulgarian lands
and their fertility are often considered as impeding
factors to the industrial development of the country.
Thus the economic underdeve-lopment could be explained
as mostly due to the delayed awareness of "the
modern times' sign", as well as to the lack of
serious historical experience.
Tracing
the social class dissociation could help to further
explain the social-psychological characteristics of
the different class representatives. For example, the
moral image of the capitalist is characterised as "emptied
from every humaneness". It turned just into "a
dry book keeper, an emanation of pure greed". Egoism
became a dominating moral feature, still present in
the psychology of the Bulgarians.
On
the other hand, the Bulgarians are compassionate and
always ready to help17. This nourished the responsiveness,
which is too typical for the Bulgarian character (whilst
being sometimes spoiled by the influence of some specific
events).
Are
the Bulgarians hospitable? The traditional studies say
rather YES. This quality is being allegedly valid until
now. It could be assessed as one of the signs of compassion
and readiness to help.
The
privations, insufficiency and poverty made the Bulgarians
very thrifty ones. This was mostly due to their traditional
life styles and morality. In some cases this quality
could degrade to a parsimony.
The
Bulgarians were often compelled to economize on their
food. This has made them possessive and miserly-like
to some extent. But they were brought to that by the
long years of hard working and poverty and they suffered
their own little wealth. This evoked (in several historical
periods) a phenomenon when a single human personality
was likely to represent one separate economic and moral
unit.
This
would be the only underlying reason for the individualism
of the Bulgarians. As a moral phenomenon it occurs every
time, when a single unit determines the course of the
social development, only driven by its private interests.
Individualism
as a moral feature has been largely commented in the
Bulgarian social-psychological studies. But its evaluation
and interpretations are not uniform. The differences
appeared first with disputing the thesis ("Are
in fact the Bulgarians individualists?" - by enumerating
different group forms of social behaviour and of mutual
aid), through defining different "positive"
and "negative" effects (e.g. "Good men
are individualists" versus "How come that
we are so good, but we can never walk all together .
. . just look at the Germans. . .") to provide
at the end some advice to the current educational practices.
It
is being also pointed out that under the specific conditions
of history individualism can lead to complacency, strife
for acknowledgement and lust for glory as well. But
it would also awake the ingenuity and the energy (too
typical for the Bulgarian spirit!?).
Romania
Romania18
is a Republic. The country is being administratively
divided into 41 districts (Bucharest inclusive). There
are 262 cities. Major centers are Bucharest, Konstanza,
Yash, Timishoara, Galaz, Breshov, Kluj Napoka, Kraijova,
etc.
According
to the 1992 census data, Romania has 22 760 449 inhabitants.
The urban population is 2 million bigger than the rural
one. The ethnic composition is as follows: Romanians
- more than 89%; Hungarians - over 7%; over 1.5% gypsies;
1.5-2% - other (among them Bulgarians).
The
active workers in the country are circa 10 m. Among
them 3.5 m are agricultural and around 3 m are industrial
workers19.
The
most effective branches of the economy are the industry
(mainly oil and car industries (and the agriculture
(field farming and cattle breeding). Great is the country's
potential to develop tourism.
Orthodox
faith is the mostly spread religion in Romania. According
to the 1992 census data, circa 87% of the Romanians
claimed themselves as Orthodox, 6% as Catholics and
less than 4% as adepts of other religions.
The
customs and beliefs of the Romanians are a mixture between
the archaic traditions, some Latin inherited traits
and several later acquired mainly Slavic components.
Among
the calendar customs noteworthy are the following:
