Proposed flag of Eastern Rumelia.

Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia (Bulgarian: Източна Румелия Iztochna Rumelija; Ottoman Turkish: Rumeli-i Sarki; Modern Turkish: Sarki Rumeli, Greek Ανατολική Ρωμυλία Anatoliki Romylia) was an autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire from 1878 to 1885 (nominally to 1908). Its capital was Plovdiv (Пловдив in Bulgarian Cyrillic, Philippoupolis Φιλιππούπολις in Greek, Filibe in Turkish). Image File history File links Flag of Eastern Rumelia File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Ottoman Turkish (Turkish: Osmanlıca or Osmanlı Türkçesi, Ottoman Turkish: لسان عثمانی - lisân-i Osmânî) is the variant of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire. ... Turkish (Turkish: Türkçe), a Turkic language, is the mother tongue of the Turkish people native to Turkey. ... Motto: دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem: Ottoman imperial anthem At the height of its power (1680) Capital Söğüt (1299-1326) Bursa (1326-1365) Edirne (1365-1453) Constantinople (Istanbul) (1453-1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy Sultans  - 1281–1326 Osman I  - 1918–1922 Mehmed VI... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Plovdiv (Bulgarian: ; Greek: / Philippoupoli, Philippoupolis; Turkish: ) is the second largest city in Bulgaria, with a population of 341,873([1]) . It is the administrative centre of Plovdiv Province in southern Bulgaria, as well as the largest and most important city of the historical region of Thrace, famous for its ancient... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

History

Eastern Rumelia and its environs, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J.G. Bartholomew, 1912.

Eastern Rumelia was set up as an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. It encompassed the territory between the Balkan Mountains, the Rhodope Mountains and Strandzha Mountain, a region known to all its inhabitants - Bulgarians, Greeks and Ottoman Turks - as Northern Thrace. The artificial name, Eastern Rumelia, was given to the province on the insistence of the British delegates to the Congress of Berlin. Some twenty Pomak (Bulgarian Muslim) villages in the Rhodope Mountains refused to recognize Eastern Rumelian authority and formed the so-called Pomak Republic. Download high resolution version (809x1322, 200 KB)Balkan changes after the Crimean War, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J.G. Bartholomew, 1912 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a... Download high resolution version (809x1322, 200 KB)Balkan changes after the Crimean War, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J.G. Bartholomew, 1912 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a... The separate Bulgaria after The Treatry of Berlin - Lithography Nikolay Pavlovich The Treaty of Berlin was the final Act of the Congress of Berlin (June 13-July 13, 1878), by which the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman government under Sultan Hamid revised the Treaty... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Stara Planina, Rhodope, Rila and Pirin Mountains The Balkan mountain range (Bulgarian: Stara Planina, Old Mountain) is an extension of the Carpathian mountain range, separated from it by the Danube River. ... View from the Belintash Rock towards the village of Vrata View from the Southern Rhodopes Dospat Dam in the western parts The river Mesta crossing the mountains The Rhodopes (Bulgarian: Родопи, Rodopi; Greek: Ροδόπη, Rodopi) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and... View from Papiya Peak (502 m) in Bulgarian Strandzha A landscape from the Bulgarian part of Strandzha Strandzha (Bulgarian: , also transliterated as Strandja and Stranja; Turkish: Yıldız Dağları or Istranca) is a mountain massif in southeastern Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey, in the southeastern part... The Ottoman Turks were the ethnic subdivision of the Turkish people who dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. ... Thrace (Greek Θρᾴκη, Thrákē, Bulgarian Тракия, Trakija, Turkish Trakya; Latin: Thracia or Threcia) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. ... The Congress of Berlin was a meeting of the European Great Powers and the Ottoman Empires leading statesmen in Berlin in 1878. ... The Pomaks (Помаци, Pomaci) or Bulgarian Muslims (Българи мюсюлмани, Bălgari myusyulmani), also known locally as ahrjani, are Slavs of the Islamic faith. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... View from the Belintash Rock towards the village of Vrata View from the Southern Rhodopes Dospat Dam in the western parts The river Mesta crossing the mountains The Rhodopes (Bulgarian: Родопи, Rodopi; Greek: Ροδόπη, Rodopi) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and...

Rumelian coat of arms from 1741, adopted later as coat of arms of Eastern Rumelia.

According to the Treaty of Berlin, Eastern Rumelia was to remain under the political and military jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire with significant administrative autonomy (Article 13). The head of the province was a Christian Governor General appointed by the Sublime Porte with the approval of the Great Powers. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2176x2488, 555 KB)Rumelian coat of arms from 1741, later adopted as coat of arms of Eastern Rumelia This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2176x2488, 555 KB)Rumelian coat of arms from 1741, later adopted as coat of arms of Eastern Rumelia This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term... // Events April 10 - Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz August 10 - Raja of Travancore defeats Dutch East India Company naval expedition at Battle of Colachel December 19 - Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 - Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius... The name Treaty of Berlin is attached to four treaties: Treaty of Berlin, 1878 Treaty of Berlin, 1899 Treaty of Berlin, 1921 Treaty of Berlin, 1926 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Motto: دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem: Ottoman imperial anthem At the height of its power (1680) Capital Söğüt (1299-1326) Bursa (1326-1365) Edirne (1365-1453) Constantinople (Istanbul) (1453-1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy Sultans  - 1281–1326 Osman I  - 1918–1922 Mehmed VI... A Governor-General (in Canada, Governor General) is most generally a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above ordinary governors [1]. The most common contemporary usage of the term is to refer to the royally-appointed territorial governor of a region, or royal representative in a country... Synonym of the government of the Ottoman Empire often confusing the Sublime Porte and the High Porte. ... In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. ...

The eastern provinces of Anatolia were called by the Ottomans as Rum while the western provinces as Rumelia. These names were taken by the Ottomans since they had a long history of being under the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. ...

Politics

The first Governor-General was the Bulgarian prince Alexander Bogoridi (Aleko Pasha) (Bulgarian: Aлекo Πaшa) (1879 - 1884) who was acceptable to both Bulgarians and Greeks in the province. The second Governor-General was Gavril Krstevic (Γaврил Kръcтeвич) (1884 - 1885), a famous Bulgarian historian. Prince Alexander Stefanov Bogoridi (Greek Αλεχανδρος Βογοριδης, Turkish Aleko Pasha) (1822, Istanbul - July 17th 1910, Paris) was an Ottoman statesman of Bulgarian origin. ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Annexation

After a bloodless revolution on September 6, 1885, the province was annexed by the tributary Principality of Bulgaria. After the Bulgarian victory in the subsequent Serbo-Bulgarian War, the status quo was recognized by the Porte with the Tophane Act on March 24, 1886. With the Tophane Act, Sultan Abdul Hamid II appointed the Prince of Bulgaria (without mentioning the name of the incumbent prince Alexander of Bulgaria) as Governor-General of Eastern Rumelia. The Pomak Republic was reincorporated in the Ottoman Empire. The province was nominally under Ottoman rule until Bulgaria became officially independent in 1908. September 6, Unification Day, is a national holiday in Bulgaria. A map of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia before the Unification. ... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Serbo-Bulgarian War (Bulgarian: Сръбско-българска война, Srabsko-balgarska voyna; Serbian: Српско-бугарски рат, Srpsko-bugarski rat) was a war between Serbia and Bulgaria that erupted on November 14, 1885 and lasted until November 28 the same year. ... Synonym of the government of the Ottoman Empire. ... March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in leap years). ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... Sultan (Arabic: سلطان) is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. ... Abdülhamid II (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد ثانی , Turkish: Ä°kinci Abdülhamid) (September 21, 1842 – February 10, 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire. ... Alexander Joseph of Battenberg (April 5, 1857 - November 17, 1893), the first prince of modern Bulgaria, reigned from April 29, 1879 to September 7, 1886). ... Motto: دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem: Ottoman imperial anthem At the height of its power (1680) Capital Söğüt (1299-1326) Bursa (1326-1365) Edirne (1365-1453) Constantinople (Istanbul) (1453-1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy Sultans  - 1281–1326 Osman I  - 1918–1922 Mehmed VI... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... Unification Day (Ден на Съединението) on September 6 is a national holiday of Bulgaria. ...

The large Greek population of the region was largely exchanged in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and World War II. Several thousand Bulgarians of Greek descent still inhabit the region, notably, the Sarakatsani (Σαρακατσάνοι), transhumant shepherds. Combatants Ottoman Empire Balkan League Bulgaria Commanders Nizam Pasha, Zekki Pasha, Esat Pasha, Abdullah Pasha, Ali Rizah Pasha Bulgaria: Vladimir Vazov, Vasil Kutinchev, Nikola Ivanov, Radko Dimitriev Serbia: Radomir Putnik, Petar Bojović, Stepa Stepanović Greece:Crown Prince Constantine, Panagiotis Danglis, Pavlos Kountouriotis Nikola Ivanov, Vasil Kutinchev, Radko Dimitriev The outcome... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... The Sarakatsani are a group of Greek (and Greek-speaking) transhumant shepherds, mainly located in the Pindos Mountains. ...

Postage stamps

The stamps of the 1881 and 1884 designs list the name of the province in four languages – Turkish, French, Greek, and Bulgarian – using four alphabets – Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic.

The province is remembered today by philatelists for having issued postage stamps from 1880 on. The first issue consisted of several kinds of overprints on stamps of Turkey, including "R.O.", a pattern of bars, and "ROUMELIE / ORIENTALE". These overprints are uncommon and extensively counterfeited. Download high resolution version (500x614, 123 KB)Eastern Rumelia 20-para stamp of 1881, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image of a postage stamp has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (500x614, 123 KB)Eastern Rumelia 20-para stamp of 1881, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image of a postage stamp has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Close examination of the Penny Red, left, reveals a 148 in the margin, indicating that it was printed with plate #148. ... A selection of Hong Kong postage stamps A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... An overprint is the addition of text (and sometimes graphics) to the face of a postage stamp after it has been printed. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Stamps of the contemporaneous Turkish design appeared in 1881, differing from Turkish stamps by having the French inscription "ROUMELIE ORIENTALE" in small letters along the left side. A second issue of this design, with changed colors, was issued in 1884. Most of these types are quite common. 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

On September 10, 1885, the existing Rumelian issues were overprinted with two different images of the Bulgarian lion, and then with the lion in a frame and "Bulgarian Post" in Bulgarian (Cyrillic letters). As with the first overprints, these are uncommon, with prices ranging from US$ 6 to $ 200, and counterfeits are widespread. From 1886 on, the province used Bulgarian stamps. September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Bulgaria were adopted in 1997. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ...

See also

• Treaty of San Stefano
• Unification of Bulgaria

Borders of Bulgaria according to the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3rd, 1878 The Treaty of San Stefano was a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78. ... A map of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia before the Unification. ...

External links

• Some stamp images
• More stamp images
• RO overprint discussion