
THE ROLE OF BULGARIANS FOR THE SPREAD OF NATIONAL, ANARCHIST AND SOCIALIST IDEAS IN OTTOMAN SALONICA
Salonica was the centre of the national idea in the Ottoman Empire, which distinguished it essentially from the cosmopolitan Ottoman cities along the Asia Minor coast. The Bulgarians had a significant role to play in the political and ideological ebullience that had gripped the city in the first decade of the 20th century. Its representatives were among the most prominent proponents of the national, socialist and anarchist idea that inevitably influenced the Jewish community in the city. Even though its Jewish population did not identify itself with the national-liberation aspirations of the Christian population, the proximity of the Balkan nation states and particularly of Bulgaria had a tangible effect on the city and predetermined its fate.
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