What were the views of the Bulgarian Exarchate on the population composition of Macedonia?
One of the main events that helped increase the Bulgarian influence in the part of the Ottoman empire to be called “San-Stefano Macedonia” eight years later was the creation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 which took over responsibility for the orthodox Bulgars living in the Ottoman empire. The Greek War of Independence in the first half of the nineteenth century had its repercussions among the natives of Macedonia. Many Macedonians of joined their compatriots in Southern Greece in that War. Simultaneously a national awakening was observed among the Bulgars living at that time in Macedonia. It should be noted that the term “Bulgar” at that time was used to denote the laboring and illiterate masses living in Macedonia irrespective of ethnic origin. That awakening was mainly due to the Russian Panslavist. Russia supported the subsequent uprising of the Slavs against the Turks in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Around 1830, a scholar, Venelin explored Bulgaria and collected material but also inven
