BulgarophilesBomb-throwers and Cookie-pushers: American Diplomats, the Macedonian Question and Perceptions of Violence, 1919-1941, Publication: Balkan Studies (4/2003), Frusetta, James; Subject: History, Issue: 4/2003 (; Serbian and ; ; ) or Bugaraši (Serbian and ), is a pejorative term used for Slavic people from the regions of Macedonia and PomoravljeФилип Панайотов, Иванка Николова, България 20-ти век: Алманах, TRUD Publishers, 1999, , p. 1013.Стела Дерменджиева, Димитър Димитров, България, българите и Европа - мит, история, съвремие, том 2 от научна конференция на Великотърновския университет Св. св. Кирил и Методий, 2007, p. 155.Milić F. Petrović, Dokumenta o Raškoj oblasti: 1890-1899, Istorijski muzej Srbije, 1997, p. 277. who identify as ethnic Bulgarians. In Bulgaria, the term Bulgaromans; (; ) refers to non-Slavic people such as Aromanians with a Bulgarian self-awareness.Тодор Балкански, Даниела Андрей, Големите власи сред българите, Знак 94; , 1996.
It was only after the Serbian revolution and subsequent Serbian independence when the Serbian national idea gained finally momentum in what is today Southern and Eastern Serbia.Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Serbia: the history behind the name, 2002, Hurst & Company, , p. 68. According to different authors ca. 1850 the delineation between Serbs and Bulgarians ran north of Niš.Mark Pinson, Ottoman Bulgaria in the First Tanzimat Period — The Revolts in Nish (1841) and Vidin (1850) (Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 11, No 2 (May, 1975), pp. 103-146. On the other hand, according to historian Apostolos Vacalopoulos, from the beginning of the 18th century, the Bulgarians in Macedonia formed the largest Slavic community and had gradually absorbed the sparse Serbs in the area. As a result, after the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, the Slavic-speakers there, already Bulgarian by name, began to acquire mainly a Bulgarian national identity. During the 19th and early 20th century the Bulgarian national identification arose as a result of an educational campaign and the affiliation with the Bulgarian millet and Bulgarian Exarchate. In the 20th century, Bulgarophiles in neighboring Yugoslavia and Greece were considered enemies of the state harboring irredentist tendencies.Станислав Станев, Български уроци по история на Македония, 21.01.2019, сп. Култура.Цочо Билярски, Гръцките жестокости и варваризъм над българите (1912 - 1923г.) Анико, София, . 2012.
Adherents of the view that the Macedonian nation is a 20th century phenomenon and that it has close relation with the Bulgarian nation get accused of being Bulgarophiles in North Macedonia. In the context of North Macedonia, the term also means feeling a close ethnic relation with Bulgarians or being of Bulgarian origin.
See also Serbomans Grecomans Macedonian Bulgarians Bulgarians in Serbia
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